Corporations: Dial for Success

Rudolph Hurwich, owner of a small packaging outfit in San Francisco, was willing to listen to the visitor in his office one day in 1958. The guest was David Souza, from nearby Hayward, Calif., who had dropped by to try to peddle his invention: a simple, hand-operated labeling device for punching embossed letters onto adhesive plastic tape.

Hurwich liked the idea. He bought the rights for $100,000, and formed Dymo Industries Inc. with another $300.000 to produce the new tool. The Dymo labeler now comes in 20 models priced from $2.95 to $125 in a choice of 21 languages, including Greek and Japanese, and with tapes in 26 different colors. Most models resemble a hand gun, and all have a circular dial with letters and numbers. The user dials his choice, then squeezes the trigger. Out ticks the adhesive tape, ready for use on hundreds of items, from mailboxes to children’s toys to underground cables.

Avoiding Disaster. The do-it-yourself adhesive labels became so popular that twelve companies, including 3M and Johnson & Johnson, quickly moved in for a share of the new market. Hurwich realized that trying to keep Dymo a one-item company would lead to disaster. As early as 1963, he started to diversify into other fields.

Dymo Industries today is a publicly owned company that had sales of $73,484,626 and net profits of $1,993,786 during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1968. About 40% of its sales are still generated by the labelers, which are sold in 105 countries. Almost all the rest comes from three wholly owned subsidiaries: Elliott Business Machines (20%); Trans-Western Service Industries, a laundry and dry-cleaning chain with 450 outlets in California and the Midwest (15%); and Modulux, which makes relocatable buildings mainly for schools and the military (20%).

Hurwich, 46, an M.I.T.-trained mechanical engineer, puts in 55 to 60 hours a week as president of Dymo. Even in his spare time, he keeps pursuing many personal interests that he manages to turn to profit. A flying buff, he owns a small air-taxi service with a fleet of three STOL (for short takeoff and landing) airplanes in the San Francisco area.

Neat Bundle. Hurwich remains more than willing to look at new inventions, which have paid off so handsomely for him in the past. He recently gave financial backing to Product Specialists of Santa Monica, Calif., the developers of a 35-to 55-lb. boat made of polypropylene. For easy transportation and storage, the Stowboat, as it is called, can be folded up into a 4-in.-thick, 10-ft.-long bundle. Priced at from $200 to $450 each, the boats have already attracted 1,500 buyers.

*Caption printed on Dymo labeler.