Business North Carolina articles from August 2006

Business North Carolina archives from August 2006

Lost in the clouds.(UP FRONT)
August 1, 2006... We grew up together, Piedmont Airlines and I. My first airplane ride was on one of its DC-3s. I was just off the farm, and the Army was sending me to journalism school in New York City. Flunk out, they told me, and we'll put you in the...

Trend.
August 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Latest Previous Previous % change month month year from last year EMPLOYMENT ...

Stock watch.
August 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Highest price/earnings ratios P/E 6/30/06 52-week Company ratio (3) price range Winston Hotels 306.3...

CED seeks to sow more seed money.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)(Interview)
August 1, 2006... North Carolina companies struck fewer venture-capital deals in 2005 than the year before. But the amount they received grew 61% to $507.5 million, according to the MoneyTree Report, a national study of the industry. Companies in Research...

Eastern.(Stoplight-free U.S. 70 from Interstate 95 to More-head City would cost about $1 billion.)(Flanders Filters Inc., will open a factory in ELIZABETHTOWN.)(APG-Meridian to spend about $2.5 million to open a plant in HAMLET.)
August 1, 2006... Beating the lights would cost a billion Making U.S. 70 stoplight-free from Interstate 95 to More-head City would cost about $1 billion, says a study by Cary-based Kimley-Horn and Associates for the Highway 70 Corridor Commission. Carteret,...

Working capital.(REGIONAL REPORT)
August 1, 2006... Jobs: 764,484 YTD change: (6,832) Index: 100.2 Jobs: 892,832 YTD change: 26,158 Index: 109.3 Jobs: 495,147 YTD change: 7,615 Index: 103,0 Jobs: 1,012,654 YTD change: (90) Index: 105.0 ...

Triangle.(Higher electricity rates for businesses in much of eastern North Carolina.)(American Growler plans to move its headquarters to Robbins.)(TriVirix moves to Milaca, Minnesota, as part of a companywide reorganization.)
August 1, 2006... Rates might shock Progress customers Businesses in much of the eastern half of the state--and a pocket in the west--will face higher electricity rates this fall if the N.C. Utilities Commission approves a rate hike by Raleigh-based Progress...

Triad.(REGIONAL REPORT)
August 1, 2006... Nothing is cushy about furniture jobs Moving its headquarters from Lexington was just the start of changes at furniture maker Lexington Home Brands. Soon after the company landed in Thomasville, Bob Stec resigned after four years as...

Charlotte.(REGIONAL REPORT)
August 1, 2006... Duke Energy will pass gas to spinoff Duke Energy will split its natural gas and electricity operations into two publicly traded companies in January, a dramatic turnaround nine years after the Charlotte-based electricity company merged with...

Western.
August 1, 2006... Volvo digs itself in deeper in Asheville Volvo Construction Equipment will spend $30 million next year to double the size of its Asheville factory to about 400,000 square feet and add 264 workers, for a total of more than 500. The new...

NASCAR driver: don't do as I do, do as I sell.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
August 1, 2006... Ford Motor Co. executives didn't try to hide their displeasure after NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett announced he will race Toyotas next year instead of Fords. "We're obviously not happy," says Dan Davis, director of Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford...

WHAT THEY'RE READING.(Book review)
August 1, 2006... Lew Ebert, president, North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry Think Big, Act Small: How America's Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-up Spirit Alive by Jason Jennings This book features profiles of 10 successful...

Tattle tales.
August 1, 2006... * Hog wile: Winston-Salem lawyer James Early Jr. has invested 1,000 hours and $5,000 to start the North Carolina Barbecue Society, a nonprofit to promote the industry. One thing he seeks to avoid is an issue that has long split the state: Which...

Data bits.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... DATA BITS North Carolina leads the nation in tobacco production, but cigarettes are more popular in other states. Adult smokers 1 Kentucky 30.8% 2 West Virginia 27.4 3...

I'm sorry, Mr. Krebs.(Cartoon)
August 1, 2006... "I'm sorry, Mr. Krebs, but at present we're only interested in the employment experience you've had in THIS lifetime." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Figuratively speaking.
August 1, 2006... * Number of vacant positions at new-car dealerships in the U.S.: 104,803. Number of those that are sales jobs: 42,198. Estimated number of military veterans hired by auto dealers since January 2004: 15,000. * Percentage of undergraduate...

Distiller doesn't have a bootleg to stand on.(PEOPLE)
August 1, 2006... Shh, don't tell anyone: Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine isn't what it claims. It's corn liquor, but not the potent popskull distilled in stealth that blockaders ran down back roads. It's 80-proof, same as Jack Daniel's sipping whiskey. And unlike...

Quaff from Cup slakes Canes' parched coffers.(SPORTS SECTION)
August 1, 2006... What will help the most, hockey fans say, is if the Hurricanes can put a competitive team on the ice. But that, too, is questionable.... As of early September, the team's roster had stirred little excitement. --BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA,...

Nine that count: six recent IPOs and three new arrivals to the state number among this year's ranking of the Top 75 public companies.
August 1, 2006... Birth means nothing," the French playwright Moliere wrote, "where there is no virtue." For public companies, the standard is higher: Birth and virtue mean nothing without decent returns on investment. In the 12 months that ended June 30,...

GAAP toothed: when its independent auditor changed its tune, Highwoods Properties was left whistling in the dark.(COVER STORY)(Cover story)
August 1, 2006... Terry Stevens gathers reference books and a few family photographs for an elevator trip from the sixth floor to the fourth. Perhaps a dozen employees of Raleigh-based High-woods Properties Inc. will join him there. They've got a lot of work...

Down to earth: for Piedmont Airlines, its 1989 "merger of equals" with USAir was more like a funeral than a wedding.(BOOK EXCERPT)
August 1, 2006... In Piedmont: Flight of the Pacemaker, Frank Elliott tells the story of Piedmont Airlines, the Winston-Salem company that in its 40-year existence became an icon of Tar Heel business. In this excerpt, the Twin City journalist chronicles the...

Rubble rouser: for those who dig it, a quarry is a blast. But they have to make sure there's not a whole lot of shaking going on.(PICTURE THIS)
August 1, 2006... Quarries rock. Where else do you find trucks the size of small houses carrying 100,000 pounds of stone per load? Or machines that pound boulders into pea-sized pebbles? And explosives experts who can bring down a wall of granite with the...

Bricks & mortar.(The Carolina)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Golf is king in Pinehurst. The Carolina, a hotel that opened in 1901, wears a crown, too. Known as the Queen of the South, the 217-room landmark has been host to golfers great and not so great. James W. Tufts, Pinehurst's founder, built the...