Market Share

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Blue Bell resident Richard Gutnick cornered the market on Saturday at the Meadowlands Racetrack, owning both $1.5 million Hambletonian winner Market Share and world record-tying Chapter Seven, who scored in the Nat Ray. Gutnick, trainer Linda Toscano, and driver Tim Tetrick all won their first Hambletonians after Market Share finished the race in 1 minute, 52.1 seconds in the 87th edition of harness racing's most prestigious event....

Hambletonian winner Market Share and world-record holder Chapter Seven, both co-owned by Blue Bell's Richard Gutnick, headline Sunday's stakes-filled harness racing card at Harrah's Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack in Chester. The fifth annual "Super Stakes Sunday" features $2.7 million in total purses. Market Share faces seven rivals in the $500,000 Colonial for 3-year-old trotters and Chapter Seven meets seven foes in the $150,000 Maxie Lee Invitational for older trotters. Both horses are trained by Linda Toscano and will be driven by Tim Tetrick.

Hambletonian winner Market Share and world-record-holder Chapter Seven, both co-owned by Blue Bell's Richard Gutnick, headline Sunday's stakes-filled harness racing card at Harrah's Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack in Chester. The fifth annual "Super Stakes Sunday" features $2.7 million in total purses. Market Share faces seven rivals in the $500,000 Colonial for 3-year-old trotters and Chapter Seven meets seven foes in the $150,000 Maxie Lee Invitational for older trotters. Both horses are trained by Linda Toscano and will be driven by leading driver Tim Tetrick.

The cure was successful. The patient has recovered completely. Contac, the nonprescription cold remedy manufactued by SmithKline Beckman Corp., has regained all of the market share it lost in the United States in the wake of product-tampering incidents earlier this year. SmithKline's $40 million promotional blitz on behalf of its imperiled brand propelled Contac back into a leading postion among cold remedies, according to market-research data compiled by the A.C. Nielsen Co. SmithKline withdrew Contac from the market in March after capsules in Houston and Orlando, Fla., were found to have been contaminated with rat poison.

With its market for plastic food-and-beverage containers expected to expand by 11 percent a year through 2005, Constar International Inc. has no shortage of opportunities. Now that it has been spun off from the financially troubled Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc., it should be easier for Constar to reap its share of that growth. "We need funding so we can grow with the marketplace," said Michael Hoffman, president and chief executive officer of Constar, which went public Nov. 15. The company's shares have not moved far from their $12 offering price, closing down 63 cents yesterday at $11.75 on Nasdaq.

The top dog among the region's supermarkets is growling again. Acme Markets, which had lost market share in recent years as it struggled to upgrade and expand its stores, was the clear winner in this year's survey of the supermarket business conducted by Food Trade News. While Acme boosted its market share, ShopRite and Genuardi's each suffered from a different problem and lost share. Their losses were both to Acme and a growing list of nontraditional rivals that make the Philadelphia area one of the more competitive grocery retailing markets in the country, the survey found.

Chapter Seven and Market Share gave owner Richard Gutnick and trainer Linda Toscano a strong 1-2 punch on the racetrack. The stablemates knocked out the competition off the track as well. Chapter Seven on Tuesday was named Trotter of the Year by the U.S. Harness Writers Association, with Market Share finishing second in the organization's year-end Dan Patch Awards balloting. In addition, award-winners were named for 2-year-old, 3-year-old and older male and female trotters. Pacer of the Year and divisional pacing winners will be announced Wednesday and Horse of the Year on Thursday.

General Motors Corp. will de-emphasize market share and adopt a "profit first" strategy, chairman Robert Stempel told stockholders yesterday. "Your corporation's North American focus has moved from 'market share with profitability' to 'profit first,' with less emphasis on market share," Stempel told about 1,650 shareholders at the company's annual meeting. In recent years, GM has tried vainly to hold onto its share of the U.S. market by offering rebates and discounts on its cars and trucks.

Acme Markets Inc. said yesterday that it would spend 17 percent more in 2002 than this year to remodel and expand its supermarkets in the Mid-Atlantic region. Over the last five years, the Malvern-based company has refurbished 40 percent its 185 markets as it tries to stem the number of customers leaving Acme for newer stores. Acme, whose area market share eroded from 28.4 percent in 1996 to 25.8 percent this year, operated 85 stores in the eight-county Philadelphia area as of June, according to Food Trade News.

Once an Acme customer, Jacki Menard now shops several times a week at the Genuardi's supermarket at the St. Davids Square Shopping Center. The Acme where she used to shop had "awful management" and "the stores were seedy and run-down," the Villanova resident said. Acme seems to know what she meant: Earlier this year, the company announced a 24-store improvement project. But for Menard, it was too late. She had converted to Genuardi's, citing better customer service, a cleaner store, and a better shopping environment.

Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Chesterbrook, reported disappointing first-quarter sales on Monday and said it is spending $585 million to buy a urology drug company. Auxilium said sales of its two approved drugs, Xiaflex and Testim, both decreased because of lower sales in the U.S. It said both drugs appear to be losing market share and reduced its sales expectations for both products. The company also said it bought Actient Holdings LLC from private equity firm GTCR for $585 million.

Q: Might a company that rakes in a lot of money still be a bad investment? - L.D., Worcester, Mass.   A: It's possible. Remember that the money a company takes in (its revenue, or sales) is its top line. Before you get to its bottom line of profits, you have to take out expenses, such as salaries, supplies and taxes. It's critical to know how much (if anything) the company keeps as profit, and whether important numbers, such as sales and profits, are increasing. Arch Coal, for example, has had average annual revenue growth of more than 12 percent over the last five years, and growth has accelerated.

  The University of Pennsylvania Health System's tentative deal to acquire Chester County Hospital in West Chester may be a move to block competitors from gaining control of a lucrative patient market, health-care experts say. "I suspect that part of the reason was they didn't want it to fall into somebody else's hands," said Mark V. Pauly, a health-care economist at the University of Pennsylvania. Pauly said he had no inside information. The two organizations said Friday that they had signed a nonbinding letter of intent, allowing Penn to delve more deeply into Chester County Hospital's weakened financial condition and work more broadly with the hospital community on a merger agreement.

Q: What's the definition of "market share?" - E.M., Victoria, Texas A: The useful online glossary at investorwords.com provides a good definition: "The percentage of the total sales of a given type of product or service that are attributable to a given company. " Consider smartphone- operating systems, for example. According to Kantar Worldpanel Com- Tech, in the United States, Apple's iOS recently held a 53 percent share of the market (up from 36 percent a year ago), versus 42 percent for Android, 3 percent for Windows and less than 2 percent for BlackBerry OS. Recent global data from IDC for "smart" connected devices (which include smartphones, PCs and tablets)

When it comes to winning races and winning awards, Chapter Seven has broken the bank. The 4-year-old male trotter, who won eight of 10 starts and equaled the world record of 1 minute, 50.1 seconds on a mile racetrack, was named horse of the year Thursday in Dan Patch Awards voting by the U.S. Harness Writers Association. Chapter Seven's 10 starts were the fewest for a horse of the year winner in harness racing history. On Tuesday, Chapter Seven was named trotter of the year, defeating stablemate Market Share by 39 votes for the honor.

When it comes to winning races and winning awards, Chapter Seven has broken the bank. The 4-year-old male trotter, who won eight of 10 starts and equaled the world record of 1:50.1 on a mile racetrack, was named Horse of the Year on Thursday in Dan Patch Awards voting by the U.S. Harness Writers Association. Chapter Seven's 10 starts were the fewest for a Horse of the Year winner in harness racing history. On Tuesday, Chapter Seven was named Trotter of the Year, defeating stablemate Market Share by 39 votes for the honor.

Chapter Seven and Market Share gave owner Richard Gutnick and trainer Linda Toscano a strong 1-2 punch on the racetrack. The stablemates knocked out the competition off the track as well. Chapter Seven on Tuesday was named trotter of the year by the U.S. Harness Writers Association, with Market Share finishing second in the organization's year-end Dan Patch Awards balloting. Chapter Seven, a 4-year-old who also was voted the sport's best older male trotter, received 89 of 146 votes to claim trotter of the year.

Chapter Seven and Market Share gave owner Richard Gutnick and trainer Linda Toscano a strong 1-2 punch on the racetrack. The stablemates knocked out the competition off the track as well. Chapter Seven on Tuesday was named Trotter of the Year by the U.S. Harness Writers Association, with Market Share finishing second in the organization's year-end Dan Patch Awards balloting. In addition, award-winners were named for 2-year-old, 3-year-old and older male and female trotters. Pacer of the Year and divisional pacing winners will be announced Wednesday and Horse of the Year on Thursday.

  When Walter Bronek had a mini-stroke in September, he was taken to the closest hospital, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton. "I never saw a neurologist at Robert Wood. The only thing I saw was a computer screen with a doctor from Jeff," said Bronek, referring to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. After an examination, the "doc-in-the-box," as Bronek called him, recommended Bronek go to Jefferson, which counts Mercer County's Robert Wood Johnson Hamilton among the 28 hospitals in its Jefferson Neuroscience Network.

Virtua Health doctors will serve as medical directors at five MinuteClinic walk-in medical clinics in Burlington Camden, and Gloucester Counties, MinuteClinic, a division of CVS Caremark Corp. said. The move will expand Virtua's coverage of the three-county South Jersey region, where it already has a 32 percent market share, a Virtua official said this month on a conference call with investors. There will be signs in the MinuteClinics in Marlton, Mount Holly, Mount Laurel, Runnemede, and Sewell noting the clinical affiliation with Virtua.