Business North Carolina articles from August 2005

Business North Carolina archives from August 2005

Consistency.(UP FRONT)(Ed Martin wins Alliance of Area Business Publications Editorial Excellence Awards for best magazine feature)
August 1, 2005... For the third year in a row, a story by Senior Editor Ed Martin won the gold prize for best magazine feature in the Alliance (formerly Association) of Area Business Publications Editorial Excellence Awards--the fifth time in six years a writer...

Trend.(Illustration)
August 1, 2005... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Latest Previous Previous % change month month year from last year EMPLOYMENT ...

Stock watch.(Illustration)
August 1, 2005... SPOTLIGHT Though trading near its 52-week high at the end of June, SPX had one of the lowest price/earnings ratios of Tar Heel stocks. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Highest price/earnings ratios ...

They that go down to the sea in slips.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... A $3.4 million windfall fell apart when Carolina Beach officials failed to read the small print of a deed. They intended to sell a three-quarter-acre beachfront plot to a New York developer and use the proceeds to construct a library and other...

WestPoint Stevens.(EASTERN)(laid off about 300 workers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... WAGRAM -- WestPoint Stevens laid off about 300 workers in its towel factory here. The company, under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, would not discuss the layoffs, but Scotland County and state officials say the plant employed about 1,850.

US Airways Express.(EASTERN)(begun jet service from Craven Regional Airport to Charlotte)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... NEW BERN -- US Airways Express has begun jet service from Craven Regional Airport to Charlotte and started flights to Philadelphia. Two of the eight daily Charlotte flights are now by jet. The Philadelphia flights--two Saturday, one...

Airship Management Services.(EASTERN)(defense contracts)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... ELIZABETH CITY -- Airship Management Services may get a $1 million contract to develop a surveillance blimp for the military. The contract is in the Defense Department budget for 2006, pending appropriations. Such unmanned airships carry...

Colony Tire.(EASTERN)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... EDENTON -- Colony Tire will expand its distribution center here this summer, adding 22 jobs. It will spend about $800,000 to add 25,000 square feet. Formed in 1976 in Rodanthe, the company will have more than 450 Tar Heel workers after the...

New Hanover Regional Medical Center.(EASTERN)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... WILMINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Labor ruled New Hanover Regional Medical Center failed to pay about 3,400 employees adequate overtime pay and ordered the hospital to cough up a $1.3 million remedy. Investigators said the hospital sometimes...

Working capital.(REGIONAL REPORT)
August 1, 2005... Source: Employment Security Commission, April. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percentage of the average in 2000. [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

Rate proposal shocks manufacturers.(TRIANGLE)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Progress Energy is seeking its largest rate increase ever. Electricity bills would rise an average 15% for industrial customers, 11% for commercial customers and 9% for residential customers. Raleigh-based Progress says it needs the rate hike...

Hatteras Networks.(TRIANGLE)(finance)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... DURHAM -- Hatteras Networks raised $15 million in venture capital, bringing its haul to $73 million since the company started in 2000. Timonium, Md.-based Grotech Capital Group led the latest round. Hatteras makes equipment that enables...

Dill Air Controls Products.(TRIANGLE)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... OXFORD -- Auto-parts maker Dill Air Controls Products will move, here from Roxboro by the end of September. It will add 65 jobs, bringing the total to 150 during the next three years. Dill, owned by China's Shanghai Baolong Industries and...

Highwoods Properties.(TRIANGLE)(Securities and Exchange Commission )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... RALEIGH -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a financial restatement announced by Highwoods Properties in August 2004. When it announced the SEC investigation, the real-estate investment trust said it would restate...

N.C. State University.(TRIANGLE)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... RALEIGH -- N.C. State University broke ground on its $36 million Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center. The 91,000-square-foot center is slated to open in early 2007 and train 2,000 to 3,000 students a year for biomanufacturing jobs.

Extreme Networks.(TRIANGLE)(telecommunications-equipment maker)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Extreme Networks, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based telecommunications-equipment maker, bucked a trend by moving 20 customer-support jobs here from India in July. Executives wanted support close to the 25 researchers Extreme...

Cree.(TRIANGLE)(light-emitting diodes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... DURHAM -- Cree's Japanese distributor, Sumitomo, agreed to buy $200 million of light-emitting diodes in the fiscal year that started in June--a 25% increase over last year.

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.(TRIANGLE)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference will hold its basketball tournament in Raleigh for three years, starting in 2006. Raleigh, Wake County, the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Centennial Authority, which owns the arena...

Carlyle & Co.(TRIAD)(Finlay Enterprises mergers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... GREENSBORO -- New York-based jewelry retailer Finlay Enterprises bought Carlyle & Co. for $29 million. Carlyle's 34 stores had sales of $86 million in 2004. The company will operate as a subsidiary of Finlay.

Confluence Holdings.(TRIAD)(business closure)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... TRINITY -- Kayak maker Confluence Holdings closed its factory here, idling 120, and moved its headquarters to Easley, S.C., after buying the water-sports division of Arcata, Calif.-based WaterMark Sports. Terms of the purchase were not...

Lexington Home Brands.(TRIAD)(human resources)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... LEXINGTON -- Lexington Home Brands laid off 40 workers, bringing the total cut in 2005 to 195. The company blamed low-priced imports. Lexington still employs 770 here and about 1,025 in the state.

PGT Industries.(TRIAD)(expansion)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... LEXINGTON -- Venice, Fla.-based PGT Industries, which makes windows, doors and sunrooms, is expanding operations at its factory here. The company expected to add 115 jobs by mid-July, bringing employment to 465.

American Express.(TRIAD)(call centers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... HIGH POINT -- New York-based American Express will open a call center here in September that could employ 300 by the end of 2006. The move comes as the company is cutting its call centers from 30 to 11.

Region finally will get in over its head.(TRIAD)(Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority to fill Randleman Reservoir )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority is scheduled to begin filling the long-awaited Randleman Reservoir in January. The reservoir is designed to supply Greensboro, High Point, Jamestown, Archdale, Randleman and Randolph County with...

Biotechnology employment, which includes drug manufacturing and research and development, in the Triad lags the Triangle but exceeds that of Charlotte.(TRIAD)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Biotechnology employment, which includes drug manufacturing and research and development, in the Triad lags the Triangle but exceeds that of Charlotte, according to a study by three UNC Greensboro professors. The study defines the Triad,...

Plutonium blend boosts Duke's nuke.(CHARLOTTE)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Duke Power has begun the first American commercial use of mixed-oxide fuel, a blend of plutonium and uranium oxides, at its Catawba Nuclear Station on Lake Wylie. The project is part of a federal Department of Energy program to help the U.S....

Lowe's.(plans to open its first Canadian store in Toronto )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... MOORESVILLE -- Hardware retailer Lowe's will open its first Canadian store in Toronto in 2007. Long-term plans call for as many as 10 stores in Toronto and 100 across Canada.

Bank of America.(Bank of America acquires MBNA)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Bank of America agreed to acquire Wilmington, Del.-based credit-card issuer MBNA for $35 billion in stock and cash. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. BofA says the deal would result in the elimination of...

Goodrich.(B.F. Goodrich Aerospace is selling its cargo systems Boeing Co.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Aerospace giant Goodrich is selling cargo systems to Chicago-based Boeing for its 747, 767 and 777 jets. The contract runs through 2012 and is expected to generate more than $390 million. The systems are used to load and store...

McCreary Modern.(Home Fashions plant )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... NEWTON -- Furniture maker McCreary Modern will expand into a former Regency Home Fashions plant in nearby Conover by Sept. 1. McCreary, which employs 700 at plants in Newton, Lenoir and Maiden, will use 65 current employees to open a...

Curtiss-Wright Controls.(Curtiss-Wright corp appoints George Yohrling)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- David Adams, 51, suceeded George Yohrling, 64, as president of Curtiss-Wright Controls, the flight-systems unit of Roseland, N.J.-based Curtiss-Wright. Adams had been a senior vice president of electronic systems. He came to the...

Oiles America.(CHARLOTTE)(new location)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... CONCORD -- Oiles America, which makes automobile bearings, will move its headquarters from Plymouth, Mich., to its factory here by fall. It will add about 15 jobs, bringing employment to about 100. The subsidiary of Japan-based Oiles recently...

Dunkin' Donuts.(CHARLOTTE)(new buildings)
August 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin' Donuts, part of Britain-based Allied Domecq, plans to add 60 stores to the nine it has in the Charlotte television market, which has a 75-mile radius, by 2009.

Duke Power.(CHARLOTTE)(electric utilities)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Duke Power awarded a $500 million contract to Baton Rouge, La.-based Shaw Group and France-based ALSTOM Environmental Control Systems to install scrubbers at its largest coal-fired plant, Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes...

Piedmont Natural Gas.(CHARLOTTE)(gas meters)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... About 945,000 Piedmont Natural Gas customers' meters will be read by radio signal, rather than humans, by October 2007. Spokane, Wash.-based Itron got the contract to provide the automated meter readings in North Carolina, Tennessee and South...

Still more furniture workers take a seat.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The Tar Heel furniture industry will bleed more than 1,600 jobs between August and the end of the year as factories close in Lenoir, Rutherfordton and Thomasville. St. Louis-based Furniture Brands International, parent of Broyhill Furniture...

Raflatac.(WESTERN)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... FLETCHER -- Raflatac, which makes material for pressure-sensitive labels, will spend $24 million and add about 100 employees in the second expansion it has announced since late 2004. The first will add 70 workers and involve a $40 million...

Cone Mills.(WESTERN)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... CLIFFSIDE -- Rutherford County will lose 425 jobs when Cone Mills finishes reducing employment at one mill and moving jobs from another to Reidsville. Cone is cutting 215 of about 435 jobs at its denim plant and relocating all 210 positions at...

Plastic Packaging.(WESTERN)(buildings and facilities)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... FOREST CITY -- Plastic Packaging, which makes pouches and bags for retail products, will spend $2.4 million to expand its factory, adding 37 jobs to the 70 here. The Hickory-based company also operates a plant in Aberdeen. The new jobs here...

James Tool and Engineering.(WESTERN)(services)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... COLUMBUS -- James Tool and Engineering, which provides machining and tooling services for manufacturers, has opened a 10-employee shop here. The company, whose customers include Caterpillar, also has a 100-employee shop in Morganton, where it...

Sky-high land prices could derail Tweetsie.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)(Tweetsie Railroad)
August 1, 2005... Tweetsie Railroad inherited a lot from the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad, which served Boone from 1916 until 1950. Among other things, its high-pitched "tweet, tweet" whistle gave the Wild West theme park its name when it...

Nurseries don't dig captive competition.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
August 1, 2005... You've heard it from Triad textile and furniture manufacturers. They can't compete with cheap foreign labor, especially in China, where some of it comes from prisoners. Now the complaint is hitting closer to home: Some Guilford County...

Snack maker's new CEO gets sweet deal.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
August 1, 2005... David Singer made $854,026 last year in salary, bonuses and other compensation as chief financial officer of Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated. He resigned in May to become CEO of Charlotte-based snack maker Lance, where he'll make at...

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
August 1, 2005... Rick Anicetti, CEO, Food Lion Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Burck This book lays out the competitive possibility of linking the core business processes of people, strategy and...

The Daily Drucker.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
August 1, 2005... Joe Damore, CEO, Mission Health & Hospitals The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker For each day, Drucker provides an inspirational, one-page advisory about one of his principles of management and leadership and how each principle can be...

Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale and How a 19th Century Admiral Turned Science Into Poetry.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... John Pegram, CEO, Southern Bank Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale and How a 19th Century Admiral Turned Science Into Poetry by Scott Huler The subject is Sir Francis Beaufort and the development of the Beaufort Scale, but it's...

Higher learning.(TATTLE TALES)(East Carolina University)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Higher learning: Research Triangle Institute picked East Carolina University for a $2.1 million study on ways to curb heavy drinking by students. ECU was chosen, a researcher says, because it's involved in Gov. Mike Easley's task force on...

Send in the, uh, commotion squad.
August 1, 2005... Send in the, uh, commotion squad: In what little coverage the newspaper initially gave it--a piece inside the local section two days after it happened--The Charlotte Observer described the affair as a "melee" and a "commotion." Police had to...

Spin city.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Spin city: The story led with downtown boosters and police vowing that the show will go on next year and ended with a quote from Center City Partners President Michael Smith: "This is the safest district in Charlotte, and we are proud of that....

Ski lodged.(watercraft accidents )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Ski lodged: A runaway jet ski sped two miles across White Lake, leaped a sea wall, struck a flag pole, crashed into a house and stuck in a stairway while the family inside cowered behind a couch. Apres-ski bill: about $70,000.

Lake mistake.(TATTLE TALES)(University Lake clean up)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Lake mistake: Tests by the state Division of Water Quality might have required cleaning up University Lake, outside Chapel Hill, and limiting nearby development. Turns out the tests--showing high levels of chlorophyll, an early indicator of too...

Forget Paris.(TATTLE TALES)(television advetisements)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Forget Paris: A TV commercial showing wet hotel-heiress hottie Paris Hilton washing a car by writhing on it and chomping a burger wasn't to the taste of Rocky Mount-based Boddie-Noell Enterprises. Hardee's largest franchisee is running an...

Air ball.(TATTLE TALES)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Air ball: Struggling to build its fan base, the Charlotte Bobcats shuttered C-SET, the fledgling cable-television network that carried most of the National Basketball Association team's games but was available only as part of a pricey...

No tame dames.(TATTLE TALES)
August 1, 2005... No tame dames: The Debutante Brawlers and Trauma Queens, two new Raleigh women's roller derby teams, are averaging 300 fans--who pay at least $2 admission--to see players with such names as Kama Suture, Kitty Crowbar and Busty O'Lipp go at it....

Data bits.(average farm in North Carolina)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The average farm in North Carolina is smaller than those in 41 other states. Average acres per farm 1 Rhode Island 71 2 New Jersey 83 3 Massachusetts 85 4 Connecticut...

Figuratively speaking.(statistics)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... * Percentage of Americans who say what represents the American dream to them is financial security: 24. A good job: 14. Freedom: 14. * Percentage of U.S. businesses with fewer than 500 employees: 99.7. Of private-sector employment by...

In new job, he delivers more than just a speech.(PEOPLE)(Nido Qubein)
August 1, 2005... Nido Qubein has been holding forth for 10 minutes, occasionally interrupted by an "mm-hmm." He's talking about his first few months as president of High Point University. How the trustees recruited him. How he got former New York Mayor Rudy...

For customers, he's dyeing to tie one on.(PEOPLE)(Erik Chumley)
August 1, 2005... Erik Chumley will tell you with something approaching pride that he's never done much of anything in "the rat race." Such disdain is not surprising from someone whose resume includes carnival work, horse-trailer assembly and just about anything...

He grows business from the ground up.(PEOPLE)(David Pike)
August 1, 2005... David Pike's introduction to the rose business was far from fragrant: The owner of Witherspoon Rose Culture Inc.--Pike's father-in-law--put him in a dump truck, drove to a manure-filled cow shed near Durham, gave him a shovel and said, "We need...

For others, NASCAR Hall of Fame could be the pits.(Winston Cup collectibles)
August 1, 2005... When R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. ended its 33-year sponsorship of NASCAR's top series in 2003, Will Spencer didn't wait. The owner of Winston-Salem-based marketing and design company JKS Motorsports asked the cigarette maker, one of his clients,...

Banks on it: five more break into our annual ranking of Tar Heel public companies, which is headed by two of their bigger brethren.
August 1, 2005... Collectively, the state's largest public companies didn't have an awesome year, but it was better than a poke in the eye. BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA's Top 75, which ranks public companies based in the state by their market capitalization on June...

Glazed & confused: what happened to Krispy Kreme has investors scratching their heads. Here are some hints from beyond the grave.(Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.)(Cover Story)
August 1, 2005... Vernon Rudolph smoked and drank his way into an early grave. His doctor told him to quit--he'd had two heart attacks. But Rudolph, who founded Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. and built it into a $50 million business, was used to giving orders, not...

Learn to earn: the Triangle is home of world-famous universities. But for the region to thrive, leaders say, its residents need more schooling.(FEATURE)(Panel Discussion)
August 1, 2005... Collectively, the 13 counties that make up the Research Triangle Regional Partnership have the highest per capita personal income of any region in the state. That's due largely to the three universities that inspired the name--UNC Chapel Hill,...

Anchor away: Maureen O'Boyle left Charlotte to find national fame. Now she's glad to be doing the news in her hometown.(PICTURE THIS)
August 1, 2005... Gone are the 8 million viewers and a staff of nearly 200. The audience is a fraction as large and the staff, not a drop in the bucket. Instead of New York and Los Angeles, where she once worked, she's based in Charlotte, where she was born....

Crash course: executives find they need more education.(continuing education)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... Depending upon whom one asks, the necessity of obtaining a master's in business administration ranks anywhere from "growing," as argued in a May Financial Times piece, to "obsolete," recently suggested in U.S. News & World Report. Many of the...

Bricks & mortar.(Mattamuskeet lake)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Draining the state's largest natural lake--40,000-acre Mattamuskeet in Hyde County--with the world's biggest steam-powered pump station kept tapping out investors. The projects, started in 1915, died out in the Depression. The lake reclaimed...