Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Nov. 9--RUMORS OF CENTURA DEATH SEEM GREATLY EXAGGERATED: Worried employees and health- care insiders have speculated for months Centura Health would report a huge loss this year.
Not true, says Centura interim chief executive Arthur Dunn. Centura lost $8.2 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
While that sounds like a lot, it's hardly the gloom and doom I've been hearing for months from Centura employees, some of whom said the chain would file for bankruptcy. Dunn said Centura is in no danger of that -- company reserves total more than $200 million.
Still, the loss is troubling, considering the $66.3 million profit Denver-based Centura earned in the previous fiscal year.
Centura is the parent company of local Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, which runs one of the Springs' two largest hospitals. Penrose-St. Francis had been the dominant health care provider in Southern Colorado but recently has lost local market share to city-owned Memorial Hospital.
Dunn said Centura is in the red because expenses were out of control when he arrived in June. In one example, the company was paying $80,000 a year for 200 memberships in a professional organization when it could have been paying for two.
'I had to impress on the administrative staff the need to adhere to budgets,' Dunn said. 'We needed to eliminate duplication and not replace positions that we could do without, although we are still hiring for those positions we really need.'
Dunn said Centura is already in the recovery room. The company cut losses to $1.2 million for the last quarter, about $300,000 better than expected. Centura should be back in the black by June, the end of the current fiscal year.
Changes in market-share strategy at Penrose-St. Francis are under study and could be put in place later this year. Dunn declined to elaborate, saying only that no major personnel changes are anticipated.
Dunn, a longtime hospital executive and consultant, expects to be running Centura until at least year-end. The Centura board should name a permanent chief executive in two to six months. Dunn said he is not a candidate for the post.
JIM WALKER is celebrating 45 years in the real estate business by preparing to turn his company over to someone else.
Walker, 77, started Walker & Co. Inc. in 1953, when multiple listings were in their infancy and franchises were so new McDonald's would not arrive here for several more years. The Board of Realtors could have met in a restaurant.
Today, the National Association of Realtors' multiple listing service is computerized and available on the Internet, national franchises dominate the industry and about the only place the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors could gather is the Colorado Springs World Arena.
Walker expects the nation's top real estate franchises -- Better Homes & Gardens, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Prudential and Re/Max -- to tighten their industry hold by buying smaller agencies and expanding their services.
'It will be just like the supermarket industry. The mom and pop corner grocer couldn't survive against the chain supermarkets,' Walker said. 'The same thing is happening in real estate, but it is taking longer because we compete on service more than price.'
Walker said small agencies will be able to survive if they carve out a niche like a neighborhood or particular industry they serve. But mid-sized agencies won't be able to match the one-stop shopping national franchises can offer.
'They will offer real estate, but also property management, mortgages, title insurance and other insurance,' Walker said.
Walker & Co. is a franchisee of Coldwell Banker, which is urging him to acquire other local agencies. This would more than double Walker's share of the local market to about 20 percent from its 8 percent today. Walker believes that is a job for someone younger than he.
'I have told them 'you need younger blood and I need to slow down,' so I am looking for a merger or investment in which someone younger would eventually take over,' Walker said.
Contact Wayne Heilman: Call 636-0234, e-mail wayneh@gazette.com
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