How a New York company managed to keep secret its move to Houston.
This story originally ran Sunday, Aug. 20, 1972. It has been edited for length. Raymond International is now based in Bahrain.
How does a major international firm go about moving its corporate headquarters from New York to Houston? They do it secretly. And some of the novel ways the company executives go about keeping their plans a secret would do justice to the CIA.
A case in point is the planning — and scheming — that went into the move of Raymond International’s corporate headquarters here this year after more than 40 years in New York.
It all started in March 1971, when the officers of the company were given the goahead to begin looking for a city “with a good life style” for possible relocation of the firm’s corporate headquarters, recalls president Henry LeMieux.
That month Robert H. Brewer, manager of the Industry and Commerce Department at the Houston Chamber of Commerce, received a letter which had been referred to him by the Chamber’s office manager.
“Our firm is presently involved in a relocation study for the headquarters of a major international company and would like your assistance in obtaining some necessary information about Houston,” the letter read. Then were listed a number of questions about the Houston area.
The letterhead certainly wasn’t impressive. It was mimeographed and carried the name: C Mc V Management Consultants. The address listed was in Forest Hills Gardens, N.Y.
While the information requested was in depth and covered every aspect of the area, Brewer was less than impressed by the cheaplooking letterhead.
Through a friend, Brewer checked all management consultant associations and found that C Mc V was not listed by any of them. He sent the information, though he readily admits he never expected to hear from C Mc V again.
He did and the exchange of letters continued during the ensuing months.
Robert M. Caplinger, vice-president of employee relations for Raymond International, explained the “management consultant” firm: “We wanted to get the information we needed from several cities we had under consideration for our new location. We also wanted to keep our identity secret. So we just made up the consultant firm, didn’t even file the name.”
Why the name C Mc V? That’s the first letters of Caplinger’s name; of Bob McElwreath, office services manager who was charged with some of the company’s real estate activities; and of Judy Vassalotti, an executive secretary. These three and LeMieux were the only company employees who knew of the plans to move and they were sworn to secrecy.
The address used on the letterhead was McElwreath’s home address.
An unlisted telephone was set up in a small private office and Miss Vassalotti made her office there answering all calls with the name of the management consultant firm.
Caplinger said further security steps were taken to maintain the utmost secrecy. “All reports on the progress of contacts with the five cities that were still being considered after two months were hand written and hand delivered to those who knew of the plans to move, he said. This was done so that none of the secretaries would be alerted to the plan.”
The proposed move had now been narrowed to the cities of Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and Fairfax City, Va., in suburban Washington, D.C. The company had started with a list of 15 cities.
“Surprisingly enough some of the cities originally contacted just were not interested in attracting industry,” said Caplinger. “In the second mailing we mentioned that the client was a firm considering relocation of corporate headquarters. Then we got two file drawers of information from the cities we contacted.”
Brewer recalls that after the second letter he received a phone call from Miss Vassalotti and was told that the “client” would like to meet with Brewer in New York that week. Miss Vassalotti arranged a meeting for 5:30 p.m. in a cocktail lounge in the Statler Hilton Hotel.
“Now I know that cocktail lounges in New York are pretty crowded at that time of day,” said Brewer, “how will I know who I am supposed to meet?”
“Wear a yellow flower in your coat lapel and the client will spot you,” said Miss Vassalotti.
Arriving at the lounge, with the yellow flower in his lapel, Brewer was soon greeted by a gentleman who introduced himself as Bob Caplinger and at the table he introduced his associate Bob McElwreath.
They discussed the proposed move, and Brewer, who makes it his business to try to determine what firms he actually is dealing with, had done his homework well. Through some of the correspondence, Brewer got the impression that the firm could be a construction-oriented firm. Raymond International is an international construction company. And he wondered aloud to his hosts if the C and Mc in the management consultant firm could have any connection with his hosts’ names.
“We decided Bob was on the right track and that night he became the fifth person to know that Raymond International was considering a move,” recalls Caplinger.
President LeMieux, realizing the importance of getting the woman reaction to moving to a new city because of the need to transfer some 75 families to the new location, decided to let one other person in on the company’s plan to move — his wife.
He explained it must be kept secret. She was asked if she would like to visit any of the five cities, see what she thought of the housing conditions, shopping facilities, schools, etc. She selected Houston and came here for a couple of weeks.
Innocently enough, it was in this trip that the word of the proposed move leaked out.
While investigating the availability of homes here with a Realtor, the salesman discreetly questioned whether his client could handle the price home they were looking at. She assured him it could be handled and added that her husband was president of Raymond International.
“The next day,” recalls LeMieux, “I got a call from a Houston investment builder (Kenneth Schnitzer, chairman of Century Development Corp.). He said he had learned that we were planning a move to Houston and was interested in locating us in an office building in Greenway Plaza.”
He did meet with Schnitzer and they discussed the possibility of Century developing a headquarters office for the company. But a deal was made with the Gerald D. Hines Interests for locating the company in a six-story building adjacent to the Hines-developed Galleria complex.
After Mrs. LeMieux put her stamp if approval on Houston for a place to live, the company sent six other employees and their wives here to get their reaction. All were favorable.
Why all the secrecy when a company is studying plans to relocate?
“Until a final decision is made, there’s a morale factor,” says LeMieux. “While in the process of looking around, if the employees hear it, their first reaction is that its definite and they spend much of their time trying to figure out which city and whether they will like it or not.
The Raymond International executives had much praise for Brewer and his staff at the Houston Chamber.
“Brewer’s organization is one of the most active, gun-ho organizations in the country,” Caplinger said. “It is kept up to date to attract business and industry. When we contacted the Chamber here, we didn’t get just a pile of stuff, we received pertinent information, well presented.”