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Troy-based Handleman Co. is back on track after quickly carrying out its latest strategic plan, President and CEO Stephen Strome told shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Troy last Thursday afternoon.
He laid out the three key parts of the plan, which management started plotting early in fiscal 1994:
* To build the core business of rack jobbing -- or supplying recorded videos, music, books and software to mass merchants and managing store displays and inventory.
* To grow geographically and through new-business development.
* To expand its stable of proprietary products.
"We've made significant progress in fiscal 1995 in those areas," Strome said.
Although profitable last year, Strome said, fiscal 1994, which ended April 30, was a disappointment. Handleman posted net income of $27.6 million on net sales of $1 billion -- both lower than the previous year. But he said significant action on the strategic plan pushed Handleman's latest-quarter sales to $212 million, a first-quarter record. That's 10 percent higher than the year-ago period, when sales were $194 million.
Handleman made a flurry of announcements...