Harris Teeter 1998 Annual Report Download - page 19

17
This Is Ruddick.
1998 Annual Report
What do you consider to be A&E’s
greatest strengths?
Our people are our single greatest strength.
They are dedicated, skilled and experienced.
The fact that we faced the worst financial
worldwide crisis of the decade as well as a
slowing of U.S. unit sales and were able to still
produce an operating margin of 11.8% for the
year demonstrates our ability to respond
rapidly in a changing environment and make
the hard decisions that helped us protect our
bottom line. In addition, we focus daily on
ways to improve efficiency, by using Total
Quality Management, leveraging labor and
capital and continually expanding the scope of
our research and development efforts.
Fred Jackson
President of American & Efird
A&E utilizes a combination of
carriers and our own fleet of
trucks to ensure the timely
delivery of thread that our cus-
tomers have come to expect.
production planning, replenishment and
distribution. As a result, the company
reduced inventories in 1998 by 15%.
Further synergies and improvements in
customer service are expected to be real-
ized in fiscal 1999. In order to better
service A&E’s expanding business in
Mexico and Latin America, two new distri-
bution centers in Mexico were opened.
Opportunities
While short-term growth in the indus-
trial thread market is anticipated to be
relatively modest, A&E intends to improve
both our domestic and foreign market
shares. By identifying and serving our cus-
tomers’ changing needs, we will continue
to evaluate international markets that we
can profitably penetrate, through joint
ventures, acquisitions or wholly owned
start-up companies.
Q
A