THE BIGGEST BUSINESS
COMEBACKS OF THE PAST 20 YEARS (5)
In the late ’80s and
early ’90s, the Pats were a bad team with a stadium in bankruptcy. Here’s how
owner Robert Kraft—who purchased the team in 1994 for $172 million—turned them
into four-time Super Bowl winners worth an estimated $2.6 billion:
When Kraft bought the
Pats, he realized there could be a big payoff if he upgraded the team’s aging
home base. The $325 million Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, and since
then every game has sold out.
In 2000, Kraft staked
his team’s future on a pair of nobodies: coach Bill Belichick and sixth-round
draft pick Tom Brady. In retrospect, it was a stunningly savvy move: They’re
now two of the league’s biggest names.
Kraft opened a
1.3 million-square-foot
retail and
entertainment complex next to the stadium. It operates all year, not just
during the season. Now the Pats are the NFL’s second most profitable operation.
Born on French tennis
courts in the 1930s, this powerhouse of popped-collar polo shirts had faded by
the early 1990s due to general alligator-logo fatigue. To get young people
excited about the label, Lacoste stopped licensing its name, no longer sold clothes
in outlets like Walmart, and hired a high-fashion creative director to reboot
the brand. It also opened well-designed boutiques and targeted women with
accessories like handbags. That effort led to newfound fashion-world cred and a
massive sales boost.
The 9/11 attacks had a
profound economic impact on New York, but by the time One World Trade Center
opened in late 2014, the area was once again bustling. More than 400 companies
big and small have relocated to lower Manhattan since 2004. Combine that with a
boom in tourism, and it’s no wonder luxury brands such as Saks Fifth Avenue,
Tiffany & Co., and Hermès are flocking to the area.
With foodies now
drooling over all manner of cured-pork products, it’s easy to forget that those greasy strips
used to just be something you ate with your eggs. Or maybe not even that: In
the ’80s, animal-fat phobia ate into sales by as much as 40%. But by the early
2000s, bacon had its sizzle back. Celebrity chefs championed it as the ultimate
flavor booster, and the low-carb-diet fad made it actually somehow seem kind of
healthy. Bacon mania ensued, showing up everywhere from burger spots (Wendy’s
Baconator) to bars (bacon vodka, anyone?). That’s part of the reason pork sales
in the food-service industry outpaced all other meats
between 2001 and 2013, and sales were up another 11% in 2014, making bacon a
$6 billion business.
BY FAST
COMPANY STAFF
http://www.fastcompany.com/3042431/meme/the-biggest-business-comebacks-of-the-past-20-years
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