Sales Department

The Sales Department, under the direction of Mr. Lawrence LeKashman, Vice President for Sales, is divided into two sections.

Distribution sales account for two-thirds of our volume. We have 1,200 accounts and sell to almost every distributor that we feel meets our standards from the standpoint of credit and ethical operation.

Export has been handled by Rocke International Corporation, New York, for over twenty years.

Broadly speaking, our policy has been to sell and advertise aggressively through the years. Mr. LeKashman, who cam to us from RCA, has added impetus, yet keeping within our budget related to sales. We are liberal with respect to returns, adjustments and repair charges.

Jobber sales are under Mr. W.F. Soules, Sales Manager, who has been with E-V since 1945. He holds a B.S.E.E. from the University of Minnesota. Original equipment sales are directed by Mr. Howard Durbin, B.S.E.E. from Purdue University. Mr. Durbin, formerly with RCA, is a competent engineer as well as a salesman and has developed a personal relationship with out original equipment customers. He has been with us seven years.

Mr. George Riley, B.S.R.E. Tri-State College is Sales Administrator, assisting Mr. LeKashman. His length of service if five years.

Sales to jobbers is made through twenty-two commissioned representative organizations in all principle cities with exception of Chicago and the state of Michigan, which we cover with our own salaried people.

Production

Actual production is headed by Mr. Fred Lester, who was formerly General Manager of the Meissner Company. Four department heads report directly to him and the usual chain of management extends down to working group leaders.

Mr. Lester is highly respected as an experienced and efficient manufacturing executive. His assistants are people who have come up through the plant into administrative positions.

Material control is under the direction of Mr. J.N. Grieveson. He has wide experience in the industry, is a capable engineer and has done a fine job in holding inventory at a favorable turnover rate.

Administration

Accounting, coordination of administrative functions, scheduling of production, labor contractual relations and general manager of operations is vested in Mr. Robert Siekman, Executive Vice President. Mr. Siekman joined the company in 1940 when we had fifteen people and carried the manufacturing load during the war years. Our excellent history of labor relations are a tribute to his negotiating skill and the ability to maintain respect and trust of the Union (I.U.E.-C.I.O.)

Mr. Richard Colip, Treasurer, B.S. Indiana University, is in change of general accounting and office functions.

Cost accounting is handled by Mr. Ted Faber, B.S.E.E. Wisconsin. Mr. Faber has had a fine background of production, purchasing and engineering at E-V and has made important contributions in his present position.

We feel sure that our business is in reasonably good balance. If anything, production is lagging behind sales, engineering, and our growth of working capital. Even so, our manufacturing volume will be a million dollars ahead of the last fiscal year when it ends February 28.

Physical Assets

Our fixed asset account is $174,324. An appraisal as of February 28, 1953, made by American Appraisal Company lists the following as cost of reproduction.

Buildings $383,204
Machinery & Equip. 613,290
Cars & Trucks 14,525

Total 1,011,019

This includes railroad sidings which will be abandoned to provide space for construction of a new Plating and Finishing Department. This is valued at $7,029.

The plant consists of approximately 40,000 square feet located on thirteen acres of land within the City of Buchanan.

Intangibles

Engineering cost is traditionally 5 percent of sales. Some of this is recovered through research contracts. However, from 150-200 hundred thousand dollars have been spent annually which has given us our present product excellence, and in addition, a reservoir of commercial ideas from which products of the future will emerge.

Patents are also expensed. Some of these have little value, others a great deal. Some are in the nature of protective patents. Ware are not now in litigation, nor is there the threat of litigation. Several patents in pendency may have immense commercial value.

Good Will

Good will, too, is difficult to measure, except by the growth and acceptability of E-V through the years. Our integrity, financial standing, product design, customer relations and stability are beyond question. Our increase in volume from $714, 000 in 1948 to over $4,000,000 in eight years must mean that people like to do business with us and like our products.

Future Products

We have found strength in diversification. New Product lines have added to, rather than detracted from existing items.

Microphones are our product backbone in stability and earnings. They are known the world over to be of first quality and to reflect engineering leadership. We intend to hold and improve, if possible, our position through continued research and product design.

The field includes the following:
Broadcast ant telecast
Public Address and paging
Home recording and professional recording
Amateur and point-to-point
Airline and private plane
Taxi, bus and truck
Military and civilian police
Dictating machine equipment

Phonograph cartridges are used by the hundreds of thousands annually. We are tooling a new cartridge which will be mass produced at low cost, which is protected by patents and will sell in high volume. We already have tentative commitments by several of America’s largest users. We further expect to substantially increase our sales in the high fidelity market with the E-V Ultra-Linear Cartridge, which has just been announced.

Loudspeaker research has brought us up to one of the two top producers in the Hi-Fi field. We are introducing several new models which will complete our line. If we can provide production capacity, we anticipate that we will be the leading producer by this time next year.

An Electronic Department was established several years ago. This group has brought forth several interesting commercial items. One of them is an amplifier circuit, conceived by A.M. Wiggins, which has basic features that appear patentable. This amplifier produces superior performance at lower cost of manufacturing than any other circuit now in use.

The amplifier line is in the product development stage and will be produced in our Peoria plant. It will be shown to the trade at the May Show. We anticipate sales in excess of $300,000 our first year. Further, we probably will license several other manufacturers.

The Peoria plant (RME Division) is one which produces communication receivers, but for the past year has concentrated on accessories. We have a new receiver in design, which should have an exceptionally fine sale. Other products are listed in the RME catalogue.