Business North Carolina articles from December 2005

Business North Carolina archives from December 2005

It was 20 years ago today.(UP FRONT)
December 1, 2005... As my son, the publisher, wrote in this space last month, BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA has embarked upon its 25th year and will celebrate its silver anniversary next October. This December marks another milestone, for me at least: 20 years I've been...

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

Stock watch.(Illustration)
December 1, 2005... SPOTLIGHT Despite a 4.3% increase in third-quarter earnings, Ruddick's adjusted stock price fell more than 20% from its 52-week high. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Highest price/earnings ratios ...

State's business climate shows signs of warming.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)(interview with Armen Bedroussian )(Interview)
December 1, 2005... It costs more to do business here than in South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, but at least North Carolina is cheaper than Virginia and most other states, according to the Milken Institute. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank has been...

Electrolux dishes up jobs in Kinston.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Electrolux, based in Huskvarna, Sweden, will spend $18 million to expand its Kinston plant by early 2007, adding 97 jobs. The company has made dishwashers there since 1989 and will start a production line for stainless-steel models. It already...

SENCA Properties.(EASTERN)
December 1, 2005... WILMINGTON -- New Hanover County commissioners vetoed a plan by a private company to build a medical-and-retail complex. SENCA Properties, consisting of about 100 doctors, proposed a medical center and 60-bed hospital and a 45-acre...

Pitt County Memorial Hospital.(EASTERN)
December 1, 2005... GREENVILLE -- Pitt County Memorial Hospital has installed a $5.6 million gamma knife that will permit it to remove many cancers without traditional surgery. The device, which uses targeted radiation, is housed at the Jenkins Cancer Center, a...

Eagle Group International.(EASTERN)
December 1, 2005... LUMBERTON -- Atlanta-based Eagle Group International opened a maintenance center for Army equipment in a former apparel factory. It employs about 60 at an average yearly wage of about $25,000. Generators, mobile kitchens and water-purification...

The Historic Preservation Commission.(EASTERN)
December 1, 2005... WILMINGTON -- The Historic Preservation Commission tentatively approved a 10-story downtown building that would be one of the city's tallest. If granted a final OK, developer Jim McFarland expects to finish the building, which would house 27...

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

Bowles becomes UNC's new kingpin.(University of North Carolina appoints Erskine Bowles)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Charlotte investment banker Erskine Bowles, 60, will replace Molly Broad, 64, as president of the 16-campus University of North Carolina system in January. He was born in Greensboro, the son of Skipper Bowles, a state legislator and...

Constella Group.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... DURHAM -- Constella Group, a provider of health services, won a five-year contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development that could be worth $325 million. The company will help developing countries devise policies to combat AIDS...

Serenex.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... DURHAM -- Serenex, a drug-discovery company, raised $30 million in third-round venture capital. Investors were led by Geneva, Ill.-based Ritchie Capital Management. The company, which is working on a treatment for the side effects of cancer...

ChannelAdvisor.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... MORRISVILLE -- ChannelAdvisor added 50 employees, for a total of about 150 here and 180 company-wide. It plans to add 20 next year. Its software helps companies such as IBM and Motorola sell slightly damaged goods and extra inventory on eBay,...

Aerie Pharmaceuticals.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Aerie Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company spun off by Duke University, landed $21 million in first-round venture capital. Investors were led by San Francisco-based Alta Partners and Fort Worth, Texas-based Texas...

Research Triangle Institute.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Research Triangle Institute won a $20 million contract from the U.S. Department of Education to study the effectiveness of student financial-aid programs in the U.S. RTI will study 85,000 students enrolled in...

Salix Pharmaceuticals.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... RALEIGH -- Salix Pharmaceuticals, which develops and markets treatments for gastrointestinal diseases, bought Blue Bell, Pa.-based InKine Pharmaceutical for $190 million. InKine had developed a tablet for cleaning bowels before colonoscopies.

The Pantry.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... SANFORD -- The Pantry bought 13 convenience stores in Alabama from Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based Chatham Oil, bringing its total in that state to 38. Terms weren't disclosed. The Pantry operates about 1,400 stores in 11 states.

Tekelec.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... MORRISVILLE -- Telecommunications equipment maker Tekelec bought what it didn't own of its Santera subsidiary for $75.6 million. Santera makes switches for voice and data networks.

Pozen.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... CHAPEL HILL -- Drug developer Pozen will get a $20 million payment from British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline for a compound they are developing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will review an application to market the migraine treatment...

Research Triangle Foundation.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Research Triangle Foundation, which owns Research Triangle Park, will build a 14,000-square-foot headquarters about a mile from its current one. Research Triangle Institute, which leases half of the foundation's...

Duke University.(TRIANGLE)
December 1, 2005... DURHAM -- Duke University will soon receive its largest single gift. The Duke Endowment of Charlotte, a private foundation, will give $75 million for student financial aid over the next three years.

Dex Media.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Cary-based phone-book publisher R.H. Donnelley agreed to buy a larger company, Englewood, Colo.-based Dex Media, for $4.2 billion in cash and stock. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2006 and create the third-largest...

Piedmont Triad Research Park.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... WINSTON-SALEM -- Wake Forest University hired Christopher H. Price, 57, as the first executive director of Piedmont Triad Research Park. He will be in charge of land acquisition, construction and recruiting. He is the former CEO of Research...

Weil-McLain.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... EDEN -- Michigan City, Ind.-based Weil-McLain, which makes boilers, moved its sheet-metal division to its factory here. It plans to increase employment by 35, to nearly 140.

Lexington Home Brands.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... LEXINGTON -- Furniture maker Lexington Home Brands is closing a plant here, idling about 360. The layoff began in November and was expected to take several months. The move leaves the company with three domestic plants--two here and one in...

StarPet.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... ASHEBORO -- StarPet, which makes resins used in food and beverage packaging, will spend $44 million during the next three years to expand its factory here. The expansion will create 40 jobs, increasing employment to about 100. The company is a...

Liberty Hardware Manufacturing.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... WINSTON-SALEM -- Taylor, Mich.-based Masco, which makes hardware and building supplies, is merging two divisions. Liberty Hardware Manufacturing, based here, will absorb Bath Unlimited, based in Randolph, N.J., by July 2006. Liberty expects to...

Hayward Pool Products.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... CLEMMONS -- Elizabeth, N.J.-based Hayward Pool Products, which makes swimming-pool equipment, will spend $10 million during the next three years to expand its factory and distribution center. It will add 75 jobs, bringing local employment to...

Dantherm Filtration.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... THOMASVILLE -- Dantherm Filtration, a Danish supplier of dust-removal products, will spend $3 million to expand. That would add about 30 jobs, for a total of nearly 200. When the expansion is completed in May, the company will have twice the...

Unilever.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... ASHEBORO -- Food and cosmetics maker Unilever, which has headquarters in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, will close its plant here, idling nearly 250. It makes soup mixes. Layoffs will begin in January and be complete by 2007....

Philly insurer pays a premium for J-P.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... Philadelphia-based Lincoln National is buying Greensboro-based insurer Jefferson-Pilot for $7.5 billion in cash and stock. If the deal closes as planned in the first quarter of 2006, Greensboro will lose one of its two Fortune 500...

Hanesbrands.(TRIAD)
December 1, 2005... Sara Lee's branded-apparel division, which will be called Hanesbrands when it is spun off next year in Winston-Salem, bought National Textiles, a yarn maker also based there. Terms weren't disclosed. National Textiles employed about 2,900, with...

Investors ante up for hot PokerPro.(PokerTek)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Matthews-based PokerTek bet on the stock market in mid-October, selling 2 million shares for $11 per share. The company, which employs 28, has developed an electronic system called PokerPro, which allows as many as 10 people to play Texas Hold...

MedCath.(Charles Slaton resigned)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- MedCath, which builds and operates heart hospitals, has changed senior management. CEO Charles Slaton, 48, resigned less than a month after being promoted from president and chief operating officer. He was succeeded by former CEO...

Meineke Holding.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Meineke Holding, which operates Meineke Car Care Centers, bought a paint-repair franchise based in Minneapolis for an undisclosed price. Aero-Colours specializes in an airbrush-retouching process to repair chips in car paint and...

Shurtape Technologies.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... CATAWBA -- Shurtape Technologies opened a 130,000-square-foot distribution center to speed delivery of the 5.8 million square feet of pressure-sensitive tape it ships each month. The Hickory company employs 833 in Catawba County, including 26...

Delta Air Lines.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... HICKORY -- Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, which began thrice-daily flights between Hickory and Atlanta in May, will end them Jan. 22, leaving Hickory Regional Airport without commercial service. The airport had struggled to fill half of the 120...

Lance.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Snack maker Lance purchased Columbus, Ga.-based competitor Tom's Foods in a bankruptcy court auction for $37.9 million. Tom's makes potato chips, crackers and other snacks at five factories in the Southeast. A Lance spokesman said...

Alpharma.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... LINCOLNTON -- Norwegian generic drug maker Alpharma will spend $7 million to expand its laboratory and factory here. At least 10 jobs, with wages averaging $620 a week, will be added, bringing employment to about 200.

Bank of America.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Bank of America bought Works, an Austin, Texas-based provider of commercial credit-card services. Terms were not disclosed. BofA said all Works employees, about 60, would remain in Austin.

Horizon Lines.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Shipping and logistics company Horizon Lines went public, offering 12.5 million shares at $10 per share. Horizon handles more than a third of domestic containers shipped from the continental U.S. to Alaska, Puerto Rico and Hawaii....

JER Partners.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- JER Partners, a McLean, Va.-based real-estate investment trust, bought Marriott Charlotte Executive Park Hotel for $21.2 million. It plans to renovate the 297-room hotel.

Cogdell Spencer.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Cogdell Spencer, which develops and manages 72 specialty medical-office buildings in five states, completed an initial public offering of 5.8 million shares at $17 per share.

Parthenon Capital.(CHARLOTTE)
December 1, 2005... CHARLOTTE -- Boston-based Parthenon Capital, a private-equity fund, bought a majority stake in American Wholesale Insurance Group, which sells property-and-casualty, group life and health coverage. American Wholesale will still own 30% of the...

Flowers Foods.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Thomasville, Ga.-based Flowers Foods, which makes bread and cake under Bunny, Sunbeam, Cobblestone Mills and other labels, plans to open a bakery in a Newton plant it purchased from Minneapolis-based CHS, which makes tortillas, cooking oil,...

Plant gets new beginning with Genesis.(WESTERN)
December 1, 2005... Genesis Furniture Industries, which makes upholstered furniture, will open a plant in Altapass in Mitchell County that will employ more than 200 by 2008. The Pontotoc, Miss.-based company spent about $900,000 to update a plant formerly occupied...

Alcoa Power Generating.(WESTERN)
December 1, 2005... ROBBINSVILLE -- The N.C. Department of Revenue ruled that Alcoa Power Generating, which built four hydroelectric projects in Graham County to generate electricity for its aluminum smelters, is not a utility. That means the company does not...

FedEx Ground.(WESTERN)
December 1, 2005... MILLS RIVER -- FedEx Ground, based in Pittsburgh, will open a distribution center in September 2006 that will employ as many as 80. Company officials say the $6 million center will accommodate about 100 vans. It will be built by Baseline...

DHRS Group.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... ASHEVILLE -- Construction could begin in 2006 on one of the tallest buildings here. Four investors who formed the DHRS Group say the 12-story building would include 48 condominiums and four floors of offices and stores. It would be in a section...

High Point leaders are not grieving Las Vegas.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
December 1, 2005... Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman laid his cards on the table a year ago, sure that he held the winning hand against organizers of the High Point International Home Furnishings Market. "If I were them," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "I'd be...

Natural gas hasn't boomed in the East.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
December 1, 2005... Maybe it's heresy, but the gospel of natural gas as an economic-development catalyst might have to be rewritten. A $188 million pipeline in Eastern North Carolina has failed to start a predicted stampede of industrial development. The...

Black and white issue colors project.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
December 1, 2005... The office manager had come back from lunch, so the visitor got up and closed the door. What Sam Helms had to say was private, but Tommy Vaughan wouldn't keep it that way. He claims Helms offered to pay his Ahoskie company not to work on a $94...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2005... A November Tattler item incorrectly reported commercial service at regional airports in New Bern and Jacksonville. Both have daily jet service to Charlotte. New Bern has a weekly turboprop flight to Philadelphia. Jacksonville has a weekly jet...

One Soldier's Story: A Memoir.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
December 1, 2005... Edward J. Fritsch, CEO, Highwoods Properties One Soldier's Story: A Memoir by Bob Dole This memoir depicts the early years of a man who overcame nearly insurmountable odds by surviving life-threatening wartime injuries. It provides...

Winning.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Roy T. Rimmer Jr., CEO, TIMCO Aviation Services Winning by Jack Welch with Suzy Welch The former General Electric CEO and his wife have crafted a book whose sections on leadership and hiring resonate with rich advice. People are the...

1776.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Jim Chesnutt, CEO, National Spinning 1776 by David McCullough This book covers the year 1776. It chronicles things that allowed America to break away from the British. It's a wonderful book that shows the courage of George Washington...

That's appreciation.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2005... That's appreciation: Two weeks after announcing it was considering a sale or merger, Unifi said it had agreed to pay four executives nearly three times their annual salaries if they lost their jobs due to a sale or merger.

That's depreciation.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2005... That's depreciation: The Greensboro-based yarn maker and texturizer took a $1.5 million charge because one of three buildings in Mayodan it plans to sell had been overvalued on its books.

Homeward bound.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2005... Homeward bound: Domestic maven and former prisoner in her own home Martha Stewart is helping Los Angeles-based KB Home develop a line of branded homes, the first 650 to be built in Cary. In a statement, she describes them as "beautiful and...

Speed trap.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2005... Speed trap: As of early November, seven tractor-trailers had been pinned this year under a railroad overpass in downtown Greensboro. That's what happens when 13 1/2-foot-tall trucks ignore signs about 11-foot-10 clearances.

It won't be a fleabag.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2005... It won't be a fleabag: About 500 occupants of Pet Rest Cemetery in Raleigh were laid to rest--again--after the 2-acre tract was sold for $750,000 to a developer, possibly for a hotel.

Dying to get in.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2005... Dying to get in: Those who are convinced that UNC is blue heaven can have their ashes scattered or buried in a garden next to the university cemetery. Given what apartments rent for in Chapel Hill, $350 for all eternity isn't a bad deal.

Data bits.
December 1, 2005... Students in Orange County posted the highest average SAT scores in 2005... Orange 1,144 Watauga 1,101 Wake 1,079 Clay 1,075 Buncombe 1,066 ... while those in Bertie posted the lowest. ...

Knows of which he speaks.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2005... Knows of which he speaks: Talk about two Americas--presidential wannabe John Edwards is moonlightings as a senior adviser to New York private-equity firm Fortress Investment Group, but his day job is director of UNC Chapel Hill's Center on...

Figuratively speaking.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... * Percentage of U.S. workers who would continue in their jobs if they won a lottery worth $10 million in instant wealth: 36. Who would find a different job: 24. Who would stop working: 39. * Rank of Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM and GE as the...

Designer will draw on past to shape future.(PEOPLE)
December 1, 2005... Nancy Webster might be the most influential home-design diva you've never heard of. Last year, HFN, a trade publication, ranked her the third-most-powerful person in home fashion and design, behind French designer Philippe Starck and Martha...

Opening up rivers really floats his boat.
December 1, 2005... Mark Singleton is the first to admit that he's become "an office stiff." Shuffling papers and sitting at a desk might draw no such self-deprecation from many other 49-year-olds. But then Singleton probably has spent more of his life outdoors...

She's happiest when you just mail it in.(PEOPLE)(Heather Lowry from CheckPoint Mailers )
December 1, 2005... Heather Lowry was on the move, as usual, trying to catch a plane from Charlotte to Seattle. But security guards confiscated a pocketknife from a woman in line ahead of her. It had belonged to her grandfather, the woman said, and she didn't want...

Move to fall springs new trap for golf tournament.(Greensboro)
December 1, 2005... When it comes to pro sports, Greensboro has been second-string. Sure, it hosted a National Hockey League team from 1997 to 1999--but only because the Carolina Hurricanes were still building their home arena in Raleigh. [ILLUSTRATION...

Auto motive: our Small Business of the Year winner is a real wheeler dealer.(FEATURE)
December 1, 2005... In 1897, W.T. Jones built his wife a Victorian mansion, still standing on Carthage's main street a few blocks from where it circles Moore County's courthouse. He was the president of Tyson & Jones Buggy Manufacturing Co., which in 1890, its...

Grounded: under Paul Anderson, Duke Energy is down to earth again. But that's how he's getting it ready to soar.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2005... Along the bottomlands, wind rustles millet planted for migrating ducks and geese. A coyote, once a symbol of the Western frontier, lopes off into the underbrush. Jack Mason, a state game biologist, isn't surprised. "They're everywhere nowadays....

Stormy whether: what went down on the Gulf Coast will push up insurance costs in North Carolina. But when, how much and for whom?(FEATURE)
December 1, 2005... The sand went first. As the waves of Hurricane Ophelia pounded Emerald Isle in September, thousands of tons of it, pumped onto the eroding beach in recent years, vanished back into the thrashing Atlantic. Then came more than a foot of rain. The...

Basic training: a short-line railroad keeps it simple with ties that bind industry over the long haul.(PICTURE THIS)
December 1, 2005... In less than three hours, the blue locomotive rumbles through the sandhills and flatlands of Moore, Hoke and Cumberland counties, covering its 46-mile run between Aberdeen and Fayetteville. Rail cars follow--sometimes as many as 50--as the...

Reign maker: the Queen City showers riches on its region, but critics say it's all wet.(Interview)
December 1, 2005... While Charlotte calls itself the Queen City, the rest of North Carolina calls it other names: The Great State of Mecklenburg is the nicest. Why the hard feelings? That's what Senior Editor Arthur O. Murray asked five leaders who live and work...

Bricks & mortar.
December 1, 2005... Architect Cesar Pelli described it as his best effort, but he was inspired. Moravians left their mark on Winston-Salem with features such as domes and arches nearly 250 years before the Wachovia Center was finished in 1995. Pelli says they...