Record Keeping, Yankee Style

CML adapts as best it can to the ways of its operating companies.

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A couple of years after CML Group Inc. had bought his company, still-president Carroll Reed phoned up in a panic. "This isn't working out," he said to CML chief executive officer Charlie Leighton. "Too many customer complaints. Get up here fast, you're ruining my company." Leighton leaped into his car and within a couple of hours was in Reed's North Conway, N.H., home office. There he was shown the cause for concern: a two-inch dowel on which Reed habitually spiked letters from angry patrons. "That's my bible," he snapped. "When the peg gets filled, there are too damn many customer complaints." Reed's scripture suggested that the CML-induced switch from Addressographed to computerized mailing labels wasn't working out well. Yet sales had gone from $2 million to $6 million. Leighton pondered the contradiction briefly."Then I went to the hardware store and bought a six-inch peg," Leighton recalls, "and put the two inches of letters on it. You just have to learn what information people need to manage with."

COMPANIES CURRENTLY IN THE CML GROUP

Company Acquired Business

Boston Whaler 9/69 Manufacturer of motorboats

Carroll Reed 10/69 Retail and mail-order clothing

Mason & Sullivan 6/70 Mail-order clock kits

Gokeys 8/73 Retail men's and women's clothing

The Outdoorsman 10/80 Retail sporting goods

The Country Store 12/81 Retail women's and men's clothing

of Concord

The Nature Co. 8/83 Retail and mail-order

nature-related products

Britches of Georgetowne 8/83 Retail men's and women's clothing

SyberVision Systems 3/85 Marketer of self-improvement tapes

NordicTrack 6/86 Mail-order fitness equipment