BEECHAM'S PILLS PROPOSALS
Industrialists who have a large body of small investors interested in the companies they manage have long been familiar with the advantages which can be derived by mobilising the consuming- power of their shareholders. Mr. Philip E. Hill, the chairman of Beecham's Pills, announced at the meeting last week that the directors are considering ways and means of bringing the capital within the means of their very large number of customers. Obviously, the con- sumers whose goodwill could be thus secured must be very numerous, for Mr. Hill reported that the company's St. Helens factory is turning out over t z,000,000 pills a week apart from the production of the other Beechams factories in various parts of the world. He explained, too, that Beechams is a " business of the people " and that the 5s. shares, fluctuating between 5os. and 65s., were beyond the means of the small investor who constitutes the backbone of the business. He was not able to give any indication of the nature of his plans for giving the customers a financial interest except to explain that it does not involve any additional issue of capital for cash and that the unit the Board have in mind would have a market price of about 5s.
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