52,250 shares of stock. This offering raised approximately $1 million in capital while the Ayres family retained 85 percent ownership. Sales After its initial stock offering in the 1950s, the company's profits grew, with earnings over $47 million in 1956, a company record up to that time. In 1957, profits set another record, more than $50 million in sales, with $1.2 million in net earnings, or $3.09 per common share. In fiscal year 1966, Ayres had sales of $106.3 million, with net income of $3.1 million, or $2.51 per share. On 31 July 1971, after years of annual profits, Ayres reported a quarterly loss of $404,000. In the 1980s, after becoming part of Associated Dry Goods, Ayres added new locations, remodeled out-of-date stores, and was a profitable subsidiary. In 1985, the Ayres Glendale branch in Indianapolis ranked second among the 438 Associated Dry Goods stores in profitability. Only the Lord & Taylor flagship store in New York City, another Associated Dry Goods subsidiary, ranked higher. In 1985, Ayres stores enjoyed at least a 60 percent market share in the most of the cities where it operated its stores. However, Ayres stores, with sales of $103 per square foot, lagged behind other May Company subsidiaries. Diversity In 1971, the ratio of Ayres minority employees to its total employees was reported at around 9 percent. Most of the company's minority employees worked at the downtown stores in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky. Indianapolis had the highest percentage of minority employees at 17 percent. Flora Krauch, the company's first woman executive, arrived at Ayres in 1909 as a buyer and established the store's successful children's department. Beverly Rice became the store's first female vice president in 1969 as a merchandise manager for the Cygnet Shops and women's better apparel. Rice was promoted to vice president and general merchandise manager in 1976 and retired from Ayres in 1983. In 1972, Ayres named Marlene Druien as the first woman store manager. Druien managed the Ayres Dixie Manor store in Louisville, Kentucky. Other women store managers included Florence Elias, a longtime Ayres employee who managed several Ayres branch stores, and Mary Alice Fogarty, who was named manager of the Ayres branch in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1974 and retired from Ayres in 1979. Slogans "A Gift from Ayres Means More"—a familiar Ayres slogan that first appeared in the company's 1922 Christmas catalogs. "That Ayres