The 1970s: The Illusion of successD

The 1970s: The Illusion of success
Despite the difficulties Parker encountered when it left its niche in the upper end of the pen market, the company experienced a healthy period of growth and profitability for most of the 1970s.Demand for its products remained strong, and its worldwide markets expanded significantly due to a rise in consumer income and increasing literacy rates in much of the Third World. Parker also chose to diversify during this decade, and its most noteworthy acquisition, Manpower, Inc., proved to be a very strong asset. In 1975, when it acquired Manpower, a temporary-help firm, Parker was the slightly more profitable of the two. With the boom in temporary services in the late seventies and early eighties, however, Manpower eclipsed Parker in sales and earnings an eventually subsidized its parent company during down periods