PERRY TARGETS Rxs, AUTO PARTS FOR 50% OF SALES BY 1990

PERRY TARGETS Rxs, AUTO PARTS FOR 50% OF SALES BY 1990, according to remarks made by Chairman and CEO Jack Robinson at a recent security analysts meeting in Chicago. Discussing key points of the drug chain's five-year plan, which includes a 20% annual sales growth, Robinson said, "We have set a corporate objective to have prescriptions and auto parts account for 50% of our total sales." Fore the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 1984, Rx drugs made up 18% and auto parts 22% of Perry's $372mil. corporate volume, for a combined total of about $150 mil. A 20% compounded growth rate would make Perry a $1 bil. plus company by 1990 and require sales in these two business segments to increase roughly 3-1/2 times to $550 mil. by that time, or at a rate or roughly 25% per year. The company's strategic plan also calls for a 15% increase in its store court annually. "During the present fiscal year, not including acquisitions, we intend to open 15 drugstores of various types and 30 auto part stores and expand our home health care and clinical laboratory businesses," Robinson stated. Currently, Perry operates 360 drugstores and discount auto parts stores in eight midwestern states. The total includes 123 conventional drugstores, 62 drug/home center combos, four A.L. Price deep discount outlets and 17 Auto Works auto parts stores. During the last year, Perry expanded its Michigan presence with the purchase of the 12-store Cook drug chain and the 27-store Apex chain ("The Pink Sheet" Sept. 16, T&G-1). Robinson noted that in fiscal 1984 Perry launched into the home health care business, which like Rxs and auto parts offers high margins and good growth potential. "While avoiding the labor-intensive aspects of the business, we have positioned ourselves to be a single supplier of an attractive health care package including the sale and lease of home health care products and clinical, pharmacy and dental services," he stated.