Revco - History

History

Revco, originally known as Registered Vitamin Company, was founded in 1956 in Detroit, Michigan by Sidney Dworkin and Bernie Shulman. Dworkin led Revco until 1986 as CEO, and then he served as Chairman until 1987.

Up to 1983, Revco grew tremendously; the chain had over 2,200 stores and over $2.2 billion dollars in sales. The chain then began to stumble. In 1983, its vitamins were blamed for the deaths of a number of premature infants.{Civil Action No. 7:03-CV-102-D} In order to prevent a hostile takeover and increase short-term profitability, Dworkin then led the chain into a deal that would seal its fate many years later. Under his leadership, Revco purchased a company called Odd Lot Trading Co., a closeout retailer based in New Jersey. Revco's management lost its focus on the drug store portion of its business due to problems with Odd Lot Trading Co., and earnings tumbled. The chain also began to merchandise items such as televisions, furniture, and other non-core items, and the heavy investment proved to be a failure.

Read more about this topic:  Revco

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    A people without history
    Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
    Of timeless moments.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)