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Along the way, the chairman has shown a refreshing tendency to get out of any business that was unsuccessful—or that merely seemed ripe for sale at a profitable price. Dart started out as a drugstore clerk and rose to become general manager of the Walgreen drug chain in nine years; then he moved on through other executive posts in the drug business and wound up as chairman of the Rexall drug chain, which he turned into the foundation of Dart Industries. That did not prevent him from selling off the Rexall stores piecemeal, until today there are only a dozen left. In 1947, Justin Dart advanced $7,000 out of his own pocket to a doctor who was working on a preparation to suppress high blood pressure; the drug turned into a steady though small seller and started Dart Industries' Riker Laboratories ethical-drug operation. But in 1970, he sold Riker Laboratories to the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. for 3M stock worth a handsome $150 million. Dart has since sold most of the stock for a profit-$10 million in 1972 alone.
Low Profile. Even now Justin Dart, a ruggedly handsome, 66-year-old, former All-Big Ten football guard from Northwestern, maintains that any of Dart Industries' divisions are for sale "if the price is right." Conversely, he is looking for profitable acquisitions but pledges that they will be "low profile" so as not to rile the Justice Department. In the interim he has designed an unusual management structure: Chairman Dart declines to appoint a president, holding that position himself and relying on seven group presidents who enjoy great autonomy. Says the blunt-spoken Justin Dart: "I don't have time to louse up the operating groups and I am the only one who can do it."