Small Distributor CEO Summit a Success
Twenty-two distributors from across the country met Feb. 10-13 for the Small Distributor CEO Summit, hosted by FormStore® Incorporated in Fenton, Mo. Attendees discussed the future of the industry and how small distributors can position themselves to succeed.
"This whole market has changed in the past six or seven years," said Mark McKinney, president of Dayton, Ohio, distributorship Celtic Marketing Inc. and co-organizer of the event. He said he was eager to attend the summit because he's "looking for help in how to grow."
Attendees began formulating their ideas for the summit on DMIA's members-only broadcast email system. Presentations during the event addressed better ways to serve customers, new approaches to sales and marketing, and how to take advantage of DMIA's services.
Kicking off the meeting, Paul Keith, CEO of Best Business Systems, Bowling Green, Ky., proposed a new, small-distributor alliance in which forms distributors would create an organization to lower costs, learn from each other and grow together. Paul Edwards, president of FormStore Incorporated and sponsor of the Summit, told the group the key to rapid growth is to become very adept at selling a particular product. "Pick something new and exciting with value added that not everyone else has," he said.
Court: Resentence Convicted Company, Execs
A federal appeals court ordered resentencing for a Taiwanese corporation and two of its executives convicted of stealing trade secrets about adhesives from Pasadena, Calif.-based supplier Avery Dennison Corp., according to the Associated Press.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld the convictions of Four Pillars Enterprise Co. Ltd. and the executives, but sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus in Youngstown, Ohio, for resentencing. Appeals judges ruled that Economus failed to explain why he gave the two executives relatively light penalties according to sentencing guidelines, while fining the company the maximum amount allowed by law ($5 million).
Pin Yen Yang, former chief executive of Four Pillars, was sentenced to six months of home confinement, fined the maximum $250,000 and placed on probation for 18 months. His daughter, Hwei-Chen "Sally" Yang, a former Four Pillars executive, was fined $5,000 and received one year of probation. Federal prosecutors had objected when Yang and his daughter did not receive any prison time.
The government's key witness, Victor Lee, an Avery Dennison research scientist from Taiwan, testified that he provided Four Pillars with confidential information from 1989 until 1997. Lee said Four Pillars paid him at least $25,000 for the information. The trial evidence included a videotape the FBI secretly made of a September 1997 meeting between Lee and the Yangs, in which Sally Yang cut the "confidential" stamp off an Avery Dennison report. Pin Yen Yang then instructed Lee to dispose of the clipping.
Distributor Guilty of Fraud, Vandalism Case Updated
An Arab-American distributor who said his company was vandalized in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was found guilty of bank and wire fraud Feb. 12 by a federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska.
Nezar "Mike" Maad, owner of Frontier Printing Services in Anchorage, was found guilty of two counts of bank fraud, one count of wire fraud and two counts of lying to the government in connection with bank and U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loan applications. Prosecutors said he lied on the applications by not disclosing that he filed for bankruptcy in 1986 and was convicted of shoplifting in 1986 and 1993. Prosecutors also said that Maad falsified reports of company assets as well as statements about money he had in the bank. In January, the remaining assets of Maad's business were sold at auction, but most of the $242,000 SBA loan is unpaid. Maad's sentencing is scheduled for this month.
In late September, Maad reported half a million dollars in damages after his business apparently was vandalized and anti-Arab graffiti was scrawled on a wall. Soon after, Anchorage citizens created the Not In Our Town Fund to help Maad. Federal investigators now say Maad and his wife are principal suspects in the damaging of their own print shop for insurance money. The company closed in December.
Update: Ammon Murder Case
The widow of the Moore Corp. Ltd. executive who was murdered last October recently married the electrical contractor who installed the security system at the estate where the murder occurred, according to the Feb. 11 issue of People Weekly.
Robert Theodore Ammon, a non-executive chairman at Moore Corp. Ltd., was 52 at the time of his death. He was found beaten to death in a bedroom of the family's summer house in East Hampton, N.Y. Police have no suspects in the case. They said robbery had not been ruled out as a motive, but the house did not appear to have been ransacked.
According to published reports, Ammon's body was discovered in a bedroom of the home after he missed a meeting and a business associate went there by helicopter to look for him. There was no sign of forced entry and nothing was stolen. Neither Ammon's sophisticated alarm system, nor his three dogs gave any warning, neighbors said. The killer escaped with the murder weapon, leaving a trail of blood.
Ammon and his wife, Generosa, were separated at the time of the slaying. According to People Weekly, Generosa, 45, had been dating Daniel Pelosi, 35, for several months prior to the murder. Pelosi, the magazine said, is a divorced father of three.
Ammon was elected as a non-executive chairman at Moore in 2001 and wasn't involved in the firm's day-to-day business. He was founder and chairman of investment firm Chancery Lane Capital, a company in which Robert G. Burton, Moore's CEO and president, is an investor.
Jury Rules Against Champion Industries
A jury in Jackson, Miss., awarded plaintiffs approximately $2.5 million in a civil suit against Huntington, W.Va.-based commercial printer and office products supplier Champion Industries Inc.
The plaintiffs asserted that Champion Industries and its Dallas Printing Co. subsidiary engaged in unfair competition and other wrongful acts when hiring certain employees. The jury awarded the plaintiffs $1.7 million in actual damages and $750,000 in punitive damages, the company said. Champion plans to appeal the verdict.
Paris to Go Private
Burlington, N.J.-based Paris Corp., the parent company of manufacturer Paris Business Products, announced a self-tender offer to purchase all outstanding shares and take the company private. It said it will buy shares at $4.50 each, net in cash to the sellers. Paris Corp.'s board of directors approved the tender and recommended that stockholders accept the offer. The offer is intended to represent a first step in a transaction through which Paris Corp's senior vice president, Gerard Toscani, will take the company private.
Source4 Acquires Reliance Client List
Roanoke, Va.-based distributorship Source4 Inc. acquired the complete client/account list of distributorship Reliance Printing Company Inc., Canton, Mass.
W. Charles Calman, President of Source4 Inc.—Northeast, and DMIA's 1999-2000 president, said that Lee Greenblatt, previously vice president of sales at Reliance Printing, has joined Source4's team. Greenblatt and the remaining Reliance employees plan to relocate to Source4's Stoughton, Mass., facility.
Source4 is composed of distributorships APS Direct, Available Business Group, Dominion Solutions, Emerald Solutions In Print and PSI Group Inc.
