Chairman McBain States Fields
Will Concentrate On Retailing
Hughston M. McBain, chairman of
Marshall Field & Company, has con
firmed the sale or Fieldcrest Mills,
textile manufacturing division of the
company, to a new corporation called
Fieldcrest Mills Inc^ formed by a
group of Eastern financiers.
The reason for the sale, Mr. McBain
said, was “to permit Field’s to con
centrate its attention on retailing.”
The need to make retailing its only
concern, Mr. McBain pointed out,
came out of the expanding nature of
the company’s retail business.
“The sizeable amount of capital we
gain as a result of this sale,” Mr. Mc
Bain stated, “will be utilized in large
part for retail expansion, including the
announced Milwaukee and Old Orch
ard suburban shopping center units.”
Jobs Undisturbed
“The sale of the mills has been ar
ranged so that it will not disturb the
jobs of any Fieldcrest employees,” Mr.
McBain said. “The change in owner
ship should benefit the employees to
the same degree that it will Marshall
Field & Cornpany and the new own
ers.”
McBain said that the new owners
have agreed to maintain the mills’
;ervires to all customers as in the past.
“It was important to us that Fieldcrest
customers be provided for,” he said,
“and particularly that the new owners
agree to maintain the same quality
lines of manufacture that have char
acterized our mills through the years.
Service and Quality
“Our long association with and
knowledge of some of the principals
in this transaction assures us that
Fieldcrest employees and customers,
as well as the buying public, will con
tinue to have the best service and
quality. A good many years of effort
and research have gone into the
products and marketing techniques of
Fieldcrest Mills. We are anxious that
they be continued.”
Also important in the sale, said Mc
Bain, was the presence of a purchaser
willing to accept and carry on the
same high employment standards and
program of employee benefits that
made Fieldcrest Mills a model in the
textile industry.
The sale provides that Fieldcrest
employees will not lose any benefits
of the Field retirement program. To.
this end, McBain said, all the money
thus far paid into the Field pension
and annuity funds on behalf of the
mill employees will be held in separ
ate trusts for their sole benefit.
Through the sale, the new owners
will acquire the nine modern mills in
HUGHSTON M. BcBAIN
. . . Chairman
Marshall Field & Company
Virginia and North Carolina that make
up Fieldcrest, and also the name
brands—Fieldcrest, Karastan, La
France and others—of all Fieldcrest
products.
The company’s program for retail
expansion, Mr. McBain explained,
made it increasingly difficult in recent
years for Field’s to give the manufac
turing division its proper place in the
total corporate setup.
Expansion Noted
Included in this expansion program,
Mr. McBain noted, were the spending
of 22.5 million dollars since 1946 to
improve the Chicago and suburban re
tail stores; the recent 10 million dollar
modernization and enlargement of
Frederick and Nelson, Field’s store in
Seattle, Wash.; the projected Old Orch-
and shopping center to be built in
Skokie, 111.; and the Milwaukee subur
ban shopping center store to be built
in Wauwatosa, Wise., which was an
nounced earlier this year.
“In contrast to this retail expan
sion,” Mr. McBain said, “the role of
manufacturing has become less and
less vital to our company. Our own
wholesale division used to absorb most
of the mills’ output. When the whole
sale division was liquidated in 1936
and 1937, our need for the mills began
to diminish. Our retail divisions have
in recent years taken less than five
Service Anniversatij
Thirty-Five Years J
Josie C. Wickham, Bleac>'‘
Thirty Years
Irene M. Freeman,
Twenty Years
Betty H. Turner, Kar^^
David W. Aderhold,
James Shephard Sharpe, ... Kar^
Wilham V. Hall, ... Synthetic
Lula L. Roberts, Kal^
Fifteen Years
Clara H. Berrier, SW®^
Mary T. Winn, TD
Ten Years
Dorothy W. Murphy,
Julia P. Murphy,
W. Oscar Dodson,
Lottie E. Calhoun, .... Central
Nelda C. Coward, Central
Minter W. Johnson, Fini;
Clifton E. Spencer,
James E. Martin, Central
Homer I. Fain
Agnes B. Maloy, N. Y-
Organization Chan^^
Pictures above show J. F.
(left), formerly head of the Tab^'j
Department who has been apP®,
chief accountant of Fieldcrest MilJ® ,
ceeding the late Carl Hoehl; and 'j
Spaugh, head of the Accounting ^
ods Department, who will temp”T
act as head of the Tabulating
ment.
At Fort Lee
Pvt. David E. Alley, who entered^
tary service June 11, is station
Fort Lee, Va. Following complet^^
his high school studies, young All®;
tended Piedmont Bible College iP
ston-Salem for two years. He 3
time was
in Bedspread
I ing. His father, ^
; Alley, works in ,
spread Wrappi/JJ
Central Ware**,
Pvt. Alley was j
ried September |
the former
neva Gilley of
ville, who is
him at Fort Lem
per cent of the mills’ products.”
FIELDCREST MILL W H I S I"