DREYFUS MOVES A LITTLE CLOSER TO MELLON: FUND COMPANY SEES IT’S TIME TO GET WITH ITS PARENT’S PROGRAM

Four years after Mellon Bank Corp. bought New York’s Dreyfus Corp., the mutual fund company is revamping its retail strategy to get the best benefit from its parent.

Dreyfus, which has more than $100 billion under management, touts its retail outreach and notes that it was cited in the Dalbar Bank Studies of 1996 and 1995 for its accessibility to retail customers in 26 locations around the country. It is now closing its San Francisco and Atlanta offices, however, for lack of walk-in trade. A third center in Chicago is moving to a new address.

Patrice Kozlowski, vice president of corporate communications, says the leases on the three properties were expiring, but more important, the San Francisco and Atlanta offices were not meeting goals for attracting prospects. “Several of o ur clients were calling into those centers but were not visiting them,” she says. The Chicago office will reopen in a high-traffic area in a railroad station.

Dreyfus is searching to expand its presence in places where Pittsburgh-based Mellon will also benefit. In particular, the mutual fund organization will increase exposure for the parent’s products in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Washington, and seven Dreyfus centers in Florida, all places where Mellon already has a presence.

Dreyfus is coordinating marketing with such recent Mellon acquisitions as United National Bank in Miami (now Mellon National Bank) and Founders Asset Management in Denver, a $6.7 billion-asset mutual fund company. In Los Angeles, where Mellon this year closed its acquisition of First Business Bank, Dreyfus has a financial center and an online discount brokerage.

“It’s just another chapter in the change from the old Dreyfus to the new Dreyfus,” says Steve Lipper, senior vice president and director of sales development for Lipper Analytical Services Inc. in New York.

“In the old one, Howard Stein (retired chairman and chief executive of Dreyfus) viewed Fidelity (Investments) as its quintessential competitor. If Fidelity had retail outlets, Dreyfus would have them. If it had stand-alone retail outlets, Dreyfus would have stand-alone too. The new Dreyfus is trying to take advantage of the new parent, Mellon Bank,” and this is an indication as well that now Mellon is focusing on the development of its acquisitions.