Dawn
Beach Fanatic
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- EBSCO Industries Inc., a Birmingham-based conglomerate with interests in manufacturing, publishing and real estate, has increased its payroll by about 310 people over the past year as its collection of businesses rebound from the recession, the company's CEO says.
The company has added employees mostly to its information services businesses, boosting total employment to about 5,800 worldwide and about 1,200 in Birmingham. About half the new employees work in metro Birmingham, company President F. Dixon Brooke Jr. said.
The company now has about $2.4 billion in annual sales, he said.
In a presentation to the Birmingham Kiwanis Club and a brief interview today, Brooke said EBSCO's steel joist, real estate and legacy manufacturing businesses have suffered most through the recession. Information services, which includes a business that manages electronic reference services for libraries, has done well and sales over all have rebounded, he said.
The company has aggressively moved into electronic publishing. In 1987 all of its publishing was on paper. Today 80 percent of its publishing business is electronic, Brooke said.
"We've made the transition," he said. "(Electronic) content is the future."
The company, which was founded in 1944 as a magazine subscription service, is today so diverse that many in Birmingham don't know what it does, he said.
"We're a little bit of a mystery to a lot of people," Brooke said.
While it's perhaps still best known for publishing, it also owns an insurance business, real estate development businesses and outdoors products companies including Moultrie Game Feeders and Rebel fishing lures.
Among its current real estate ventures is the Alys Beach community near Panama City Beach, Fla. "We consider this to be a very good investment," he said.
The company currently is making a hot-selling fishing lure called the Yumbrella, which is similar to the Alabama Rig, another company's lure that imitates a school of baitfish and led BASS to ban it from Bassmaster Classic and Elite Series fishing tournaments for being too effective.
"They drive bass crazy," Brooke said.
Brooke showed video of new lures under development and distributed Yumbrella lures to Kiwanians on Tuesday, pointing out that they needed trailing rubber tails that could be bought separately.
"Do me a favor and go out and buy those," he joked, drawing laughs.
The company has added employees mostly to its information services businesses, boosting total employment to about 5,800 worldwide and about 1,200 in Birmingham. About half the new employees work in metro Birmingham, company President F. Dixon Brooke Jr. said.
The company now has about $2.4 billion in annual sales, he said.
In a presentation to the Birmingham Kiwanis Club and a brief interview today, Brooke said EBSCO's steel joist, real estate and legacy manufacturing businesses have suffered most through the recession. Information services, which includes a business that manages electronic reference services for libraries, has done well and sales over all have rebounded, he said.
The company has aggressively moved into electronic publishing. In 1987 all of its publishing was on paper. Today 80 percent of its publishing business is electronic, Brooke said.
"We've made the transition," he said. "(Electronic) content is the future."
The company, which was founded in 1944 as a magazine subscription service, is today so diverse that many in Birmingham don't know what it does, he said.
"We're a little bit of a mystery to a lot of people," Brooke said.
While it's perhaps still best known for publishing, it also owns an insurance business, real estate development businesses and outdoors products companies including Moultrie Game Feeders and Rebel fishing lures.
Among its current real estate ventures is the Alys Beach community near Panama City Beach, Fla. "We consider this to be a very good investment," he said.
The company currently is making a hot-selling fishing lure called the Yumbrella, which is similar to the Alabama Rig, another company's lure that imitates a school of baitfish and led BASS to ban it from Bassmaster Classic and Elite Series fishing tournaments for being too effective.
"They drive bass crazy," Brooke said.
Brooke showed video of new lures under development and distributed Yumbrella lures to Kiwanians on Tuesday, pointing out that they needed trailing rubber tails that could be bought separately.
"Do me a favor and go out and buy those," he joked, drawing laughs.