PS LS
HORIZON page 47
imili
Mr. Dombey's son, Martin, is
the president of Jerusalem-based
Targum Press, which has been in
operation for 10 years.
Besides being available
through a mail subscription of
$24 for one year, Horizons also is
being sold locally at Spitzer's and
Borenstein's bookstores.
Mr. Dombey said about 10,000
advertising fliers were sent out
throughout the United States
and about 600 people have signed
up for subscriptions.
In addition to Israel and the
United States, Horizons also is
fte
1111111116:1/2,1,
being circulated in Europe and
Africa by another distributor.
"It's available wherever there
are Jewish people," Mr. Dombey
said.
Other Targum publications in-
clude: From Our Sealed Rooms,
recollections from the Gulf War;
series of books for youths titled
The B.Y. Times and Baker's
Dozen; the Our Lives and More of
Our Lives anthologies; and Fic-
tion: Twenty Contemporary Jew-
ish Stories. Targum also
publishes many English transla-
tions.
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They came to Israel to sightsee and
celebrate their endowment, but they
ended up sweating out a bidding war.
ALLISON KAPLAN SOMNER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
V
era and Gerald Weisfeld
have some advice for
tourists. Don't bother com-
ing to Israel when you are
in the midst of a tense bidding
war for a company worth millions
in the United Kingdom — you
won't see much of the country.
The couple was visiting Israel
recently from Glasgow, hoping to
sightsee and celebrate their en-
dowment of a chair at Tel Aviv
University.
But they spent most of their
time glued to the telephone and
the fax machine in their hotel
suite, waiting to hear last-minute
developments in their struggle to
purchase a wounded giant of a re-
tailing chain in England.
Even dressed up, about to
leave for an elegant evening on
the town, they seemed on edge as
they sat in their suite overlook-
ing the Mediterranean.
Mrs. Weisfeld, was able, at
least, to stay on the sofa, but Mr.
Weisfeld jumped up every five
minutes to head for the telephone.
Little wonder they were on
edge. The couple's bid to bail out
the ailing Pbundstretcher chain
of British discount stores had tak-
en them for a roller-coaster ride
over the past several months.
They knew if they became Pound-
stretcher's rescuers, it would
mark a dramatic return to the
world of British retail after a four-
year hiatus.
"When we sold out (our dis-
count retail chain), we didn't sell
our brains," Mrs. Weisfeld said.
"We have 30 years of retailing ex-
perience. This opportunity fit our
talents like a glove."
More than 20 years ago, they
opened a small discount store at
the seedier end of Glasgow's main
thoroughfare and built it into a
chain of successful discount out-
lets called What Everyone Wants.
After the company grew to the
point that it had 1,800 employ-
ees and over half a million square
feet of selling space, the Weisfelds
sold it for a whopping $50 million.
The sale catapulted them into the
ranks of the United Kingdom's
rich and famous.
Since that sale four years ago,
the Weisfelds have spent most of
their time managing and enjoy-
ing their wealth.
But apparently the chance of
an encore performance in the re-
tail world was enough to tempt
them away from their life of
leisure. Poundstretcher seemed
to be the perfect opportunity. The
chain, owned by the Brown and
Jackson Company, currently em-
ploys more than 4,000 workers
and operates 230 stores in the
United Kingdom.
But it is in dire straits. For the
past three years, the company
has shown steady losses and sup-
pliers are threatening to withhold
goods until they have been paid.
In the first quarter, the com-
pany showed losses of between
$6-9 million with sales plum-
meting 10 percent and share
prices dropping accordingly.
As late as mid-April, it seemed
certain the Weisfelds would be
the white knights who would
save Poundstretcher.
The company's board fully sup-
ported the Weisfelds' offer to inject
$6 million into the company, which
would give them a 19 percent stake,
with an option to later increase
their holding to 41 percent.
They would then step in as
consultants to the company, us-
ing the expertise that made What
Everyone Wants a success to turn
the stores around.
Everything was going along
smoothly until the first week of May,
just before the shareholders were to
approve the Weisfelds' offer.