Friday, May. 15, 1964
COCA-COLA CO.'s expansion plans have recently put it into the orange-juice, diet-pop and instant-tea business. Last week Coke announced a new addition that fits in with what President J. Paul Austin calls its new "total refreshment" concept. It acquired Houston's Duncan Foods Co., purveyors of coffee under a number of brand names (Fleetwood, Butter-Nut, Admiration). Austin, 49, who joined Coca-Cola's legal department in 1949 and was named president two years ago, sees the merger as another step toward Coke's first $1 billion year (1963 sales: $637,424,475). A Harvardman ('37), Austin started out selling light bulbs door to door in La Grange, Ga., later crewed on the U.S. team in the 1936 Olympics. One of the youngest presidents Coke has ever had, he spends long hours earning his $100,000 a year. The pause that refreshes has meaning for him, but anything longer seems out: he last took a vacation 13 years ago. Austin's quick pace and the company's new concept mix well: for the first quarter, earnings are up 21%.
MELVIN H. BAKER personally sold $1,000,000 worth of stock to set up National Gypsum Co. 39 years ago in a ramshackle Buffalo building. At 78, Baker is still going strong--and so is Gypsum, whose $250 million sales in 1963 make it a giant in the building-products industry. Baker can be harshly protective toward his creation: he once abolished a whole department for socializing on the job. But the Tennessee-born onetime beaverboard salesman softens over children, spends Sundays entertaining his six grandchildren at his Buffalo penthouse. He also has solid business reasons for liking kids: more babies mean more homes, more schools and greater demand for his 350 products, which range from cement to ceramic tile. And that means more plants. Having just returned from California, where he inspected Gypsum's first plant in the West, Baker last week flew to Jackson, Tenn., to celebrate the opening of Gypsum's 72nd plant, which will provide jobs for hundreds of young Tennesseans.
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