John Wolz

Mark Baldwin resigned as chairman & CEO of Pentacon Inc., and the board elected aerospace group president Rob Ruck as CEO. Outside director and co-founder Cary Grossman was elected chairman.
Pentacon also announced it will move its corporate office from Houston to Chatsworth, CA, to reduce expenses.
Ruck joined Pentacon last fall. The West Point graduate had been vice president/general manager for business and general aviation at Honeywell Aerospace. He held several positions with Honeywell and its predecessor, AlliedSignal, since 1986. With Pentacon Ruck was based in Southern California, and he retains his aerospace division role.
Grossman is a managing partner in the investment banking firm of McFarland, Grossman & Company.
Baldwin and Grossman were involved in putting together the five fastener distributorships and the Pentacon IPO in March 1998. Pentacon reported first quarter 2001 revenue dropped 4% from last year to $71.3 million and net income dropped from $400,000 for the opening quarter of 2000 to $100,000 for the same period this year.
No date has been set for the move to California, but the company said it will be done over the next several months.
�The decision to move our corporate headquarters was a difficult one, but is necessary in Pentacon�s quest to reduce our overall cost of doing business and attain consistent profitability,� Grossman said.
Ruck noted that during the first quarter working capital turnover showed a 5% improvement from the fourth quarter of 2000. �We remain focused on working capital management to improve free cash flow and minimize interest costs,� Ruck said. �We generated $3.3 million of cash from operations during the first quarter, of which $800,000 was used for capital expenditures, primarily for integration of our information systems, and $2.5 million was used for debt reduction.�
Pentacon booked $3.5 million in annualized revenues in new contracts during the quarter, Ruck reported.
Pentacon is discounting $10 million in slower-moving aerospace group inventory to improve cash flow and reduce debt, Ruck announced.
�2001 FastenerNews.com\