ANYTIMEkANYPLACEkANYWHERE - Heinz

FOND MEMORIES
AND
FAIR VOYAGE
As Shakespeare would have it, “I am sore
amazed” that more than 30 years have
passed since Burt Gookin, then President
and Chief Executive Officer, first approached me to
join the H.J. Heinz Company as Managing Director
of Heinz’s U.K. affiliate, and in succession to an
illustrious company servant, Anthony de la Poer
Beresford. I recall, as if it were only yesterday, Burt’s
persuasive accounting of the opportunities awaiting
me at one of the U.K.’s most prestigious companies.
I agreed to sign on for what I declaimed to my
father would be “a three-year tenure.” I could not
have imagined that I would spend the rest of the
century with Heinz.
Life, it is observed, is a random walk. Yet of the
many surprises that have advanced my life, none
has been so rewarding as my long association with
Heinz. For nearly two of my three decades with the
company, I had the privilege of serving as its CEO.
This coincided with a period of dramatic change,
within Heinz and the world around it:
k Revolutions in technology awakened a
cosmopolitan appetite among consumers and
enabled investors to move enormous flows
of capital across the planet in the blink of a
computer’s eye.
k The collapse of the Soviet empire and the
triumph of Western capitalism laid the groundwork
for an economy in which commerce, rather
than confrontation, would govern the allocation
of resources.
DUBLIN 5PM Heinz Chairman Anthony J.F. O’Reilly
inspects a delivery of leading Heinz brands to the
kitchen of his Castlemartin residence.
k The dissolution of national borders and trade
barriers unleashed the tremendous power, and
daunting challenge, of global competition and
shifting currency parities.
Steering Heinz through these sometimes-troubled
waters was an exhilarating experience for me and
my colleagues. Our objective was, as it remains for
today’s management, to adapt our company to
the new appetites of a rapidly changing world in
order to accelerate the growth of our brands and
enhance shareholder value.
In 1973, when I was named Heinz’s President
and Chief Operating Officer, the company’s annual
sales were $1.1 billion and its net income was $23.8
million. By 1979, when I began as CEO, sales had
doubled, to $2.5 billion, and net income stood at
$110.4 million. Today, under Bill Johnson as CEO,
Heinz’s annual sales exceed $9.4 billion and its
net income is $925 million (excluding special
items). Equally impressive, during this period,
Heinz’s market capitalization has risen twenty-fold,
from less than $700 million in 1973 to approximately
$15 billion today and, importantly, with
less shares in issue.
AT HOME AROUND THE WORLD
These results manifest the success of Heinz’s
strategy of continuous transformation to address an
ever-changing world. Foremost among these
transformations has been Heinz’s emergence as a
preeminent global food company. When I joined
the Heinz Company in May 1969, the sales were
$790 million, of which $171 million or 22% were in
the U.K. Today, the breakdown is North America
55% and Europe and the rest of the world 45%.
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