Business North Carolina articles from April 2006

Business North Carolina archives from April 2006

Rise and shine.(UP FRONT)(Vintners)
April 1, 2006... Growing up, my only exposure to wine was the empty "short dogs" we'd sometimes find behind the well house at my grandparents' place. Grandpa Kinney was known to imbibe a bit--which, since he'd been a cabinetmaker, probably explained why he had...

Trend.
April 1, 2006... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Latest Previous Previous % change from month month year last year ...

Stock watch.
April 1, 2006... SPOTLIGHT The price of shares in Insteel Industries nearly doubled after it said it would buy back up to $15 million of stock this year. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Highest price/earnings ratios ...

School forum can't put a price on performance.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)(finance of public school systems)(Interview)
April 1, 2006... All public school systems aren't created equal, nor are they endowed by their creator with enough money to provide a sound education for all students, according to the Public School Forum of North Carolina, a Raleigh-based think tank. The gap...

For recruiter, Parton is sweet sorrow.(EASTERN)(building of entertainment complex)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Rick Watson, president of North Carolina's Northeast Partnership, will leave in June to manage a proposed $129 million entertainment complex headed by Randy Parton, brother of county-music star Dolly Parton, off Interstate 95 in Roanoke Rapids....

Hart & Cooley.(EASTERN)
April 1, 2006... TABOR CITY -- Hart & Cooley, a Holland, Mich.-based maker of heating and air-conditioning vents and other products, will build a $4.5 million factory here and create about 180 jobs by 2009. It will pay an average weekly wage of $495, about the...

Dare County.(EASTERN)
April 1, 2006... MANTEO -- Dare County residents voted overwhelmingly to reject a 1% sales tax to raise money for rebuilding eroded beaches. About 78% of nearly 6,900 voters opposed it. Opponents said the project would destroy the natural beauty and be unfair...

Muddy Waters.(EASTERN)
April 1, 2006... WILMINGTON -- Muddy Waters, a development company, plans to build two towers--about 20 stories each and totaling about 1 million square feet--on the west bank of the Cape Fear River. They would include condominiums, stores, offices and parking....

Waterfront storage.(EASTERN)
April 1, 2006... WILMINGTON -- With more than a quarter of a billion gallons of gasoline and other flammable liquids in waterfront storage, the city decided to buy a new fire boat. Officials hope to have the $1.2 million vessel, which can pump 5,000 gallons a...

Barnhill Contracting.(EASTERN)
April 1, 2006... WINDSOR -- Construction began on a $63.8 million bypass around this Bertie County town. The 9.5-mile route will be finished in 2008. Tarboro-based Barnhill Contracting is doing the work.

Working capital.(REGIONAL REPORT)
April 1, 2006... Source: Employment Security Commission, December. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percentage of the average in 2000. [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

Good Hope Hospital has little hope left.(TRIANGLE)
April 1, 2006... Harnett Health System, which owns Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital in Dunn, won a years-long battle over who could build another hospital in Harnett County (Tar Heel Tattler, September 2004). Harnett Health, managed by Raleigh-based WakeMed, won...

Progress Energy.(TRIANGLE)
April 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- Progress Energy avoided a big earnings hit by winning Internal Revenue Service approval for tax credits claimed since 1998 for synthetic-fuel production. Had the IRS disallowed the credits, Progress would have had to pay $311...

Cornerstone BioPharma.(TRIANGLE)
April 1, 2006... CARY -- Cornerstone BioPharma, a drug developer that seeks new uses for old drugs, laid off 40 employees, more than a third of its staff. Most were sales people hired to market a drug to fight infections. The project was shelved after new...

A4 Health Systems.(TRIANGLE)
April 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- Chicago-based All-scripts paid $272 million for A4 Health Systems, which helps doctors manage their practices and electronic records. A4 had revenue of $75 million last year. Most of its 400 employees will keep their jobs. CEO John...

Integrian.(TRIANGLE)(venture capital funds received)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... MORRISVILLE -- Integrian, which sells surveillance equipment for trains and buses, received $36 million in venture capital, pushing its total since its founding in 1999 to $54.5 million. The latest round was led by Switzerland-based Credit...

Etrials Worldwide.(TRIANGLE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- Etrials Worldwide went public by selling 40% of its shares to Tampa, Fla.-based CEA Acquisition, a public company formed in 2003, for $55 million. Etrials, which makes software for life-sciences companies, trades on Nasdaq as ETWC....

New Century Bancorp.(TRIANGLE)(takeover of lumberton based state bank)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... DUNN -- New Century Bancorp agreed to buy Lumberton-based Progressive State Bank for an undisclosed amount. New Century, which also has offices in Fayetteville, Clinton and Goldsboro, had assets of $436 million at the end of 2005. Progressive,...

The Pantry.(TRIANGLE)
April 1, 2006... SANFORD -- The Pantry bought 58 convenience stores in two deals. Price was not disclosed. It acquired 39 in Mississippi and Louisiana from Vicksburg, Miss.-based Waring Oil and 19 in North Carolina from Sanford-based Lee-Moore Oil. The Pantry...

MeadWestvaco.(TRIANGLE)
April 1, 2006... Stamford, Conn.-based MeadWestvaco will spend $14 million to consolidate research-and-development, engineering and other technology functions at N.C. State University's Centennial Campus in Raleigh. The packaging company, which employs about...

BNC Bancorp.(TRIAD)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... THOMASVILLE -- BNC Bancorp, parent of Bank of North Carolina, plans to buy Greensboro-based SterlingSouth Bank & Trust for $36 million in stock. The deal is set to close in the third quarter. BNC Bancorp will have 10 branches and about $743...

Targacept.(TRIAD)
April 1, 2006... WINSTON-SALEM -- Targacept, spun off by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in 2000 to find medical uses for nicotine, agreed to collaborate with British drug giant AstraZeneca on research and commercialization of a Targacept compound to treat Alzheimer's...

Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network.(TRIAD)
April 1, 2006... GREENSBORO -- Lisa Blakley, 50, resigned as CEO of Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network. She had been chief executive since the group was formed in October 2004. She did not reveal her plans. She came to the nonprofit, which helps startups,...

FNB Financial Services.(TRIAD)
April 1, 2006... GREENSBORO -- FNB Financial Services, parent of FNB Southeast bank, promoted Pressley A. Ridgill, 53, to CEO, replacing Ernest J. Sewell, 65, who retired. Ridgill joined the bank as chief operating officer in 2000 and has been president of the...

BB & T.(TRIAD)
April 1, 2006... WINSTON-SALEM -- BB & T bought FSB Financial, an Arlington, Texas-based automobile-finance company. Terms weren't disclosed. FSB is now part of Greenville-based Regional Acceptance, BB & T's auto-lending subsidiary.

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings.(TRIAD)
April 1, 2006... Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings plans to build a $12 million headquarters in a former hosiery warehouse in downtown Burlington. The city will give the medical-testing company, which had $3.3 billion in sales in 2005, incentives worth...

Air fares from Greensboro nose-dive.(TRIAD)
April 1, 2006... Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways cut fares to 33 cities from Piedmont Triad International Airport by as much as 66%. The Greensboro airport, which has been battling declining passenger traffic for months, had done well in recent years attracting...

Team cuts prices to put fans in stands.(CHARLOTTE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Charlotte Bobcats hope to bolster season-ticket sales by cutting prices an average of 14% for the 2006-07 season. They'll range from $430 to $11,825. The team won't disclose the number of season tickets it sold for this season. But owner...

Odyssey Logistics & Technology.(CHARLOTTE)
April 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- Odyssey Logistics & Technology, a Danbury, Conn.-based provider of logistical services for chemical makers, plans to hire 300 for a service center here during the next five years, bringing its local employment to about 365.

Sabo.(CHARLOTTE)
April 1, 2006... LINCOLNTON -- Sabo, a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based maker of oil- and water-pump seals, gaskets and hoses for automobile engines and transmissions, is spending $18 million to build a factory here. It is scheduled to open early next year and employ...

Timken.(CHARLOTTE)
April 1, 2006... LINCOLNTON -- Timken, a Canton, Ohio-based maker of automobile parts, is spending $17 million to add a production line to its factory here to make wheel assemblies for sport utility vehicles and light trucks. When it starts early next year, it...

Quality Culvert.(CHARLOTTE)
April 1, 2006... SHELBY -- Astutula, Fla.-based Quality Culvert, which makes corrugated polyethylene drainage pipes, is building a $4.5 million factory here. It's expected to start production in September and employ 35 within two years.

MedCath.(CHARLOTTE)
April 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- MedCath, which builds and operates heart hospitals, promoted O. Edwin French, 59, from chief operating officer to president and CEO. He succeeds John Casey, 60, who is retiring as CEO but will remain chairman.

SciVolutions.(CHARLOTTE)
April 1, 2006... GASTONIA -- SciVolutions plans to move here from Stoughton, Mass. The company makes colored bandages for retailers such as CVS, Wal-Mart, Eckerd and Dollar Tree. It plans to open this spring with 15 employees.

Pillowtex.(CHARLOTTE)
April 1, 2006... Bankrupt textile maker Pillowtex agreed to pay an average of $2,000 to about 6,000 former employees in 11 states. Pillowtex, which was based in Kannapolis, ceased operations in July 2003, eliminating more than 7,500 jobs--more than half of them...

Biltmore project lives up to its name.(WESTERN)(Volvo Construction Equipment North America Inc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... A $130 million project due to begin this summer will add more than 200,000 square feet of stores, a movie theater, hotel and 300 apartments to Biltmore Park in Asheville. The development already includes offices, including the North American...

Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Hotel.(WESTERN)
April 1, 2006... CHEROKEE -- Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Hotel plans to borrow $254 million for an expansion that will include a third hotel tower and a 3,000-seat auditorium. No timetable has been set. Members of a tribal board that governs gambling fear...

Anvil Knitware.(WESTERN)
April 1, 2006... SWANNANOA -- Anvil Knitware, a New York-based maker of T-shirt fabric, will close its 350-employee factory here and move production to Honduras next year.

Highlands-Cashiers Hospital.(WESTERN)
April 1, 2006... CASHIERS -- Highlands-Cashiers Hospital paid about $3.7 million for eight acres north of the town and plans to build a $4.5 million, 18,000-square-foot medical office complex. No timetable was announced.

EcoResin.(investing to expand and move its headquarters)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... RUTHERFORDTON -- Randleman-based EcoResin will spend at least $4.2 million to expand and move its headquarters here this spring. It has about 30 workers in Randleman and will create 62 jobs here during the next three years. It recycles plastic...

Clark Erwin.(WESTERN)
April 1, 2006... VALDESE -- Morganton developer Clark Erwin plans to convert a 70,000-square-foot former apparel mill into shops and restaurants. Kathy Hosiery Mill has been vacant about seven years. No schedule was set. Erwin recently completed a similar...

Idea of new Twin City flights is a real Hooters.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
April 1, 2006... Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem hasn't had passenger air travel since a US Airways commuter airline left in January 2000. It cost residents more than a loss of convenience. Without commercial passengers, Smith Reynolds doesn't qualify...

Charlotte companies slip south of border.(business enterprises relocation)
April 1, 2006... Charlotte recruiters know well the warm feeling of slipping their hands into pockets of other cities and pulling out corporate headquarters, offices or factories. But lately, they've been reminded too often how awful it feels to have their own...

$5.5 million gets you a giant fixer-upper.(The Rutledge Team selling a Asheville's Biltmore house)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Long, long ago--at least in cybertime--there was the dot-com boom. Five years after it went bust, its echo is producing the ultimate handyman's dream. It's 23,000 square feet, and the two-lane bowling alley is nice on days when the tennis court...

Correction.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2006... The largest-employers list in the February issue had Hickory-based Alex Lee Inc.'s headquarters in another city.

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
April 1, 2006... Steve Skolsky, CEO, Trimeris Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond It is an insightful, multidisciplinary look at the history of the world, examining the ongins of the key cultural and technological...

They Made America. From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
April 1, 2006... Ted Fowler, CEO, Golden Corral They Made America. From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators by Harold Evans This is a book with several fascinating stories about founders of companies that have been...

Flags of Our Fathers.(by James Bradley and Ron Powers )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Mike Williams, CEO, M.R. Williams Co. Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley with Ron Powers This is a wonderful book centered on the lives of the six flag-raisers captured on film in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo by Joe Rosenthal...

New Hanes job fits Sara Lee exec to a T.(John Wesley Hanes)(Lee Chaden)
April 1, 2006... It may not have the cachet of some of the other places he has called home--Paris, Rome and Toronto--but Winston-Salem has quickly grown on Lee Chaden, who came to the Triad with his wife two years ago. "We love it down here." That move, like...

Developer is able to fill in the blanks.(David A. Spetrino Jr. of Plantation Building Corp.)
April 1, 2006... David A. Spetrino Jr. always liked to build things. As a kid, it was tree forts in his Dumfries, Va., backyard. When he finished one, he would tear it down and try a new design. In high school, he was a carpenter's helper in nearby Dale City,...

Like his old boss, he isn't the retiring type.(Charles Snipes of Bank of Granite Corp. )
April 1, 2006... At an age when most executives are retired, Charles Snipes started a new job. But then, being 72 at Granite Falls-based Bank of Granite Corp. is different than being that age at other companies. That's because of the standard set by John A....

Bank finally gets on track with NASCAR.(SPORTS SECTION)
April 1, 2006... In 1977, when H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler was general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, it received its first loan from Charlotte-based NCNB Corp. The racetrack used the $2.2 million to add 10,000 seats, 17 VIP suites and a new press box--and...

Keeping on track: some Down East businesses fret they'll pay the freight for bringing competitive rail service to the state ports.(FEATURE)
April 1, 2006... When John Pike looks at the railroad tracks that serve his company, he sees more than two ribbons of steel stretching to the west. He sees a lifeline. He is operations director of Goldsboro Milling Co., which produces 500 million pounds of...

Entwined: it's how a family grew its business and resurrected a Tar Heel industry.(Duplin Wine Cellars Inc.)(Cover story)
April 1, 2006... Outside Duplin Winery, rain is crawling across the coastal plain toward Rose Hill. Inside, David Fussell retreats from a brightly lit gift shop into a dark room where grapes once passed into their afterlife. These days, it's a classroom for...

A lot of hot air: don't try to tell one of the largest U.S. balloon manufacturers that inflation is bad for business.(PICTURE THIS)
April 1, 2006... As it rises from the dewy earth at dawn, a hot-air balloon slips the bonds of science to become poetry. But first, in a birth that melds art, craftsmanship and technology, it must rise from fiber, fabric and wood on a factory floor. That's the...

Bricks & mortar.
April 1, 2006... For $72,000, they even got the clock and later, some say, acquired a ghost. In Wilmington, New Hanover County's seat of government was completed in 1893 and renovated in 1986. Queen Anne style and Tar Heel brick give haunting beauty to a...