Family-held J.W. Allen & Co., a 118-year-old Wheeling-based firm in the bakery-goods and ingredients business, has sold out to Rich Products Corp. of Buffalo.
Employees in Wheeling and at another Allen plant, in Morristown, Tenn., earlier this week were advised of the acquisition, mindful that the company in the past had been approached many times by other prospective buyers.
Allen, a supplier to in-store bakeries, will finish 1999 with estimated sales of $110 million.
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Rich, also family held, is a factor in food service, a top producer of desserts and bakery supplies with annual volume pushing $1.5 billion. Rich also owns the Coffee Rich brand name, which has been licensed for non-dairy creamers, currently a near-$30 million business at retail.
Allen and Rich compete in certain baked products, but volume involved is neglible.
Details of the transaction weren’t disclosed, but cash was involved.
J.W. Allen was owned by the Allen family, including J. William “Bill” Allen Jr., chairman, president and chief executive, and his brother Doug, vice president-purchasing.
Both will maintain their current positions under multiyear management contracts.
As a Rich family “sideline,” there is a separate Rich Baseball Operations, which owns three minor-league baseball teams, including the Buffalo Bisons of the Class AAA International League. Rich also once had the naming rights to the stadium where the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League now play.
Headhunting: Northwestern Memorial Hospital thought it had one of two key outside searches completed when it put out an internal announcement last week naming a University of Minnesota executive as its new VP-finance, a post reporting to Gene Principi, senior vice president-finance. The outsider, recruited by Heidrick & Struggles, was identified as Georgina Stephens, an associate vice president in the office of the treasurer at the university in Minneapolis. However, “we couldn’t close the deal,” now says Paul Maddrell, senior VP-corporate strategy at the hospital. Other candidates for the finance post are being evaluated. Separately, Northwestern has a search under way for a new top marketing-public relations chief, and executive recruiter Korn/Ferry International will present a list of prospective candidates to Maddrell on Nov. 19. Robyn Radomski, VP-marketing, PR and physician services, resigned the post in June after 15 months at Northwestern. The hospital had previously used Korn/Ferry in the hiring of Radomski. Stu Greenblatt, whom Radomski recruited in early May as director of media relations, last week also left the hospital.
– Hilton Chicago and Towers, Palmer House Hilton and the Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport picked Bozell Chicago for local-market advertising (including media), promotional support and strategic planning. These three Hiltons are owned by Hilton Hotels Corp., based in Beverly Hills, Calif., which had been using Bozell’s Costa Mesa, Calif., and London offices for global advertising. Sister agency Foote, Cone & Belding recently took over those offices and Hilton’s global account.
– BP Amoco assigned advertising to the African-American market in the U.S. to Carol H. Williams Advertising, of Oakland, which succeeds Vince Cullers Advertising of Chicago. The Oakland agency is headed by former Chicagoan Carol Williams, who once worked at Leo Burnett Co., which along with Doner of Southfield, Mich., is also now a BP Amoco agency.
– Gary London, recently a senior account manager in Business Week’s Los Angeles ad sales office, becomes a VP and Midwest regional sales director based in Chicago for the weekly.
Oops: The gremlins were at work in Wednesday’s column. Because of a production error, photos were inadvertently switched. Christina Johnson, soon-to-be chief executive of the 59 stores under the Saks Fifth Avenue banner, should have appeared toward the top of the column, in the main story on her promotion. The photo of Jamie Walters should have appeared near the bottom of the column in an item on his appointment as VP-sales and marketing for Adam’s Mark Hotels & Resorts, a St. Louis-based chain. Christina and Jamie, congratulations on your new jobs.
Strictly Personal: Birthday greetings to Jeff Harmet, 40 (Wilson Sporting Goods); retired adman Lee King, 80; Jill Rodkin, 30; Devra Shutan, 30; Kerri Fox, 24; Charles R. `Cork” Walgreen III, 64; waiter David Major, 36; and Stacy Manglaras, 32.