BUSINESS
Staying
Charged
Up
Building With
Stability
Builder Michael Horowitz emerged
from the recession of 1992 in a
position of strength.
ichael Horowitz
the
answers
question, "How's
business?" in a
positive way. The president
of the Selective Group, based
in Farmington Hills, didn't
suffer through the recession-
ary years as much as he saw
other industries do.
Instead, Selective Group,
a real estate development
firm, saw some changes in
buying habits. But, accord-
ing to Mr. Horowitz, people
were still buying. People, he
said, are more practical in
/2- what they want in their
house. They are going
through what he called, "a lot
of value re-adjustment."
People are not necessarily
going to the limit when pur-
chasing a home or items for
their home, he said. Instead,
people from all walks of life,
the affluent to the hourly
wage earner, are looking for
housing they really can af-
ford.
Mr. Horowitz also noted
that he's seeing and feeling a
sense of optimism in his busi-
ness.
"Our primary business is
selling new housing," he said.
"And like other businesses,
the housing business is af-
fected by consumer confi-
dence. People are more
Madison Electric is
confidently looking
ahead while making
changes to meet
the future.
optimistic. I don't know if it's
because we have Clinton in
office, but people are show-
ing renewed hope and confi-
dence.
The recession, according to
Mr. Horowitz, did not hurt
the housing business as bad-
ly as others. Selective Group
Douglas Bloom: "An even better job for our customers."
"We're sensing
that the buyers
feel that now is
the time to buy."
ended 1992 with record sales.
Again, Mr. Horowitz said, the
buyers were there, but they
were looking for good deals
in many cases in place of ex-
travagance.
"We're sensing that the
buyers feel that now is the
time to buy," he said. "There's
a pent up demand and inter-
est rates are low. The indus-
try in Detroit is very stable.
We didn't allow the area to
over-develop, and as a com-
pany, we've been positioning
ourselves for growth, even
with the recession. So we're
seeing the success, and we're
seeing the confidence."
Michael Horowitz: Optimistic and confident.
1992 Was Hardly
A Year To Bloom
Douglas A. Bloom, president of BAR
Processing, is glad to move to the future.
T
he best part of 1993
so far for Douglas
Bloom is that it's
not 1992.
Mr. Bloom's BAR Process-
ing, located in Birmingham,
weathered the recession be-
cause its president thought
about what might happen if
... In this case, Mr. Bloom
isn't bashful about saying, 'if'
definitely happened.
"This was the worst year
I've had since I've been in
business for myself," he said.
"I think that so far in 1993,
business is better, but not
booming."
Mr. Bloom works in a myr-
iad of businesses. He supplies
auto parts such as drums for
certain brakes, steel sheeting
for water wells, and bar qual-
ity steel for industries and as-
pects of the auto business.
"It's been a strange year of
sorts," he said. "We've been
talking about recession since
before the Bush administra-
tion took office. But we wait-
ed instead of acting and
therefore we deserved what
we got.
"As far as our company is
concerned," he continued, "I
have a Depression mentali-
ty. When we make good mon-
ey, we put a lot of it in the
bank, because there's always
a rainy day. That helped us
get through periods of time
like 1992. In the future,
F
rom where Ben
Rosenthal sits as
treasurer of Madi-
son Electric, the lay-
offs, lost revenue, closed
plants and dour business pic-
ture presented by General
Motors is best reflected on
the line.
In this case, the line isn't
necessarily the assembly
line, it's more likely the bot-
tom line. Madison, a 79-year-
old firm, distributes electrical
parts for the automobile in-
dustry, outfits auto plants to
build their cars and sells to
construction businesses.
Last year (1992) was the
company's best in three
years, but it still did not mea-
sure up to the 1989 numbers.
Madison is going to show
growth in its auto-related
businesses, but the con-
struction end of its business
is down.
"There are various stages
CHARGED UP page B48
"We waited
instead of acting
and therefore
Ben Rosenthal: Watching the
trends in the auto industry.
we deserved
what we got."
though, we have to be more
careful about what is hap-
pening in the world. As a
business, we know who our
competition is, so we have to
keep track of the needs of our
customers and want to do an
even better job for them."
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