Talk:Bickmore, Lee S.
Needs to be verified
In 1960 Lee S. Bickmore succeeded Coppers as president and the company accelerated acquisitions and overseas expansion. In 1961 Nabisco acquired the Cream of Wheat Corporation and the French firm Biscuits Gondolo. The next year, the company purchased the English bakery Frears, as well as New Zealand's largest biscuit firm, Griffin and Sons. In 1963 Nabisco acquired Biscuits Belin of France, the Danish baking concern Oxford Biscuit Fabrik, and the James O. Welch Company, makers of Junior Mints and Sugar Babies. The following year, Nabisco bought Harry Trueller, one of West Germany's largest confectioneries. Overseas acquisitions continued apace in 1965 with the addition of the Italian biscuit company Saiwa and the Spanish bakery Galletas.
By the end of the 1960s, Nabisco was the leading manufacturer of crackers and cookies not only in the United States, but in Canada, France, and the Scandinavian countries, and was a major supplier to many other European and South American countries.
The 1970s were a period of continued growth. Nabisco sales reached the $1 billion mark for the first time in 1971, and the $2 billion mark only five years later. In 1970 the company made its first Asian investment by establishing a joint venture with the Yamazaki Baking Company of Japan. Nabisco also upgraded its facilities in 1975 with the construction of a modern flour mill in Toledo, Ohio, and a computerized bakery in Richmond, Virginia. That same year the company moved its headquarters to a specially designed complex in East Hanover, New Jersey.
During the 1970s Nabisco made its first acquisitions outside of the food industry, buying the toy maker Aurora Products and the drug company J. B. Williams, manufacturer of Geritol and Sominex, in 1971. Here, the company was in unfamiliar territory, and the results were not always satisfactory. Aurora proved largely unprofitable and was sold in 1977. The J.B. Williams unit was frequently at odds with the Federal Trade Commission, and in 1982 Nabisco sold Williams to the Beecham Group for $100 million.
