225 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60601; 312-819-2020
COMPANY
Founded: 1986
Year-end: June 30
Employees: 2,143; 401 in Illinois
Foreign sales: 4 percent of $727.4 million
Stock 365-day close:
High: $41.125
Low: $25.50
April 28: $39.875
April 1, 1995 value of $1,000 in company stock
Purchased 1994: $1,234.36
Purchased 1990: N.A.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Robert E. Fowler Jr., 59, since 1994
Cash compensation: $576,351
Options granted in 1994: $838,631
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised in 1994: None
Shares owned: 22,981 of 19.7 million
Like most commodity businesses, fertilizer has it ups and downs, and prices of the major nutrients can move in opposite directions. For the last year, the entire sector has moved higher, thanks both to demand and supply.
Vigoro’s nitrogen business has profited because companies can’t keep up with demand, driving prices sharply higher. U.S. demand isn’t expected to drop much, even though corn planting will shrink this year. Potash demand is growing thanks mainly to China’s recognition that it can increase food production only with use of fertilizer.
The company, which is part of Chicago financier Sam Zell’s wide-ranging portfolio, also has been growing through acquisitions, including the 39 retail outlets of Mid-Ohio Cos. and the production facilities of Central Canada Potash.
———-
The Tribune’s business reporting staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 28, 1995.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Dow Jones News/Retrieval, an on-line service of Dow Jones & Co., New York.
– Bloomberg Business News, New York.
– TMS Stocks, a subsidiary of Tribune Media Services Inc., a unit of Tribune Co., Chicago.
– Morningstar Inc., Chicago.
– “First Chicago Guide,” published by Scholl Communications, Deerfield.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
Each profile includes the 365-day high, low and April 28, 1995, closing stock price for the company. Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago also are shown. The date on which those calculations are based is April 1. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
Each profile includes the chief executive’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1994, along with the change from the prior year. The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
