Business: Avery Out, Expansion Up

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From a Chicago hospital bed last week, cancer-stricken Sewell Lee Avery, 85, cut his final tie to Montgomery Ward & Co. as a new era of expansion began for the giant mail-order house. Avery, the reactionary chairman of Ward's for 23 years until he resigned under pressure in 1955, finally quit as a director. At the annual meeting, shortly after the news was announced, Chairman John Andrew Barr, 50, told about the aggressive expansion program. It will use up the last of the $226 million that Sewell Avery hoarded from 1947 to 1955 in his belief that the U.S. was destined for a crash.

This year and next, Ward's will build 30 retail department stores, about 85 catalogue stores, four distribution centers. By the end of 1963, it will add a total of 90 new retail stores, 205 new catalogue stores, ten new distribution centers. Gearing for the expansion, Ward's boosted Executive Vice President Paul M. Hammaker, 56, to president; Chairman Barr gave up the presidency, remains chief executive.

Ward's weighty wager on the future will cost $500 million over the next five years. It has reason for confidence; Ward's sales (1958 total: $1.1 billion) rode 19% ahead of last year's in February and March, will probably show a 14% gain for April, "We are on the eve of a decade of great economic activity," said Chairman Barr. "We would not embark on a program of this scope if we did not have great faith in the future of our economy."