The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 70

E6 THE COURIER JOURNAL. SUNDAY. SEPTtN'BFR 27, 1 A I Jt fy 0 t'. i o. Drooping Burpee is starting to rebuild under new ownership An Extra Ten Million Bytes Free.

fFRE1 ii TRAININQ 1 IKSTILT10H Kaypro has added ten million bytes of storage capacity to the hard-drive KAYPRO PC but not one penny to the price. Buy now and get 1 WordStar Professional Release 4 free. PC-20 $1990 PC-30 $2145 Laatut-Untt 0 fufuo'i Bull I In "There's a feeling here that the company has been freed from the shackles of corporate America. There's a sense that the old Burpee is back." Robert S. Barron, Burpee partner ACCOUNTING COMPUTER SYSTEMS 1120 Bardstown Road Louisville, Ky.

40204 Phone (502) 583-4417 WordStar Professional Release 4 is a registered Imriermr nf MicmPro International. catalogs after Christmas, a 30 percent increase over this year. Burpee has records of 5 million customers going back seven years, and plans to aim direct-mail promotions at customers' gardening preferences. In addition, Burpee has hired 20 sales representatives to restore the company's retail force, and has recruited eight leading landscape architects, flower designers and other horticulturalists to serve on a special advisory panel. Plans to sell Burpee-brand bedding plants to roadside stands and farms are in the works, as are Burpee gardening books and videotapes.

Bales said sales could reach $100 million in the next three to five years, up from $34 million this year. In many ways, the changes signal a return to Burpee's roots as an innovative horticulture company, introducing unique flower and vegetable hybrids that grew faster and larger and were more disease-resistant than standard varieties. Burpee the seed company was an afterthought. W. Atlee Burpee, an 18-year-old college dropout, borrowed $1,000 from his mother to start a fancy poultry company in Philadelphia.

But seed sold better than fowl, and the family-owned company became famous for breeding stellar hybrids such as iceberg lettuce, the Fordhook bush lima bean, Big Boy and Big Girl tomatoes and the yellow marigold. In 1970, however, David Burpee, the founder's son who took over when his father died in 1915 and who became the company's guiding force, sold the $10 million concern to General Foods. Nine years later, ITT bought it and paired it with Scott. Soon after, rumors circulated that Burpee was up for sale again. "Burpee is, and has been, a first-class company, but it had problems because of the instability of not knowing who was going to run it next month," said William John Park, chairman of the George W.

Park Seed in Greenwood, S.C., Burpee's chief rival in mail-order seeds. Enter Bales. On a flight home from California last summer, Bales said he was reading a magazine article about ITT's restructuring when the last sentence jumped out at him: Burpee was on the block. "I almost said, 'Stop the said Bales, who telephoned friends at ITT after he landed to ask about Burpee. Clayton Dubilier eventually won the battle for Burpee as part of a $150 million package deal that included the Scott subsidiary.

By last December, however, Bales and Barron had struck a deal to buy Burpee, with Clayton Dubilier retaining a 10 percent stake. "There's a feeling here that the company has been freed from the shackles of corporate America," Barron said. "There's' a sense that the old Burpee is back." Brand New 1987 SZ IfUWVtfB Sterling 825S 9) By ERIC SCHMITT New York Times News Service CENTRE ISLAND, N.Y. The W. Atlee Burpee one of the nation's oldest purveyors of flower and vegetable seeds, is turning over a new leaf.

Burpee, a trend-setter in the mailorder seed business since it was founded in 1876, has seen its preeminence droop over the past 17 years, when it was owned first by General Foods and then the ITT Corp. Last April, however, a pair of private investors with green thumbs bought Burpee, based in Warminster, for $15 million. The entrepreneurs are now trying to broaden the home-gardening company's core seed business and carve out a larger niche in the fast-growing spring bulb, perennial and garden tool segments of the $10.2 billion home-gardening industry. The new owners, armed with a coveted brand name and formidable direct-mail network of about five million catalog customers, must rebuild Burpee's decimated retail sales force and catch up to trends in ornamental and convenience gardening to meet competition from huge commercial nurseries and sophisticated mail-order rivals, Industry analysts said. "Under ITT, the company really went sideways and didn't do too well," said Carter F.

Bales, 49, a senior partner at McKinsey a consulting firm. He's also chairman of the holding company that engineered the $15 million leveraged buyout of Burpee from Clayton Dubilier, a New York investment concern that acquired Burpee from ITT last year. Bales, an avid gardener, has been a faithful Burpee customer for years. He outlined his plans for the company as he looked out over his own English-style garden during an interview at his waterfront home in Centre Island. After buying Burpee, Bales and his partner, Robert S.

Barron, a former colleague at McKinsey, found themselves with a company whose retail customer list had shriveled to 7,500, from 15,000 in 1980. Also, its retail sales force had been absorbed in a cost-cutting move by another ITT subsidiary, O.M. Scott Sons, the lawn-care products company. "We lost business and a bit of the edge," said Jonathan Burpee, 46, W. Atlee's grandson, who is the company's director of customer rela- tions.

In addition, last December Burpee switched to a new computer just before its peak sales season and was plagued by glitches that caused back-order problems, double-billing complaints and late deliveries. "It was a classic mistake," said Barron, 36, president of the holding company and chairman of Burpee. Plus Options raw ONE STOP SHOPPING FOR 1988 CARS STANDARD EQUIPMENT Since then, however, the company has worked out most of the bugs and made wholesale changes to appeal to the growing number of young gardeners in the 39 million households nationwide that have vegetable or flower gardens. Under Bales, whose McKinsey clients have included The Washington Post, Chemical Bank and Merrill Lynch, Burpee has mapped out a marketing strategy to take advantage of hot trends in perennials, Oriental vegetables and convenience gardening for two-income families with little time to fuss in the furrows. Burpee is scrambling to catch up with competitors that have already spotted consumer interest in mailorder flower bulbs and potted plants.

Burpee's vegetable seeds still outsell the company's flower seeds by 2-to-l, but the gap is closing quickly. The average garden size in the United States has shrunk to 325 square feet, from 600 square feet three years ago, according to the American Gardening Association, a shift that has coincided with an increase in gardening for fun rather than food. "We're seeing more and more flower tubs, urns, window boxes and patio gardens," said Nona Koivula, executive director of the National Garden Bureau, a trade organization in Downers Grove, 111. While Burpee has plans to open garden centers across the country, Bales said the company would rely on its vast variety of mail-order seeds, potted plants and garden tools to fill a niche left by large nurseries with more limited selections. "We're designer merchandisers we're not trying to wipe out mart's garden centers," Bales said.

This year's Burpee catalog, which Barron said would account for two-thirds of the company's $34 million in sales, contains 2,000 items, ranging from zinnia seeds costing $1.50 a package to indoor light gardens at $299.95. The company plans to mail between 12 million and 15 million 1988 Power WindowsLocksSteeringBrakes Air Conditioning AMFM Ami Theft Cassette Sound System Dual Postition Electric Class Moonroof Sell Leveling Rear Suspension Security System with Alarm for Hood, Trunk, and Doors Infrared Remote Control Locking System 1988 DODGE CARAVAN V-6 Ml A Automatic '214 btoKDMATSUl 1988 MAZDA 626 4 Door, 5 Speed, rt Air, AMFM Stereo 'lVV 1988 HONDA PRELUDE Si BLUE GRASS LINCOLN MERCURY Merkur Saab Alfa Romeo Sterling 4301 Shelbyville Road 895-4231 Across From Blue Grass Isuiu OPEN DAILY 9-9 SAT. 9-6 SUN. 12-6 5 Speed, Air, AMFM Stereo $285 1988 VOLVO DL 4 Door, Air, AMFM Stereo '267 NEW LIFT TRUCKS Komatsu trucks are available in gas, electric, diesel and LP models. CALL BOHNERT EQUIPMENT COMPANY, INC.

2020 Arthur St. 636-3391 Tax and license extra. All 48 month business leases. ahh a me Leaaer In Leasing TAXES leasing Suite 201 1303 Clear Springs Trace Louisville, Kentucky 40223 426-0036 mm m. DIMMEST DU iitt OCTOBER CLASS SCHEDULE VHH MtHt stun Mt-rrill Lynch SiVt (harks Httelitv HrokiT.it!- Vrvkcs 0 8 120 Haas Securities rofjiorition Now there's a way to achieve all these investment objectives in one professionally-managed, convenient package the Churchill Tax-Free Fund of Kentucky.

The Churchill Tax-Free Fund of Kentucky is a new, open-end municipal bond mutual fund that's locally managed and designed especially for Kentucky residents. It provides an easy way to participate in one of the few tax-free investments remaining under the 1 986 Tax Reform Act. The Fund also offers the high degree of safety derived from continuous portfolio supervision, select quality, diversification and varying maturities. By investing primarily in Kentucky tax-free municipal securities the kind that finance schools, roads, airports, hospitals, water facilities and other vital state and community projects the Fund gives you the advantage of earning a high level of income which is double tax-free. That's free of both State and Federal taxes.

And these big tax savings can be realized along with these further advantages provided by the Fund: Low Initial Investment An initial investment of only $1 ,000 opens your account, with no minimum for subsequent investments. Monthly Income Dividends are declared daily and paid monthly; automatically reinvested in additional Fund shares at the then-current net asset value; or paid in cash. The choice is yours. Daily Liquidity Redeem by telephone or by mail on any business day at the then-current net asset value, which may be more or less than your original cost; with no penalties or redemption fees. Experienced Local Management Professional portfolio management by Citizens Fidelity Bank Trust Company, foremost asset manager in Kentucky and responsible for clients' investments of more than $3 billion, including more than $450 million in municipal bonds.

Convenience Relieves you of such bothersome details as safeguarding securities, clipping coupons, credit quality changes, redemption and call problems. Frequent Statements and Reports You receive a complete statement every month; a statement every time you make an investment or a withdrawal; and an audited report annually. Minimum omm-unt hjrr hjM-J iin piim um-i June I'M" Before you raid the market report Onlay take 10 Mnonds and read thin chart. Then make the best move of the day (a Han Securities Corporation. At Haas, you II save hundreds of dollar in torn missions and get exactly what you want.

cur call fr a quote or to place Visit our office and freely use our state-of-the-art "Quotron" trading units. If you are an active trader you will have use of a desk, phone, and Quotron terminal. an order is immediately picked up. Then1 is no waiting and lines are always open. The market will not trade away while you wait.

execute your market orders in 50 seconds or less while you hold, lour call goes directly to a st registered representation our trading desk. Securities held in your account are protected up to $2,400,040. All credit balance ran be moved to our in house monr) fund, which pays current money market rates. INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER LITERACY $25 0CT 8 0CT 14 0CT 20 ORIENTATION TO THE APPLE MACINTOSH $45 OCT 21 INTRODUCTION TO IBM DISK OPERATING SYSTEM $45 OCT 7 OCT 14 OCT 28 ADVANCED IBM DISK OPERATING SYSTEM $50 OCT 15 0CT 21 INTRODUCTION TO LOTUS 1-2-3 $100 OCT 8-9 0CT 12-13 0CT 28-29 ADVANCED LOTUS 1-2-3 $110 OCT 19-20 INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT WORD (IBM) $100 OCT 26-27 INTRODUCTION TO WORD PERFECT $100 0CT 5-6 OCT 6-7 INTRODUCTION TO dBASE IllIll $100 OCT 22-23 PAGEMAKER BY ALDUS $200 OCT 16 'Denotes classes held at Hurstbourne Lane location only. "Denotes classes held at Galleria location only.

Discount Stock Brokerage An Idea Whose Time Has Come INVESTMENT ADVISOR Jim Robertson; V.P. and Office Manager Suite 747 Starks Building Louisville, Ky. 40202 (502) 583-5422 In KY WATS (800) 253-4227 Outside KY WATS (800) 251-4227 Eitablnhed 1410 Member New York Stock Exchange, Inc. SIPC. Citizens I Fidelity Bank 6 Trust Company FOR INFORMATION Contact Your Local Investment Broker or call 1-800-USA-KTKY (872-5859) Toll-free, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day Aquila Distributors, 200 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017 You will be sent free descriptive material and a prospectus containing more complete information including management fees and expenses.

Read carefully before you invest or send money. Ask about TCS ONLINE. Two Support Packages That Turn Vtw Down Time Into Productive Time. a of laurtiwitn household Vm. incomes of S50.0OO 70 (J read the Saturday Our superior demographics can do quite a bit for your business.

Call 582-4711 for more information. Gje Courur-Jlournal Churchill Tax-Free Fund OF KENTUCKY Coun-Joumal In the Galleria 'J 581-9109 Monday-Saturday Special Parking Rates in the Galleria Garage 215 Hurstbourne Lane Suite 101 1 426-8787 Monday-Saturday Bolden CMS 1986. Louisville MSA 'Under certain circumstances, some income may be subject to Stale and Federal tax. "Dividend rate and share value are not fixed and vary with interest rate changes 1987 Aquila Management Corporation Chattanooga, Huntsville, Knoxville, Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville NC442.