Help from a Mouse

The slump in farm-equipment sales has brought J. I. Case Co. some elephant-sized troubles. In its last nine-month fiscal period alone it lost a mountainous $4,403,000. As a way out of its troubles, the elephant last week enlisted the help of a mighty mouse: Case made a deal (subject to approval of stockholders) to merge with the American Tractor Corp., which grossed only $5,000,000 last year v. Case's elephantine $95 million, and lists the book value of its stock at a mere $2 a share v. $37 for Case. Yet Case agreed to swap its stock on a basis of one share of American common for one half share of Case common plus one share of preferred stock.

Despite the difference in book values, Case was glad to pay some $14 million in stock to get the mouse's help. With American, Case will get a complete new line of road-building machinery to add to its regular farm-implement line. It will also get American's 39-year-old fireball president, Marc B. Rojtman, who in only eight years has built American up from nothing to a multimillion-dollar business.

Pulled Its Weight. Marc Rojtman came to the U.S. in 1938 to establish a branch of the family-owned Marshak Diesel Locomotive Co. near Paris. Before he could get started, World War II broke out, and Rojtman became a U.S. citizen, served with Army Intelligence for 30 months. After the Germans destroyed the Marshak works in their retreat, Rojtman decided to go into the tractor business on his own. "All a locomotive is is a tractor," says he, "and I have been in the locomotive business all my life."

With $523,000 in capital, mostly from his family, Rojtman and his wife Lillian founded the American Tractor Corp. to produce medium-sized crawlers. He set up an aggressive program of design and research, developed the Terramatic Transmission that enables a tractor to go from forward to reverse without stopping. His tractors soon made a name for themselves; in 1952 an American tractor pulled 101% of its own weight, setting a world's record in drawbar pulls at the University of Nebraska's testing grounds.

Doubled Its Sales. While Rojtman developed and produced the tractors, his wife ran his ad campaigns, won an advertising award against such staunch competition as U.S. Steel. By 1954 American sales had reached $2,200,000, the next year more than doubled to $5,300,000. By the end of August this year, American's volume exceeded $10 million. At this rate, Rojtman predicts that 1957 sales will top $23 million.

At Case, Rojtman will be the executive vice president and general manager. He will bring with him eight fully designed tractors, four years of research and development, and a huge potential for road equipment in the federal highway program. Said one Case officer: "We bought design, redesign, tooling, testing, experience, and a product in production. It probably would have taken four years or longer to develop such a line, and cost us $10 million to $12 million." Said Rojtman: "Case has been slipping in the last few years, but we will reverse that. The merger will put Case right on top."

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