Acme United Corporation | New Leadership and Challenges: Mid-1990s–2000s
New Leadership and Challenges: Mid-1990s–2000s
After Acme United appeared to hit bottom in 1993, the company showed some improvement in 1994, when it barely returned to profitability, before experiencing a disappointing setback the following year. The company's stock, which had been trading in the neighborhood of $25 during the 1980s, slumped to around $3, leading to increasing pressure from shareholders to make major changes in management. In November 1995, Dwight Wheeler was replaced as CEO by Walter C. Johnson, who had been hired earlier in the year to head the medical products division. Johnson had previously served as vice-chairman of Marshall Products Inc., an Illinois medical supply distributor whose revenues he had helped to double in four years before it was sold to a Japanese company. Johnson was also named to the Acme United board of directors, where at the age of 44 he was considerably younger than his colleagues, whose average age was 66.
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