Veco International.

• Author: Tyson, Ray
• Position: The New Forty-Niners - Company profile

Veco International

Not long after the Exxon Valde disaster, owner Bill Allen and the managers of Veco International Inc. considered leaving alaska for less politically hostile territory in the Lower 48. Instead, Allen took Veco's profits from the oil spill and bought a failing daily newspaper in Anchorage. He decided to stay and fight.

"I hjad all kinds of opportunities," Allen recalls. "But I have faith in the future of Alaska."

Veco also had a bundle of cash -- an estimated $32 million in earnings as Exxon's prime contractor on the cleanup, following the spill of almost 11 million gallons in Prince William Sound. While Allen has never publicly divulged what he paid for The Anchorage Times, which Veco acquired in December, he now says the entire cache was set aside to acquire and upgrade the newspaper.

"I could have sold out and went south and could have made quicker money," Allen explains. "But I think over the long haul, I'll make more money by staying here in Alaska. I don't care what any of the real hard core environmentalists say, the United States is going to have th have Alaska's oil reserves. That may be 10 years from now, but it'll happen. and that's what I based buying the paper on."

Allen is in an uphill battle against his primary competitor and adversary, The Anchorage Daily News, which dominates the Times in both circulation and advertising. But Allen believes Veco is positioned to win what could be the last great newspaper war in the United States.

"We don't have to make our money here at the paper," Allen points out. "We have all the other companies that are profitable."

As 1990's top revenue-producing, Alaska-based company, Veco International and its subsidiaries last year grossed a whopping $960 million, more than a ninefold increase ove 1988 revenues of $110 million. Subtracting the estimated $800 million of Exxon money Veco spent on beach cleanup, the company still posted a healthy 45 percent increase in business, from $110 million in 1988 to $160 million in 1989. Veco expects to gross about $250 million this year.

Also on other fronts, the fiscal year ending March 31, 1990 has been a big year for Veco. The companay added two subsidiaries, the Times and Veco Environmental and Professional Services Inc.

While the newspaper isn't expected to turn a profit for years, Veco Environmental has the potential of becoming the post profitable of Veco's companies in the new decade, says Pete Leathard, Veco's president and chief...