Emil Martini Steps Down as Bergen CEO : Retiring: Younger brother Robert will succeed him at the giant pharmaceutical wholesale firm in Orange.
Emil P. Martini Jr., who pioneered automation of the pharmaceutical sales industry, will retire Aug. 31 as chief executive officer of Bergen Brunswig Corp., the company said Wednesday.
Martini will stay on as chairman of Bergen Brunswig, a leading wholesaler of pharmaceuticals products and home video cassettes. But he will relinquish control of day-to-day operations to his younger brother, Robert E. Martini, who will succeed him as CEO. “It is the latest stage in a management succession plan that has been developing for the last two to three years to assure a smooth transition as the brothers reach retirement.” said John Fay Jr., vice president and spokesman for the Orange-based corporation.
Emil Martini, who will be 65 in August, served as CEO for two decades and Robert, 58, was the chief operating officer. They are sons of Emil Martini Sr., who in 1947 founded the Bergen Drug Co. in Hackensack, N.J. In 1963 the company went public, and in 1969 it acquired the much larger Brunswig Drug Co. of Los Angeles.
The company also announced that it was promoting Executive Vice President Dwight Steffensen, 46, to chief operating officer. Steffensen joined Bergen Brunswig in 1985 when the company bought out Synergex Corp., a Fresno wholesale drug distribution firm where he served as CEO.
The Martinis designed a stock restructuring plan that was approved last year by the company’s shareholders to transfer control of Orange County’s second largest publicly owned company from themselves to outside shareholders by 1994.
However, Fay said, the brothers, who have been involved in Bergen Brunswig all of their adult lives, intend to remain major shareholders and active members of the board. He said the brothers between them have three sons in their 30s who hold middle management jobs at the company.
Emil has been a national leader in applying automation to the pharmaceutical distribution business. Providing technological support, such as computer-assisted ordering, has been a major drawing card in Bergen Brunswig’s dealings with drug retailers.
In 1974 the company purchased hand-held devices that allowed pharmacists to punch drug orders onto a cassette tape that communicated through telephone lines with a Bergen Brunswig computer. The data-recording devices, which were later computerized, enabled Bergen Brunswig to eliminate a costly “boiler room” of order takers. They also improved the speed and accuracy with which orders were filled.
By offering various computer-related services, the company persuaded many pharmacies, which until then had been buying drugs from other wholesalers or directly from manufacturers, to place the bulk of their orders with Bergen Brunswig.
Under Martini’s leadership, Bergen Brunswig increased its sales from about $190 million in 1969 to $3.9 billion in its last fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 1989. The corporation has 3,500 employees and 50 distribution centers throughout the United States.
Also during Martini’s tenure, Bergen Brunswig in 1982 acquired Commtron Corp., which grew into the nation’s largest distributor of videotaped movies, sold principally through video specialty stores. Later, 20% of Commtron was taken public.
