Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey • Page 61

i Courier-Post i 1994 IV, fi I 1 3 petervanallen I I ji i Business Editor 486-2476 I 1 MllllWIIIIHia I I HUM I.ll, iii i liliil life A Ann Tp bruit;) Rickel and Channel, two longtime area home centers, will be merged. The combined company, to be known as Rickel Homes Centers is owned by the partnership of Eos Partners L.P., GE Capital Corporation and Rickel management. Rickel is based in South Plainfield, Middlesex County. The combined home centers had 1993 sales of $600 million in 90 stores throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and Maryland Cherry Hill Minority Civic Association received a NAACP Visionary Award. Named were officers Bob Harvey, Pat McCargo, Bill McCargo and Danny Elmore Jessmar which manufactures casino displays under the name Showtime Exhibits leased 45,000 square feet of industrial space on Beningo Boulevard in Bellmawr Tarquini Organization, the Cam-den-based architecture firm, has been k.

i 1 The driving force behind Southwest Airlines is Herb Kelleher, a chainsmoking, fun-loving executive who even pitches in as a baggage handler on busy travel days Li i A 1 ''j I 1 "nr- -i iiini Biin mil I chosen to study the feasibility of expanding Sawmill School in Tewks-bury Township, Hunterdon County. The firm will take into account recent enrollment increases at the elementary school and any mandated curriculum enhancements Kauffman Group in Cherry Hill provides direct marketing by fax. The firm is on Windsor Drive Honey Baked Hams opened a site in the MAB Center on Church Road in Cherry Hill. The firm has 250 stores in 35 states Holman Enterprises, the Pennsau ken-based car dealer, celebrates 70 years in business. The firm has 2,500 employees nationwide and annual sales of $1 billion Ii.mhii i iS fan hikiihch immiiiiiI Environmental Technology a consulting firm, has expanded its office at Colwick in Cherry Hill Atlantic Electric, the Pleasantville based utility, offers small business assistance through its Business En hancement Program.

Help is available for getting permits, financing, employee training and warehouse space Metropolitan Ambulance of Perm 'pauken has merged with two Philadelphia emergency services Pro Core Ambulance and Life Line. The firm will be known as Careline Inc By PETER VAN ALLEN Courier-Post Staff round Haddon Heights, Herb Kelleher is known 88 a regular guy a former class clown who just happens to be a highly successful airline chief executive. He's brought a lot of the class clown with him to Southwest Airlines, the nation's seventh-largest carrier. The airline industry is marked by high losses and no-name executives. But president and CEO Kelleher has made himself notorious by greeting passengers in a chicken suit, roaring into board meetings on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and even arm-wrestling a competitor for the right to say, "Plane smart." (He lost, but the competitor gave him the slogan anyway.) A style all his own He smokes five packs of Merit Ultra Lites daily and his Dallas office is filled not only with smoke but ceramic wild turkeys, a testament to his favorite bourbon.

Despite or perhaps because of his eccentricities, no-frills Southwest has been profitable every year since 1972. Camden-born Kelleher, 64, is a 1949 graduate of Haddon Heights High School. He is also a homer. His father was general manager of Campbell Soup Co. and Kelleher himself spent six summers there.

His uncle was a treasurer of Camden County. And Kelleher was honored last month by Haddon Heights High, where he was named to the sports hall of fame. "He was easy to talk to, not your typical power broker. He was down to earth, normal, which was comforting to me," said Haddon Heights High athletic director Howard Pomroy, who spent the better part of a day with Kelleher recently. In high school, Kelleher played football and basketball and ran track.

In basketball, his team won the Colonial Conference championship. On that team, he averaged 18.3 points a game, meaning he was not shy about shooting. "In those days you had to jump the ball after every shot. That was a lot of points then," said Pomroy. Kelleher scored points off court as well.

He was student body president and he did well enough to get By closely watching costs, Southwest recorded a profit last year of $154 million, up from $97 million in 1992. (And while Kelleher is one of the lowest-paid CEOs in the industry at $513,000 a year his 1.8 percent share of Southwest is reportedly worth $86 million.) But Kelleher or "Uncle Herb" as he is known by his 12,000 employees brought more than cheapness to Southwest. That's where his antics come in. Southwest doesn't have casual Fridays a practice of encouraging employees to dress in casual clothes it has casual months. The attendants have been known to give flight instructions in rap.

Friday afternoon office parties are common. On the day before Thanksgiving traditionally the single biggest air travel day Kelleher unloads bags at Love Field. "A kind of hoo-hah brio" is what one fellow executive calls Kelleher's contribution, according to a cover profile in Fortune magazine earlier this year. An invitation to hunt and fish at Kelleher's Wyoming retreat is tantamount to a lifestyle choice. "There is an unwritten rule that, if you don't want to stay up all night drinking and talking, then you stay away from Herb," one airline executive reportedly said of Kelleher.

Kelleher is passionate about his employees. Indeed, in honor of Love Field, love is a watchword at Southwest. Even the firm's ticker symbol is LUV. "I feel that you have to be with your employees through all their difficulties, that you have to be interested in them personally," Kelleher told Fortune. "They may be disappointed in their country.

Even their family might not be working out the way they wish it would. But I want them to know that Southwest will always be there for them." into prestigious Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Conn. Four years later, when he won a scholarship to New York University Law School, the Courier-Post devoted eight column inches to the story. Though he started his professional career clerking for a New Jersey Supreme Court judge in Newark, Kelleher became increasingly influenced by the Texas business climate he saw with his wife, a Wesleyan graduate and San Antonio native. In 19G6, his career took a turn during a stint at a San Antonio law firm.

A deep-pocketed client named Rollin King convinced Kelleher of the need for short-distance, cheap airline service between Texas cities, which were close together by airline standards but too far apart for a quick drive. It was not a novel idea; two other airlines already had similar ventures in Texas. But Southwest and Kelleher brought an ethic of cheapness the other airlines didn't have. To this day, Kelleher (King has since retired) uses Dallas' smaller airport, Love Field, and prefers flying into major cities' minor airports. To cut costs, Southwest offers primarily short-haul flights.

To get fullest use out of planes, time at the terminal is limited. To simplify repairs, the airline uses only 737s. To cut travel agency commissions, Southwest refuses to link up with reservation systems. To cut labor costs, Southwest offers lower pay but more profit sharing than competitors. And Kelleher limits the extras: For example, fliers get a tiny packet of peanuts labeled, "Frills." (With an average flight of one hour, much more may not be needed, he argues.) Eye on the bottom line Kelleher personally approves any expense over $1,000.

Jennifer hopes move into leather will boost stock Software Visions Inc. consults businesses on their computer needs. The Sewell-based firm is run by Keith C. Lubner Fox Meadow Plaza opened in Maple Shade Prizm Environmental and Occupational Health will open a site in Mount Laurel. The firm has five sites in North Jersey Pennsauken-based Keystone Sales and Service Company has acquired the rights to the Dexter Deli Electronic Ordering System from Dexter Systems of Danbury, Conn.

Jevic Transportation, Inc. of Del-anco has purchased several hundred 1995 Freightliner trucks. The acquisition increases Jevic's fleet by almost 10 percent and replaces older vehicles Lanard Axilbund Colliers' Ro-senfeld Division has negotiated the sale of a 2.7 acre tract of land in the Berlin Business Park for Berlin Business Park Associates. Developer Ronald H. Biglin Jr.

purchased the site for $145,000. Plans call for the construction of a to office warehouse building Metro Commercial Real Estate, Inc. of Mount Laurel has negotiated a lease for 10,000 square feet for a CVS Pharmacy in Harbour Place Shopping Center in Sewell. CVS will relocate its nearby store in Washington Center to Harbour Place. With the $1.2 million transaction complete, the shopping center is now 100 percent occupied I National Tire Warehouse Inc.

opened a Deptford store last week on North Almonesson Road. The Virginia-based chain has 146 stores in 21 states Mellon PSFS and Acme Supermarkets Inc. last week unveiled their first supermarket banking branch in the Delaware Valley. The in-store banking bffice, in Horsham, is a precursor of things to come for South Jerseyans. I When Mellon completes its planned acquisition of Voorhees-based Glendale National Bank early next year, it will toll out at least four supermarket branches in South Jersey.

Others could follow. The offices will be open seven a week and provide nearly all the services of a regular branch. 1- Plan: The sofabed firm is getting further into leather furniture. 1 1 stock price. But Greenfield says the company expected Leather stores to cannibalize sales from Jennifer Convertibles stores.

Greenfield says he expects earnings to grow at least 25 percent a year "for the foreseeable future." McMahon says the goal is credible and that the stock could trade as high as $15 in 12 months 122 percent over Wednesday's close of $6.75. Based on growth prospects, the stock is cheap, McMahon says just nine times estimated 1995 earnings. By ERIC D. RANDALL Gannett News Service Sofabed retailer Jennifer Convertibles has given investors some sleepless nights as its stock price tumbled from a record $19.50 in March 1993 to a 52-week low of $6.50 two weeks ago. But the company is getting further into leather furniture and that could help the stock rebound.

(Friday, the stock closed at $7,625.) The company plans to open 50 Jennifer Leather stores in the next two years. "We plan on being the biggest leather furniture retailer in the USA in a year, two years at the latest," says CEO Harley Greenfield. Leather is "an obvious opportunity" in furniture retailing, says Henry Howard, senior editor of Furniture Today, a trade newspaper. On the rise In 1980, only about 3 percent of the furniture sold in the United States was leather. Now it's 12 percent.

Some experts say it could rise to 30 percent the same as Europe. Jennifer already owns 19 Leather stores and 55 Jennifer Convertible stores, which sell sofabeds and other home Peter J. Hall of Prudential Securities furnishings. Another 94 Jennifer Convertible Stores are owned by independent licensees. Securities research on the company is scarce because Jennifer is small revenue the fiscal year ended Aug.

31 is expected to be just $54 million. "That's under the radar of most brokerages," says Gerard McMahon, research director of Donald Co. Securities. Predictions McMahon, a longtime watcher of the company, says he thinks Jennifer could double annual revenue to $105 million in two years. The company, which has stores in 21 states, has used a clever market penetration strategy, McMahon says.

It entered Chicago, Los Angeles and other big markets with minimal investment through its licensing program. Under that program, the company operates Jennifer Convertible stores but bills licensees for operating costs such as wages and inventory. Jennifer gets 5 percent of the revenue. Now that the licensees have built brand awareness, Jennifer is expanding coverage of those markets with company-owned Jennifer Leather stores. There is competition from such stores as Sears and other retailers.

But Greenfield Bays that's welcome. The only way leather furniture can grow to 20 percent or more of the market is if mass merchandisers put their advertising muscle behind the concept, he says. Downside There is a downside to Jennifer's growth strategy. Revenue at some Convertible stores has fallen as Leather stores have moved in, which has hurt the in Marlton will answer personal finance questions on the Courier-Post's Ask the Experts program Monday. To talk to him, call 590-0351 between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m.

Items for the Newsmakers column should be sent to Business Editor Peter Van Allen, Courier-Post, P.O. Box 5300, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08034. Because of the volume of material, submissions cannot be tracked. Photos will not be returned.

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