Is Everybody Happy?

An acquaintance once described plump, persuasive Albert Saitz, 37, as perhaps the best shoe salesman in the U.S. But three years ago, when he was treasurer and chief operating executive of Boston's Fleetwood Athletic Shoe, Inc., Salesman Saitz came a cropper. Fleetwood, which had been financed largely by Saitz's father-in-law, went bust. Saitz insists that he got out of the company while his in-law paid off the creditors at 37 1/2-c- on the dollar and borrowed more, including $35,000 on the property, from Boston's Pilgrim Trust. Eventually the company closed down.

Soon afterwards, on a trip to Italy, Salesman Saitz thought he saw a way to shoehorn Fleetwood out of its trouble. He asked the American Military Government to start Fleetwood again by putting up enough cash to ship the equipment to Trieste, where good labor was plentiful and cheap, and industry was needed. Saitz teamed up with Frederick A. McLaughlin, 40, a publicity man and an old Boston friend, and Thomas McCann, 34, a onetime U.S. vice consul in Rome, and formed the Trieste Shoe Co. Last week, after nine months of negotiations, Saitz put over his complicated deal to bail out Fleetwood. AMG in Trieste, working with ECA, lent Saitz $190,000 on the machinery (valued at only $47,000 by the bankruptcy court), and another $23,000 to cover shipping, installation costs, etc. in Trieste.

Saitz already has Fleetwood's 500 machines and other equipment crated and ready to be shipped. Within two months he expects to be in limited production in a rented Trieste factory, thinks that output will eventually hit 3,600 pairs a day of women's cheap ($4 to $6) novelty shoes. If all goes well, the Trieste Shoe Co. will employ 400 people, and let out piecework to some 2,000 others. Most of the production will go to the U.S. market. "It's a Utopian situation," says Albert Saitz, with a happy glow. "The natives are happy, Italy gets dollars, and we get a chance to make a profit." And Saitz's in-laws, who will soon have most of their debts paid up with the Government money, are happy, too.

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