S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. has been nosing around for another major acquisition, and Wall Street sources say the target is Dow Brands.
Johnson, often called Johnson Wax, based in Racine, Wis., is said to have had some exploratory discussions with Dow Chemical Co. about its Dow Brands unit, whose most visible product is Ziploc, a $300 million-plus brand alone.
Dow Chemical is headquartered in Midland, Mich., and Dow Brands, with sales of a bit more than $1 billion annually, operates from Indianapolis.
Johnson, annual sales of $4 billion, in 1993 pulled off a huge deal, corralling Drackett Co., a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb.
That deal, for $1.15 billion, brought in such products as Windex, Drano and Vanish. Johnson later sold several other of the acquired Drackett products in the furniture-care and air freshener categories.
Windex subsequently has become the No. 1 brand at S.C. Johnson, a 111-year-old privately held company with some of the best home cleaning, personal-care and insect-control products around, including Pledge, Raid, Glade, Shout and Edge.
Johnson Wax has been seeking to expand its portfolio of products, hence its interest in Dow Brands.
But sources in New York also say that Johnson can expect competition in the shootout for Dow Brands from Procter & Gamble, a longtime competitor of the Racine firm, as well as Reckitt & Colman PLC, a British-based firm whose product lines include Airwick, Wizard, Woolite and the Love My Carpet line of products, as well as food brands such as French’s mustard.
P&G, the giant diversified sudser headquartered in Cincinnati, is said to have expressed an interest in Dow Brands, and may have made contact with Dow Chemical about availability of that unit.
U. of C. post for Channel 11 exec: Tessa Burton, recently vice president for viewer marketing at WTTW-TV Ch. 11, is the new chief marketing officer for the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Her appointment, announced Monday, concludes a four-month search. She’ll report to Robert S. Hamada, dean of the graduate school, which is seeking a program to differentiate itself from other top-tier business schools. Burton, who expects to join U. of C. in November, says the U. of C. business school has “a strong sense of its own identity,” which she hopes can be leveraged in a marketing program. Her background includes stints in ad agencies and marketing firms. At WTTW, Burton had reported to Bob Mauro, executive VP. Other appointments: Ann Murphy, formerly PR manager of Alberto-Culver Co., to Porter/Novelli Chicago as a management supervisor . . . In New York, Michael Clinton, a former top executive of Conde Nast Publications, where he once was publisher of its GQ magazine, is joining rival Hearst Magazines as senior VP-chief marketing officer, a new post.
Courting Tennis: There’s definitely a Chicago “spin” to the acquisition of Tennis in the New York Times Co.’s sale of that magazine along with Snow Country, Cruising World and Sailing World to Miller Publishing Group in Los Angeles. Tennis was founded in Chicago in 1965 by Asher Birnbaum, who sold it to NYT in 1972. Birnbaum continued as publisher of Tennis for seven years, then got involved with North Shore magazine, itself a recent acquisition of Hollinger International’s Pioneer Press. Birnbaum recalls that Billboard and CBS Inc. also sought to acquire Tennis, then a 50,000 circulation monthly and now at 750,000.
– Young & Rubicam Inc.’s Burson-Marsteller public relations unit hired veteran advertising executive Graham Phillips as its new chairman. Phillips, 58, a former chairman-CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, who recently has run a marketing-management consulting business from Santa Barbara, Calif., will report to Tom Bell, 47, president-CEO of Burson, a Manhattan-based PR firm that has a major office in Chicago. Phillips picks up the chairmanship of Burson-Marsteller from Harold Burson, 76, who will become founding chairman, a post he previously held. Phillips had worked for Ogilvy for 28 years. Phillips, whose appointment is effective Nov. 1, will be based in New York, as are Bell and Harold Burson.
Strictly Personal: Birthday greetings to Alan Maites, 39; Susan Cartland, 32; O.J. Sopranos, 62; Richard L. Duchossois, 76; Michael Stout, 39; Jeff Diemand, 41; Al DeVaney, 48 (WPWR-TV); Dick Giesen, 68 (Continental Glass & Plastic).
Today’s Thought: Could the Bears go 0-14 just like the Cubs did in opening their 1997 season? After all, both are of the same animal genre. Ugh!
