Corporations: Closing the Profit Gap

While many businessmen groan about "profitless prosperity," one manufacturer of everything from manure spreaders to nose cones has reversed the trend: profits are rising despite slipping sales at New York's Avco Corp. Last week Chairman Kendrick R. Wilson, 48, a onetime Wall Streeter told a luncheon of securities analysts that Avco's earnings for the first nine months of its fiscal year jumped 20% to $8,800,000, though sales slumped 3% to $234 million. As soon as Wilson sat down, his good friend, President James R. Kerr, 44, got up and explained how Avco turned the trick: "We have done so by...

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