Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 7

Wed Oct 15 1975 TA Minneapolis Tribune 7A Business nsws Pacemaker, sale s-sho wroom firms see earnings growth Pillsbury agrees to trade stock for Totino's Foods i At the same meeting, Harold Ro-itenberg, president of Modern Merchandising said the Minneapolis-based catalog showroom merchandiser is shooting for 15 to 20 percent annual earnings growth for the next several years. 1 The company, which has expanded from four showrooms in 1971 to 34 this year, is slowing its rate of expansion, Roitenberg said. Rather, it will depend on existing stores for most of its earnings growth. Roitenberg said 1975 sales look promising. August sales were 30 percent ahead of last year and September sales were 44 percent ahead, he said.

The company is planning to stock more sporting goods and high ticket items, according to Roitenberg. It also is experimenting with a computerized ordering system in its five LaBelle stores in the Twin Cities area. The computer automatically reports whether an item is out of stock, whether it is available at other stores and what substitute merchandise is available. Roitenberg said the computer system would reduce customer waiting time significantly. By Lynda McDonnell Staff Writer Thomas Holloran, president of Medtronic, the Fridley-based pacemaker manufacturer, said Tuesday that the company expects continued earnings growth, despite a significant slump in sales of replacement pacemakers in its U.S.

market. Speaking at a seminar sponsored by Piper, Jaffray and Hopwood Inc. Holloran predicted 25-percent annual earnings growth over the next several years, compared with an average of 33 percent over the past five years. At the same time, Medtronic's replacement pacemakers business is expected to decline from about 44 percent of its U.S. sales in fiscal 1974 to about 30 percent for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1976, he said.

The decline can be traced to the development of longer-lived pacemakers and the decision of some physicians to extend the lives of pacemakers by not replacing them until one of the unit's four or five battery cells wears out. of Totino's would "fulfill our objective of balancing our consumer foods group with a frozen product Under the agreement, Totino's owners would receive 258,091 shares of Pillsbury's common stock, valued at $20.3 million on the New York Stock Exchange at the market close yesterday. In return, Pillsbury would get all the shares of Totino's, a privately held company. Totino's which distributes its pizzas to 41 states, expects sales of approximately $38 million with net income of $1.3 million for the 12 months ended Oct. 31.

i The acquisition is contingent on certain conditions, including a mutually acceptable definitive agreement. A Pillsbury spokesman said the company hopes to make the acquisition final by late winter- "A lot of major companies have urged us to merge with them over the past four years," said Rod Mil- By Lynda McDonnell Staff Writer The Pillsbury Co. Tuesday an-, nounced an agreement in principle to trade about $20.3 million worth of its stock for Totino's Finer Foods, a Minneapolis-based, manufacturer of frozen This is the second multimillion-dollar acquisition agreement Pillsbury has announced within a week. On Oct 7, the company agreed in principle to trade $100 million of its stock for Steak and Ale Restaurants of America, a Dallas-based company. The acquisition of Totino's would represent Pillsbury's first foray into the frozen food case, the fastest-growing segment of supermarkets.

The proposed acquisition of Weight Watchers International which the company dropped in June, was to have given Pillsbury an entry into that market. William Spoor, chairman of the Pillsbury said the acquisition n. -a Thomas Holloran Holloran also said the company is reconsidering its policy of not paying dividends. Company officials also are discussing listing Medtronic stock on the New York or American stock exchanges rather than selling over the counter, he acknowledged. He did not speculate when these issues might be decided, however.

this brisk expansion in 1976," the economists note. Therefore, they say, their predictions for economic recovery are based on assumptions that Congress will extend the 1975 income-tax cut at a $12-billion annual rate, that Congress will be "restrained" in its spending, that there will be a "moderate let-up in the Fed's dogged devotion to its 5-712-percent range of growth in the money supply" and that there will not be an abrupt decontrol, of presently controlled oil prices, If those assumptions are not true, Perry and Heller say, "it is not hard to visualize a set of policy cir- Economists say economy stronger than forecast, recovery to continue Stocks' early climb fizzles to mixed close Magnetic Peripherals appoints our to key executive positions William H. Spoor ey, president and general manager of Totino's. "We're really enthusiastic about Pillsbury. They have a lot of resources, like capital and research and development, that we can use." Spoor predicted that the transaction will have a modest positive earnings per share impact on the present fiscal year.

If the agreement is finalized, Mrs. Rose Totino, who founded the company with her husband in 1962, would become Pillsbury's first female vice president. Miley also would become a Pillsbury vice president. Peavey agrees to buy farm store chain The Peavey Co. announced Tuesday it has agreed in principle to acquire a Nebraska-based chain of farm, automotive and building supply stores for an i 1 amount of cash.

The Nebraska firm, Wheelers Stores, generates annual sales in excess of $30 million, Peavey said, from 45 retail outlets in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Georgia, Wyoming and Colorado. The agreement is subject to approval by the Peavey directors and Wheelers shareholders. Peavey Chairman Fritz Corrigan said yesterday that the Wheelers Stores fit Peavey's strategy for diversification, which has concentrated largely on do-it-yourself and farm-service center retailing. Peavey's specialty retailing activities now include building-supply and home-improvement centers, fabric stores, arts and crafts shops and "in-home" and commercial carpet cleaning equipment and chemicals. The Peavey retail group also has 19 "Peavey Marts" in four Canadian provinces whose retailing activities are similar to those of Wheelers Stores.

Union backs Uniroyal proposal to decrease Eau Claire plant layoffs Associated Press Eau Claire, Wis. A proposal under which at least 225 workers would be laid off, rather than the originally announced 1,400, has won approval from union employees at the Uniroyal Tire Division plant, Eau Claire's major employer. The agreement was approved earlier last week by Uniroyal management, a joint statement said Monday. Under the agreement, all production ceilings installed by the union several years ago will be lifted. After the layoff of the 225 workers throughout the plant, the production schedule will continue at about 10,000 tires per shift, the statement said.

Uniroyal had announced plans earlier this year to cut back passenger car tire production at the plant, resulting in 1,400 layoffs, while continuing production of tires for airplanes and heavy production equipment: every morning New York Times Service New York, N.Y. The stock market's climb that began Monday kept going early Tuesday. Then it fizzled. The Dow. Jones industrial average, which showed a gain of "8.66 points at 2 p.m.

yesterdav, lost all' that and closed at 835.25, down 2.52 points from Monday. There was no convincing reason for the downturn. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 19.96 million shares, up sharply from Monday when trading was curtailed because of Columbus Day. At the close, several leading corporate issues showed sizable declines. General Motors, for example, dropped 1 to 53V4.

Alcoa Vt to 37, Eastman Kodak 1 to lOOVf and Sears, Roebuck 1 to68i8. While the Dow Jones average "ended with a modest decline, more stocks were up than down at the end of the day. United Technologies, which used to be named United Aircraft, dropped 2 to '55 following news that it plans to offer $42 a share for up to 4.5 million shares of Otis Elevator. Otis shares rose y2 to 324 when Stocks at a TuMdiy, Oct. 14,1975 NYSE won.

NYSE mdtx rh 1 Alato. 47M-0 05 SKs1 "8 35SSS8 S2fczz3S8S AffTM. Mil MlM-- Most active Volume Polaroid 297,700 SonyCorp 253,300 220,600 PanAm 162,000 170.700 TRW me 156,500 teMotore .......152,600 Tutoome 146,100 AmTdtTd 143.600 IntPtptr 138,500 AvonProd 130,200 122,700 Mwrtlyn 119,400 Close Chng. 39 1V 8 31 4 60 2V. 24 Vt 53 114 23'4 14 47H S4H 1H 44V, 1 41H 1'4 12'4 tt 11 '4 16H Dow Jones Industrial 2 I 18- iH 12 10- trading was halted.

Xerox dropped 2 to 60 on heavy volume in the wake of news that the company had laid off more than 580 additional employees at the El Segundo, headquarters of its computer operations, which are being phased out. Bank stocks generally continued to respond to higher third quarter earnings. J. P. Morgan Co.

advanced 1 to 55J8 and Manufacturers Hanover Corp. rose to 29. Citicorp, which reported an 18-percent gain in income last week, rose to 31 in active trading. Prices on the American Stock Exchange closed mixed as many traders appeared confused over the economic situation. However, prices advanced in the over-the-counter market in heavy trading.

Trie Amex market value index closed down 0.33 to 84.13 but advances outnumbered declines by 307 to 265. In the counter market, the NASDAQ industrial index rose 0.30 to 82.65 while the composite index increased 0.49 to 78.19. There were 423 advances and 286 declines. glance Dow Jones averages Open High Low Ctoa. Chng.

5Cr5 'Sfl ISS IS! US aw 253.53 255.50 0.45 Amex Aim eladnq Mm 664.16- Apprw. total wlw 126,060 Most active Volumt Clou Chng. SyrtwCorp 62,700 33V4 NoKCp 45.600 8H HtnovrPrt 43,700 9V4 Vi tagoSKt ...41,700 164 '4 CrdgCorp 100 6'4 8 8 8 8 MMrchCtl 31,600 18Vt GBICofp 31,600 6'4 CMmpHo ....30,700 3 USFtWr 29,600 11H 4 '4 Amex gainers CIMIgQrpwI. 116 atytordtf4tl 1'4 ForMlLtb MWonkwT '4 Pel. 33.3 250 22.7 20.0 16.7 Amex losers Last Nt Pel.

14 36.4 CmzMtgmwt l316 116 25.0 TlgtrtnBwl 25.0 fcnPlanCorp 1 16.7 points Tuesday The appointment of four key executives was announced Tuesday by Magnetic Peripherals, the disk memory products company formed recently by Control Data Corp. and Honeywell Inc. Richard A. Berreth was named vice president, Normandale operations, with responsibilities for manufacturing, engineering, business management and accounting. He was general manager, Normandale memory products manufacturing division, for Control Data.

Charles A. Dickinson was named vice president, Oklahoma City, operations, with responsibilities for that facility similar to those Berreth assumes at Normandale. cumstances less favorable to economic recovery than those we are projecting." The two economists said unemployment probably will be at about 8 percent at the end of this year and "will shrink very slowly next year, perhaps reaching percent by the end of 1976." The prospects for. inflation, the economists say, "are neither' as good as they looked last spring norv as bad as they looked last summer" The GNP "deflator" the portion of GNP growth attributable to inflation for 1975 probably will average almost 9 percent more than the 1974 level, they state. Dickinson also will continue as general manager of the Hawthorne memory products division of Control Data until the production of that division are transferred to other Magnetic Peripherals locations.

Bruce Dobberteen, formerly in charge of Oklahoma City operations for Honeywell, was named general manager for the new company there. He also will continue to have responsibility for Honeywell products at Oklahoma City. J. P. Wilson, who was head of the Normandale business management office of Control Data, was named vice president of the new company, with responsibility for -a 1 1 business planning.

8M! CCATTI TWIN CITIES Leave Arrive 12:45 p.n $2 50 cnarge on international tiignls. 1) By Jim Fuller Staff Writer The U.S. economy is stronger than most forecasters believe and its "moderate" recovery will continue through 1976, assuming monetary and fiscal policymakers are "seized with enough good sense" to accommodate the expansion, economists Walter W. Heller and George L. Perry say in a report scheduled for release today.

Heller, regents professor of economics at the University of Minnesota, and Perry, an economist at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., say in their report for National City Bank of Minneapolis that the recovery now can be divided into three periods: The second half of 1975, which they say is showing a strong re- Si nual rate of 8 to 10 percent. The GNP growth is spurred by tax cuts, a "dramatic" adjustment of business inventories and a spurt in the housing industry, they say. The first half of 1976, during which the economists predict a 7-percent GNP growth rate spurred by a combination of business capital expenditures and consumer spending encouraged by rising earnings. The second half of 1976, which also will show a "stronger-than-ex-pected" GNP growth, probably in the neighborhood of 7 percent on an annual basis. Heller and Perry hedge their predictions a bit by noting that they are to a large degree based on assumptions about future actions by governmental policymakers.

"Present policies especially Federal Reserve policy do not provide enough breathing space for Muehlbach contracts let Contracts totaling more than $1.5 million were awarded Tuesday for the first phase in a planned $7-mil-lion renovation 6f the Radisson Muehlbach Hotel in Kansas City, Mo. The hotel, operated by Radisson Hotel Minneapolis, is to be completely refurbished by July of next year. It is to be the site of the national Shriner's convention in July and headquarters hotel for the Republican National Convention in August. Lease Finance Marketing Company Seeks Ai filiation with bank ol other linancial funding 80tirce. Sale or merger possible.

Replies confidential. Write: MF 780. Minneapolis Tribune call 800-862-6002) 170 NORTHWESTERN FINANCIAL CENTER 7900 XERXES AVE. SOUTH MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 55431 612-831-1500 Average C3 I I.I i NYSE gainers Lit! Nt Pet AhonMtg ContCp pi MMrlntpf Monoglnd 1H 4 22.2 .244 ..47 7 166 17.5 4H ......102 12'4 13.5 75 5 12.8 '1 104 NYSEIOMf.LMt DonLuWwWd 1'4 'A 11.6 Ctryrwt "4 116 11.1 1 '4 11.1 Radto2Df 2 V.

11.1- -12 14 16 Price changes in UnS4.56pf 40 4 10.6 NASDAQ index DKQ regional index Statistical avaragat ol 85 sacuritlas ol maor firms In Minnesota, Norlh u.k,..i.. mnA wMtarn Witmniin. Dakota, doutn uiKoia, eompilwJ and raportad by Dam. Kalmen 6 Quail, Inc. Indices based on 100 High Low Ltl Chng.

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charahniHora w- Waseca, Tuesday approved a two-for-one stock split, to be effective Oct. 31. As part of the plan for a split, the shareholders at a special meeting yesterday also approved an increase in the number of authorized shares from 1.4 million to 4 million. The company now has approximately 1,214,000 shares outstand-ing. The stock closed in the over-the-counter market yesterday at $34.25 bid.

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