Starting in the early 1980s, Stiritz overcame initial board resistance and initiated an aggressive stock repurchase program. He was alone among the major branded products companies in pursuing buybacks, which he believed could generate compelling returns, and they would remain a central tenet of his capital allocation plan for the remainder of his tenure. Starting in the mid-1980s, after the initial round of divestitures, Stiritz made two large acquisitions totaling a combined 30 percent of Ralston’s enterprise value, both of them largely financed with debt.
