Client profile -- Norton Simon Inc;

              Norton
Simon
Inc.
CLIENT PROFILE
Norton Simon Inc.
is an international marketing company
with major positions in the food and food
services, soft drink, cosmetics, distilled
spirits, packaging and communications
industries. Such popular brand names as
Hunt's, Wesson, Canada Dry, Johnnie
Walker, Tanqueray, McCall Pattern,
Redbook and Max Factor represent some
of the many facets of "NSI," an
engagement which originates in the New
York office, with substantial participating
work by the Los Angeles office plus 27
other H&S practice offices and 17 DH&S
offices around the world. For the H&S
partners, managers and staff accountants
who provide general audit, tax and
consultation services, Norton Simon
Inc. is much more than a group of
trade names.
Formed in 1968 with the consolidation of
Hunt Foods and Industries, Inc., Canada
Dry Corporation and McCall Corporation,
the company bears the name of its
founder, Norton Simon, the well-known
California entrepreneur, investor and
art collector.
Even as a young man, Norton Simon
displayed considerable talent as a
businessman. By his late teens he was
investing in the stock market and did
well enough that he emerged from the
1929 crash with $35,000. Part of this
went into the purchase of a bankrupt
orange juice plant, which he renamed
and reorganized as Val Vita Food
Products, Inc. In 1943, the Hunt Brothers
Packing Company, a small northern
California firm, merged with Val Vita
Food Products, Inc. Mr. Simon and some
of his associates converted their
ownership of Hunt stock into control of
the company. With Norton Simon at the
helm, our Has kins & Sells office in San
Francisco was chosen to handle the
general audit.
In 1945, the company's name was
changed to Hunt Foods, Inc., with our
Los Angeles office taking over the
engagement. In 1956, the Ohio Match
Company and Hunt Foods, Inc. were
combined through an exchange of stock
under the Ohio Match Company name,
and the following year the company was
renamed Hunt Foods and Industries, Inc.
Canada Dry traces its origin to a small
plant in Toronto in 1890. A pharmacist
and chemist, John J. McLaughlin, began
bottling his soda water products for
distribution to stores, beach resorts,
sports arenas and restaurants, a move
that gave birth to the modern soft drink
industry. In 1904, Mr. McLaughlin
formulated what he was later to call
Canada Dry Pale Dry Ginger Ale.
Encouraged by rising demand in Canada,
the company expanded its operations. In
1919, the first shipments of Canada Dry
Ginger Ale were made to the United
States, and in 1922 the first Canada Dry
plant opened in New York. Following the
repeal of the U.S. Prohibition Amendment
in 1933, Canada Dry set up its own Wine
and Spirits Division, which was
subsequently spun off into Somerset
Importers, Ltd. Our New York office
began performing audit services for
Canada Dry and Somerset in 1925.
McCall Pattern is the oldest of the
companies in the NSI family. Formed by
James McCall in 1869, McCall Pattern
later expanded into the publishing
business and in 1897 distributed the
first issue of McCall's magazine. In 1929,
McCall's acquired Redbook magazine.
When Norton Simon Inc. was formed
through the consolidation of these three
long-established companies, the
corporation was headed by three men, all
14