Business North Carolina articles from January 2007

Business North Carolina archives from January 2007

Precedents and what ifs.(UP FRONT)(a feed back of the annual Legal Elite package)(Editorial)
January 1, 2007... A picture, so goes the Chinese proverb, is worth more than a thousand words. As part of our annual Legal Elite package, we had always written short profiles of the lawyers that received the most votes in each category, but this year decided to...

Trend.(Statistical table)
January 1, 2007... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Latest Previous Previous % change month month year from last year ...

Stock watch.(Statistical table)
January 1, 2007... SPOTLIGHT An increase in projected earnings for 2006 helped boost shares of Horizon Lines from the upper teens to more than $25. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Highest price/earnings ratios ...

Separate is not equal in corporate-tax listing.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)(Interview)
January 1, 2007... Gov. Mike Easley enters the final two years of his second term with the recent election having tightened the Democrats' grip on the General Assembly. His party's increased majority in both houses should help push his legislative agenda. Among...

Action caps ECU bid for dental school.(dental school of East Carolina University gets approved by governors)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Governors of the 16-campus University of North Carolina system approved a dentistry school for East Carolina University. The $90 million school requires funding from the legislature and probably won't graduate students before 2014. Even so,...

WestPoint Stevens.(EASTERN)
January 1, 2007... WAGRAM -- WestPoint Stevens will close a towel factory and distribution center here by April, letting go about 800 workers. Company executives blamed foreign competition. The West Point, Ga.-based maker of bedding and bathroom products has been...

Hanes Geo-Components.(EASTERN)
January 1, 2007... MIDDLESEX -- Hanes Geo-Components, which makes supplies for landscaping, plans to build a $4.5 million factory and distribution center that will employ more than 200 within three years. Hanes, part of Carthage, Mo.-based Leggett & Platt, will...

IWCO Direct.(EASTERN)
January 1, 2007... ELM CITY -- IWCO Direct, a Minneapolis-based direct-mail company, bought a 440-employee mail center from St. Petersburg, Fla.-based competitor Cox Target Media and will add about 100 employees by 2009. Cox had planned to close the center next...

Danaher Industrial Controls Group.(EASTERN)
January 1, 2007... ELIZABETHTOWN -- Gurnee, Ill.-based Danaher Industrial Controls Group will spend about $2.5 million to move operations by early 2007 from Connecticut and China, adding 13 jobs to the 280 it has here. It makes timers and other devices.

Birdsong Peanuts.(EASTERN)
January 1, 2007... BLADENBORO -- Birdsong Peanuts, part of Suffolk, Va.-based Birdsong, is building a $6 million processing plant here. When completed in August, it will employ four year-round and up to 10 during harvest.

Working capital.(REGIONAL REPORT)
January 1, 2007... Source: Employment Security Commission, September. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percentage of the average in 2000. [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

Drug company reverts to old formula.(TRIANGLE)
January 1, 2007... Dani Bolognesi, who helped develop the first drug to block infection by the virus that causes AIDS, is back as CEO of Morrisville-based Trimeris--two years after he relinquished the job. It's part of a restructuring to focus on research and...

Embrex.(TRIANGLE)
January 1, 2007... DURHAM -- New York-based drug giant Pfizer agreed to buy Embrex for $155 million. Embrex employs 306, about 200 in North Carolina, to make vaccines and develop machines that inoculate chicks before they hatch. It made $2.9 million on revenue of...

Talecris Biotherapeutics.(TRIANGLE)
January 1, 2007... RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Talecris Biotherapeutics, which makes medicine from plasma, agreed to buy 58 plasma-donation centers from Lafayette, La.-based International BioResources. Terms weren't disclosed. The deal will add 1,000 workers to...

Inspire Pharmaceuticals.(TRIANGLE)
January 1, 2007... DURHAM -- Its staff says the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should sue Durham-based Inspire Pharmaceuticals, CEO Christy Shaffer and Mary Bennett, head of operations and communications. The SEC had been investigating Inspire's...

Icagen.(TRIANGLE)
January 1, 2007... DURHAM -- Less than two years after its initial public offering of stock, Icagen is in danger of being delisted by Nasdaq. The drug developer's shares plummeted from about $4 to about $1 in early August after an unfavorable report on its first...

Red Hat.(TRIANGLE)
January 1, 2007... RALEIGH -- Red Hat, which sells and services the Linux computer operating system, plans to buy back up to $250 million in common stock and up to $75 million in debt. No timeline had been established.

SAS Institute.(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Software developer SAS Institute will close its international headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, in early 2007 and move operations to Cary, its global headquarters. About 240 SAS employees in Germany will be affected. The company has not said...

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... WINSTON-SALEM -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts paid $75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit. Shareholders contended that it had misrepresented its financial condition and inflated its stock price, which eventually fell from $49.37 a share Aug....

Randolph Community College.(TRIAD)
January 1, 2007... ASHEBORO -- Randolph Community College hired Robert Shackle-ford Jr., 54, as president, effective Jan. 1. He will replace Richard Heckman, who resigned in June after state auditors criticized the school's bookkeeping. Shackle-ford was vice...

North Carolina A & T State University.(North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University appoints James F. Battle)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... GREENSBORO -- James F. Battle, chancellor of Coppin State University in Baltimore, will become chancellor of North Carolina A & T State University July 1. Battle, 55, will replace James Renick, 57, who resigned in May to become senior vice...

VF Jeanswear.(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... WINSTON-SALEM -- VF Jeanswear, part of Greensboro-based apparel maker VF, plans to close a finishing plant here by late March, idling nearly 400. The company says it will outsource the work to a company in Costa Rica to be near production. The...

Unifi.(TRIAD)
January 1, 2007... GREENSBORO -- Unifi, which makes yarn and polyester, agreed to pay $65 million for the textured-yarn business of Paterson, N.J.-based Titan Textile. It expects sales of $130 million in 2006. Unifi lost $14.4 million on sales of $738.8 million...

Duke Energy.(TRIAD)
January 1, 2007... REIDSVILLE -- Charlotte-based Duke Energy purchased an 825-megawatt power plant near here from Houston-based Dynegy for $195 million. The plant can be fired by natural gas or oil and is used during times of high consumption.

Tencarva Machinery.(TRIAD)
January 1, 2007... GREENSBORO -- Tencarva Machinery, which sells and services industrial equipment such as sewage pumps, bought Engineering Equipment, a Richmond, Va.-based competitor. Terms were not disclosed. Tencarva added seven workers, for a total of about...

Hanesbrands.(TRIAD)
January 1, 2007... WINSTON-SALEM -- Hanesbrands bought a 93,000-square-foot sewing plant in Chonburi, Thailand, from Goldindo International. Terms were not disclosed. The factory, Hanesbrands' first in Asia, employs about 1,600. It makes bras under Playtex, Hanes...

Forsyth Medical Center.(TRIAD)
January 1, 2007... Forsyth Medical Center, part of Winston-Salem-based Novant Health, is appealing the state's rejection of its request to build an $84 million, 50-bed hospital in Kernersville. The Department of Health and Human Services says Forsyth Medical...

High Point wins at playing chukkers.(TRIAD)
January 1, 2007... Ralph Lauren Media, which manages a Web site for New York-based clothing maker Polo Ralph Lauren, is building a $40 million distribution center in High Point to fill online orders. Scheduled to open next summer, it will employ 200. The company...

BofA powers another Charlotte tower.(CHARLOTTE)
January 1, 2007... Charlotte-based Bank of America plans to build a 750,000-square-foot, 32-story office tower across from its corporate headquarters. About 1,200 BofA employees, along with those of tenants, will work in the $450 million tower when it opens in...

Kitchen Ventilation Systems.(CHARLOTTE)
January 1, 2007... KINGS MOUNTAIN -- Schofield, Wis.-based Kitchen Ventilation Systems will invest $5 million to open a factory that will create 86 jobs within three years. The plant, which will make commercial-grade equipment, will pay wages averaging $565 a...

Belk.(CHARLOTTE)
January 1, 2007... CHARLOTTE -- Belk will move administration of Parisian department stores from Birmingham, Ala., to its headquarters here by the end of March. Belk bought Parisian in August. About 400 jobs in Birmingham will be cut, and about 30 will be added...

Behringer Harvard REIT.(CHARLOTTE)
January 1, 2007... CHARLOTTE -- Behringer Harvard REIT, an Addison, Texas-based real-estate investment trust, bought the 40-story Bank of America Plaza downtown from Chicago-based Trizec Properties for $194.1 million. Built in 1974, the building has 20 stores and...

Park Sterling Bank.(CHARLOTTE)
January 1, 2007... CHARLOTTE -- Park Sterling Bank opened in late October after raising $45 million. CEO Bryan Kennedy helped start Charlotte-based Park Meridian Bank, which was bought by Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial in 2001.

East Coast Capital.(CHARLOTTE)
January 1, 2007... MONROE -- Winston-Salem-based developer East Coast Capital is planning a 38-acre mixed-use project with more than 140,000 square feet of stores and 100,000 square feet of offices. Costs weren't available. Presbyterian Healthcare will anchor the...

NewHope Bariatrics.(CHARLOTTE)
January 1, 2007... CHARLOTTE -- NewHope Bariatrics received $18.5 million in debt and equity financing from Austin Ventures, Versant Ventures and Square 1 Bank. New Hope will use the money to develop outpatient-surgery centers that treat obesity.

Newell Rubbermaid.(CHARLOTTE)
January 1, 2007... Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid will spend $5 million to build 50,000 square feet of office space and move the headquarters of Rubbermaid Home Products to Huntersville from Fairlawn, Ohio. Newell Rubbermaid, which employs about 375 in...

Fletcher hospital seeks a growth spurt.(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Park Ridge Hospital in Fletcher wants state approval to renovate its operating rooms, add another for Caesarean-section births and relocate labor and delivery rooms. The $25 million project will renovate about 28,000 square feet of the 103-bed...

Biltmore Eight.(WESTERN)
January 1, 2007... ASHEVILLE -- Biltmore Eight, an investment group headed by local developer Rusty Pulliam, bought Biltmore Square Mall for $20 million. The 500,000-square-foot shopping center was developed in 1989 by Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group,...

McCreary Modern.(WESTERN)
January 1, 2007... GAMEWELL -- McCreary Modern, a Newton-based furniture maker, bought a 137,000-square-foot factory here for an undisclosed sum. After renovations, McCreary plans to open it in the first quarter and hire about 45. CEO Bob McCreary says heavy...

J. Crew.(WESTERN)
January 1, 2007... ARDEN -- J. Crew, a New York-based clothing retailer with 225 stores nationwide, will double the size of its distribution center here to about 250,000 square feet in 2007. It's uncertain how many workers J. Crew will add to the 130 it has here....

Tennessee Valley Authority.(WESTERN)
January 1, 2007... ASHEVILLE -- North Carolina could begin interviewing witnesses in February for a lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority. The attorney general's office says pollution from TVA coal-fired power plants causes asthma and other respiratory...

Delta says dip causes it to take off from Kinston.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
January 1, 2007... In Eastern North Carolina, Delta Air Lines giveth--sometimes in return for incentives--and Delta Air Lines taketh away. The Atlanta-based carrier began twice-daily flights to its home airport in early December from Albert J. Ellis Airport, near...

Urge to merge is no dirge for BB & T.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
January 1, 2007... There's a reason many CEOs don't like to talk about mergers until they're done: Tongues wag, and people get nervous about what might happen. Take John Allison's recent statement that Winston-Salem-based BB & T Corp. is interested in a merger of...

Duke case leaves it out in the coal.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
January 1, 2007... It's not that Duke Energy Corp. would rather fight than switch when it comes to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules. The Charlotte-based utility is switching--spending nearly $1.8 billion to install emissions-cleaning scrubbers on its...

Judgment in Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... Reg Garner, CEO, TW Garner Food Co. Judgment in Death by J.D. Robb This is an intriguing novel whose lead character is a lieutenant in the New York Police Department. She's one tough cop. J.D. Robb is the pen name of Nora Roberts, who...

The Pillars of the Earth.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... Stephen Hill, CEO, Hillco Ltd. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett This novel takes us through about 900 years of history and how the families that built the great cathedrals swayed society and the religions they brought with them....

Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
January 1, 2007... Larry Wilson, CEO, Coastal Federal Credit Union Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead by James A. Balesco and Ralph C. Stayer It's about how we're different from the authoritarian society of our...

Designing woman seeks to shape Triad economy.(PEOPLE)
January 1, 2007... Design may not be among the first things that come to mind when thinking of the Triad. Furniture and cigarettes, yes. Textiles, maybe. But as traditional industries leave, the region's economic boosters have designs on design. That's where...

Doc knows success comes in small doses.(a brief skecth of physician Tom Young's career)(Biography)
January 1, 2007... Raleigh-based NeoFax LLC is a product of Tom Young's frustration. Early in his medical career, he found there were no guides for prescribing medicine to infants. Drug doses for babies must take into account such factors as age and weight....

He credits patrons' consuming ambition.(a brief sketch of restauranteur Steve Katsadouros life)(Biography)
January 1, 2007... Steve Katsadouros never followed through on a boyhood ambition to be a dentist, but he enjoys watching people sink their teeth into the hot dogs he sells as owner and president of Hot Dog World in Hendersonville. The restaurant passed a...

Lend leash: battered by the economy after its biggest deal, Insteel Industries also had to battle its bankers.
January 1, 2007... H. O. Woltz III was on top of the world--or about as high as he could get in Charlotte. A gaggle of bankers was feting him in a private dining room on a top floor of Bank of America's 60-story downtown skyscraper. As CEO of Mount Airy-based...

Black arts: our Mover and Shaker of the year has left a trail all over the state capital.(investigation of legislative officials)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... A slug, they say, can slither across a razor without getting nicked. That's the way it has been the past year for Jim Black. As state and federal probes proceeded at a snail's pace, snaring some of his associates along the way, the speaker of...

The young & the restless: law firms wrangle over ways to attract and keep talent that's headed to the top of the profession.(LEGAL ELITE)
January 1, 2007... In his opening statement, James M. Roane III had predicted things would get ugly, and they have. He holds up a photograph--as wide as his outstretched arms--of tangled metal and turns to the jury. "There was a family in this car. The other...

Legal Elite; These members of the bar are top-shelf: the state's best lawyers, picked by their peers, in 14 categories.
January 1, 2007... What prompts someone to become a lawyer, let alone one so skillful in a field as to be picked by peers as among the state's best? In many cases, a career can be shaped by another job, even that person's first, which usually has nothing to do...

Bricks & mortar.
January 1, 2007... Socks or not? Two big faux ones hang from the High Point building called the world's largest dresser. Built in the 1920s and remodeled in the '90s by boosters of the hosiery and furniture industries, it has 2,200 square feet plus an annex. Its...