Buyer Up

At F. W. Woolworth Co. the age of retirement is reached at 60. As President Byron De Witt Miller will be 60 this month, he will retire on Jan. 1, will be succeeded by Vice President Charles Wurtz Deyo (pronounced Day-o). Mr. Miller began work for the great 5 & 10-c- store chain in 1896, got a job in the Poughkeepsie store when there were only nine Woolworths.

In 1909 Founder Frank Woolworth, Cousin Fred Woolworth aud Mr. Miller went to England, organized F. W. Woolworth & Co., Ltd. Mr. Miller stayed in England until 1920, opened 80 3d. and 6d.

Woolworths, returned to the U. S. as Woolworth vice president and treasurer. In June 1932 he became Woolworth president, succeeding Hubert Templeton Parson.

Mr. Deyo, like all Woolworth executives, came up through the ranks of the Woolworth store managers. His first job was in 1902 as assistant to the stock man at Woolworth's London, Ontari'o, store. In 1903 he got the management of the Dunkirk, N. Y., store, moved to Kansas City in 1907 and to St. Louis in 1916. He has belonged to the Woolworth Building executive group since 1929, is currently the head buyer in a purchasing organization which spends upwards of $160,000,000 a year.

Mr. Deyo is usually considered responsible for lifting the top Woolworth price to 20-c- -- a move largely dictated by competition from chains which sold merchandise at prices ranging from 5-c- to $1. Last October Woolworth stores in Canada experimented with a 40-c- top.

Since 1911, when a series of consolidations started the present Woolworth Co., the company has sold about $4,250,000,000 worth of merchandise, at a profit of about $450,000,000.

Stock which sold for $55 a share in 1912 was last week worth $1,077. Sales for the first eleven months of 1935 totaled $229,000,000 against $231,000,000 in the corresponding 1934 period.

Although a good Christmas shopping season may result in December sales of better than $40,000,000, the 1935 profit is not expected to show much increase over 1934's mark of $32,000,000. For this season the company's stock has been conspicuously absent from the current bull market, was last week selling around $55, compared to a 1935 high of $65.

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