CmPA'S WMBEi ONE JEWISH IMDUSTRiAllST SPEAKS ABODl HIMSELF
PAGES FROM AN
The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, April 2,1971-Page 9
BARBADOS CEMETERY TO BE RESTORED
This week we look at the - operations of Distillers Corporation - Seagrams Limited throughout the world.
The entire Industry well remembers what happened as a resalt of our waiting for our blended whisi<eys to mature. In just 60 days we were able to tell the public that these blended whiskeys were outselling all others throughout the country. "THANKS A MILLION", we told our American consumers in newspaper advertsiements in early November, "you have made the Seagram Crown Whiskeys Number One in America .,.".
Not only had we become NumberOne in America then, but we have remained Number One ever since.
The isatisfaction of this achievement gave rise to another step. As the one distiller selling blends against straights, it seemed advisable to provide active intercompany competition and put more salesmen and more distributors to work.
So Calvert Special and Calvert Reserve were introduced as a new set of blentled brands from our Calvert distillery. The taste and quality of our blends, containing fine old matured whiskies were so pleasing to the consumer that our business continued to grow, day by day.
In addition to plants, inventory and policy-making, .two other vital aspects of the business were administration and sales. They were inter-related with policy, of course, and they depended for much of their success on a choice of the right people.
One day in December, 1933, General Frank R. Schwen-gel called on me to solicit our advertising account. During our discussions I became so impressed with his obvious integrity, perSonaUty and knowledge, that I invited him to join us as vice-president and director of sales.
The General accepted and asked me for my thinking a-bout volume of sales so that he could plan the size of the sales organization required. My answer was five million cases to start with.
The General was quite surprised. The following day he came back, to see me to inquire if I was really serious. I told him I had never been more serious. In later years, when we were shipping over 20 million cases, 1 swore 1 would never underestimate our sales again.
General Schweiigel came to the reborn Industry in the United States when it was in a most critical pioneering era. Optional paths, some leading to chaos, others to stability, faced Industry leaders. There was no unanimity of thought. With remarkable frequency his views-which history has proven the most statesmanlike of all alternatives-prevailed in Industry councils.
He Was, for our Company, and o'ften for the entire
EIGHTHIH A SERIES
Industry, a spokesman of impeccable judgrnent, a man whose presence inspired confidence and respect.
He was instrumental in creating one of the basic tenets of our Company's philosophy: "A fair profit to the wholesaler, a fair profit '-^ the retailer, arid a fair price to the consumer". His concept put its impress on our Company, and through it, on the course of the Industry itself. " Last year, especially for General Schwengel, who will be 85 this year, we created, in bur parent Company, the new office of Honorary Director. The General also continues to-serve as vice-president of D.C.-S.L. and as chairman of Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc.
I have often said that when I first went into business in America, I brought with me the great name of Seagram, the finest inventory of matured whisky and "Fischel the redhead".
When the late Victor Fischel arrived in New York, I handed him over to the General who developed him into a great sales manager. When the General became president of Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc., Victor Fischel later replaced him as the head of the Seagram sales organization and did a great job.
But I gave Victor some pretty stiff competition when I brought William W. Wachtel. into our firm to head our Calvert sales organization. These two great rnen, and their selling organizations, did such a vigorous job of competing with each other that for years I could state that in many markets where Calvert was first, Seagram was second.
In those days it was quite customary, now and again, for the General, Jim Friel, Vic Fischel, Bill Wachtel, my brother Allan and I, to go out to lunch to various restaurants. There I obsei^fe^jjj^and women enjoying too freely the new liberty of legal drinking. ^
This disturbed me greatly. As distillers, I felt that we should issue a warning. Accordingly, I asked our advertising agency to prepare an advertisement, the heading of which was to state, "We who make whiskey say 'Drink moderately'."
This advertisement, which appeared in leading newspapers across the country, had a startling impact. We received over 150,000 complimentary letters. Hundreds of approving editorials appeared. There were even sermons from pulpits praising our message. People everywhere in America were surprised that a distiller would take such a forthright position.
We have continued to this day with similar moderation messages such as our'New Year's ads concerning drinking and driving, and our Father's Day ads concerning the responsibility of fathers teaching their children the importance of moderation.
In 1936, We began construction of our beautiful plant in Louisville, Kentucky. Today this plant is the show place, not only of our Company, but of th^entire Industry.
My brother Harry was then in charge of the operation
by Samuel y Broriiman i
of our LaSalle distillery at Montreal and also looked after: the operation of our distillery at Lawrenceburg, Indiana. At the' same time he took charge of building our new distil- i lery in Louisville. To do all' this required a great deal of travel back and forth and naturally he found this very tiring. It was necessary, therefore, to find an experienced executive not only to relieve Harry of his arduous, travel but to take complete charge of all our U.S. production^ operations.
While on a trip to Scotland in 1936 1 had the pleasure of meeting Frederick WUlkie, well-known distillery executive. He was very keen oh research and was interested in joining bur Company because he had heard that I, too, was. ~ very-much interested in any and -all research pertaining to making better quality products.
As mentioned earlier, I do not approve of blending with -white (unaged),spirits. I had hoped,"as time went on, to build a sufficient-inventory of spirits in wood (oak barrels) so that we could carry on our blending~on the same basis as we did in Canada and Scotland.
Fortunately, J had built a sizeable inventory of spirits; in wood in America before the war. This inventory did much to keep our quality high and uniform through all the years of shortages. Now that the war was over, we had an oppor-" tunity to build very large stocks of spirits in wood. To that end I greatly increased our U.S. production. We built many new warehouses and eventually we had over 125 million gallons of spirits in wood, sufficient for a four to five-year supply. . '
Thus we were able to blend with aged spirits which had been in oak barrels for a minimum of four years. Even though the U.S. Government regulations would not permit distillers to claim or mention iii advertising, or on labels, the length of time spirits were matured in wood, I knew the quality was there and, obviously so did the public.
Up to this time, through all the years since Repeal, we had refused to join in the straight whiskey business because, to have done so, we would have had to sell young, immature whiskeys.
Now, however, with sufficient stocks built up, we could put fully matured straight whiskey into our bottles. We therefore set up a straight whiskey company under Frankfort Distillers which today sells straight bourbon whiskeys from five to ten years old.
Earlier I mentioned th^t Fred Willkie was.instrumental in developing our research department. Today this department, with its headquarters in Louisville; Kentucky, is headed by Dr. Arthur Andreasen who reports to Dr. Stuart Adams, our technical director in New York.
In 1936 the department included four scientists; by 1939 there were eight. With in two years new laboratories were constructed, equipped and staffed with 15 scientists grouped into Engineering, Fermenting and Chemistry di-
Veneniela, (JCNS). - Plans are nov under way for the: restoration of the Jewish cemetery bri the Wiest Indian island of Barbados. This burial' ground, one of the oWest in the New Worlds willbeoM of a growing numlier of early
Sephardi cemeteries being : rescued from neglect
Uiider the stimulus of Mr. Jacob Doron, the Israel Ambassador to Venezuela and Barbados, and a group of local Jews, Rabbi Isidore Aizenberg of Caracas re-
cently visited Bridgetown to examine the conduion of the cemetery. During his visit he was received by the Prime' Minister/ Mr. Errol Barrow,' who expressed, his government's interiest in the project.
visions.
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