Raiders Football and Arizona Sea Gulls
Great American First Savings Bank’s rapid growth through acquisition has left it in an interesting public-relations dilemma.
Its merger with Los Angeles Federal Savings means that it will probably be heavily involved in promotions with the L.A. Raiders football team, similar to arrangements with the Rams in Orange County and the Chargers here. Executives have previously said they are torn about which team to root for.
And now, Great American’s most visible symbol is facing a confused image--its logo, those cute little birds that coastal inhabitants can easily tab as sea gulls. Insiders are now semi-jokingly calling them “soaring forms,” figuring that, since its merger with Home Federal Savings & Loan of Arizona, “we can’t call them sea gulls.”
Synergy the Missing Ingredient
Piret’s chain of six-but-soon-to-be-seven fashionable eateries has always embraced an expansion mode. Until now.
The firm’s Perfect Pan cookware store and cooking class shop in Mission Hills will close Wednesday, leaving only two Perfect Pans--one in Encinitas and one in South Coast Plaza in Orange County. In each case, a Piret’s restaurant envelops the cooking school.
Not so in Mission Hills, where the eatery and cooking school are nearly a block apart and “there isn’t the synergy,” according to Jean Driscoll, Piret’s marketing director.
The final cooking class Wednesday night will be taught by the firm’s former owners, George and Piret Munger, who two years ago sold the chain to Vicorp Specialty Restaurants.
Another New Start for Alexander
No, Jack A. Alexander insists, the high blood pressure that forced him out of work all last year had nothing to do with his decision last week to step down as chairman and chief executive of First Affiliated Securities.
“I’m well,” he said, “and completely recovered.”
He left, he maintains, because “I’m best at going off building something new.” First Affiliated, which he co-founded, has grown into the nation’s eighth-largest securities firm, with 200 offices nationwide and revenues of about $60 million.
“It’s a great big machine now,” he said, referring to the Oklahoma firm that now owns the company.
As for Alexander, he has started JAA Ventures, an investment banking firm.
No Stock Moves Yet at PSA
PSA has yet to spin off its Pacific Southwest Airlines subsidiary into a separate public company, but that hasn’t stopped officials from acting as if it has already happened.
Last week, PSA distributed two annual reports--one for the airline and another for PSA Inc., the parent company--as a marketing tool both for employees who have an equity stake in the subsidiary and for the investment community, which will eventually be asked to trade its stock.
Officials still don’t know when the airline subsidiary will be taken public. “There’s no holdup,” said one executive. “We’re just waiting for the right time.”
If the subsidiary isn’t spun off by year’s end, employees--who two years ago approved a profit-sharing plan in exchange for a pay cut and increased productivity--would receive stock in the parent company.
No Big Changes With Cordura Sale
It will be “business as usual” for Cordura Publications, the San Diego subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Cordura Corp., which last week agreed to be acquired by a Canadian firm.
That’s the word from Norman Friedman, Cordura’s chairman and chief executive, who engineered the $35-a-share cash purchase by International Thomson Organisation Ltd. of Toronto. The deal is valued at $203 million.
If anything, Friedman said, the acquisition may mean “a decent expansion for San Diego,” where Cordura publishes several types of manuals, including auto repair and insurance publications. About half of Cordura’s 700-member work force is based in San Diego.
