The Art of Economizing

The view from Aerojet’s office building in La Jolla is breathtaking. But a view of Torrey Pines Golf Course and the Pacific Ocean won’t be the only thing missing when Aerojet moves its corporate staff to Sacramento in a cost-cutting move later this year.

Aerojet plans to auction off a 220-piece corporate art collection that, according to Hugh Davies, director of the nearby La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, ranks as one of San Diego County’s finest privately held collections.

The art collection--including “Obliquequestionofaturtle,” “Tri-Axial Rotation of a Floating Volume of Light” and “Desert out of Cadillac Window”--is an integral part of Aerojet’s high-style, contemporary building in La Jolla, according to spokesman Tom Sprague. It just wouldn’t fit in, he said, at the firm’s new home in Sacramento: a mundane office building that only overlooks another office building.

Dog Owners Thrown a Bone

Next time your dog is too lazy to go out and forage for his own food, you can hand him your American Express card and the telephone.

At the other end of an 800 number somewhere in Connecticut these days is a Carnation Co. operator taking orders for a line of gourmet pet food called Perform. Already the maker of such grocery store standards as Friskies and Mighty Dog, the company figured that home delivery would set its high-priced fare apart.

But the healthy-sounding Carnation division responsible for direct-marketing Perform--the Center for Animal Nutrition--carries its convenience pitch one step further than most food-by-mail firms. In his introductory letter, director Lloyd Miller says his recipe uses rice instead of other grains because it is more digestible--leaving “the people who clean up after our dogs much happier.”

Warhol Met the Challenge

The year was 1981, the scene a dinner party in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, hosted by industrialist Alexander Schmidheiny-- who two years before had bought Napa Valley’s Cuvaison winery. Proudly opening a bottle for an American guest, the late pop artist Andy Warhol, Schmidheiny asked: “What do you think?”

“What a lousy label!” Warhol replied.

Schmidheiny’s wife and partner, Christina, recalled that Warhol accepted a challenge to design something better. But somehow the resulting clump of colorful grapes sliding off a white background was to languish in a drawer until 1986. Then, wine marketer Manfred Esser, recruited to head Cuvaison, stumbled upon Warhol’s work.

The winery finally used the label recently to adorn 84 magnum bottles of Cuvaison’s 1984 Merlot to be auctioned for charity. Two bottles raised $3,200 at separate auctions. And a single bottle this year went for $2,300--outperforming a prize Bordeaux, a 1949 Chateau Petrus, which fetched $1,400.

Next Deal: Real Estate?

Australian businessman Christopher Skase enjoyed a degree of privacy before his recent $1-billion deal to buy MGM/UA Communications. Now all that is out the window, thanks to accelerated press exposure--plus the legendary zeal of the Beverly Hills real estate sales battalions.

During his visit here last week, the Qintex Group chairman stayed at the Bel-Air Hotel, as he has off and on for four years. His presence has increased since his fledgling U.S. entertainment operation--Qintex Entertainment--was launched last year.

Asked if he expects to emulate other Hollywood studio owners by getting a Beverly Hills mansion, Skase said: “I really haven’t had time to think about it.” Thinking a moment, he added: “Plenty of people are trying to sell me a house, though.”