New Chief, Same Goal at Bishop: Acquisition

For years, Bishop Graphics was led by Martin J. Salvin, a chairman and president who eventually became acquisition-minded.

The firm still is headed by an acquisition-minded chief executive, but it’s not Salvin anymore. Last week the company announced that he has been replaced by 55-year-old Richard M. Drysdale, a venture capitalist with an extensive background in buying and running businesses.

Drysdale has been on Bishop’s board two years and is president of Westwood Management, a venture capital concern that manages money for an international investment group and is Bishop’s biggest shareholder, with a 13.6% stake.

Board Decision

Salvin, who has a 12.5% stake, said his departure “was an action of the board of directors.” He added that he will remain an active board member, but declined to elaborate.

Based in Westlake Village, Bishop makes drafting supplies for designers of printed circuits, and Salvin, 56, has been chairman and president since it went public in 1969.

But Bishop has suffered lately from the continuing slump in the computer and electronics fields, and from what Drysdale called its own tardiness in pursuing the computer-aided design business.

Business has been bad enough that the new chief executive said the company is likely to post a loss when its third-quarter earnings are released, probably later this week.

For the six months ended March 31, the company’s earnings fell 75% from the same period last year, to $65,000, or 3 cents a share. Sales were off 6%, to $6.4 million.

Stock Suffers

Bishop’s stock also has suffered. It closed at $2.875 Monday, near its three-year low of $2.37 and well below its three-year high of $14.77, according to MPACT Securities of Austin, Tex.

Drysdale said Bishop, despite its setbacks, is in no danger and has a strong balance sheet with almost no debt. He said business has picked up in recent weeks.

Nevertheless, he said, he plans some changes at the firm, which has about 100 employees, 80 of them in Westlake Village.

“We need to refocus and redirect the company,” he said. “Printed circuit design has changed. It’s all computerized today.”

To exploit that trend, Bishop tried and failed to sell costly computerized design systems in 1984, losing as much as $750,000 on the venture. But Drysdale said its subsequent move into Macintosh personal computer systems, with custom-designed software, has been successful, although he didn’t cite figures.

Drysdale also said the company might move into a completely new line of business while sticking with its current operations.

He said Bishop has close to $1 million in cash, and is actively looking for an acquisition, a position it has been in before. Last year, Salvin thought he found a company to buy in PerfectData, a money-losing manufacturer of computer-maintenance supplies based in Chatsworth.

Losses Too Great

The idea was to use Bishop’s distribution network to sell PerfectData’s products, but PerfectData’s continuing losses proved too much for its suitor, and Salvin called the deal off in August.

Besides his venture capital experience, Drysdale served for many years with Xerox, most recently as president of its information systems division.