Business North Carolina articles from March 2006

Business North Carolina archives from March 2006

Names to remember.(UP FRONT)
March 1, 2006... We need your help. As part of our silver anniversary celebration, we plan to salute the 25 people who had the biggest impact on North Carolina's economy in the last 25 years. We're going to profile them in our October issue, which is when BNC...

Trend.(employment )(taxable retail sales)(air passenger boardings)(construction)
March 1, 2006... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Latest Previous Previous % change month month year from last year EMPLOYMENT ...

Stock watch.
March 1, 2006... SPOTLIGHT Amid growing sales and profits, Fountain Powerboat Industries' share price more than doubled in three months. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Highest price/earnings ratios P/E...

Companies keep kicking the coverage off workers.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)(Interview)
March 1, 2006... The number of Tar Heels with employer-provided health insurance dropped by more than half a million between 1999-2000 and 2003-04, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The percentage of the state's...

Ports could put pier pressure on rivals.(EASTERN)
March 1, 2006... The State Ports Authority agreed to pay $30 million for 600 acres along the Cape Fear River near Southport to build a container terminal. Ports CEO Tom Eagar says the terminal will help North Carolina complete for East Coast shipments, expected...

Andrew.(EASTERN)
March 1, 2006... GOLDSBORO -- Andrew, an Orland Park, Ill.-based maker of satellite dishes, is building an $11.5 million, 125,000-square-foot factory near here. It will move 232 workers from its 75,000-square-foot Smithfield plant, which will close this year,...

Del Laboratories.(EASTERN)(employee relocation)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... WILMINGTON -- Del Laboratories, which makes cosmetics and over-the-counter drugs, would become New Hanover County's largest employer if it follows through on a plan to add 200 jobs, giving it a total of 1,050 by year end. The Uniondale,...

DuPont.(EASTERN)
March 1, 2006... KINSTON -- DuPont will spend $24 million to upgrade its plant here during the next three years. It will add 66 jobs, for a total of about 100, that will pay an average of $680 a week, compared with the Lenoir County average of $495. The plant...

Tarboro Textiles.(EASTERN)
March 1, 2006... TARBORO -- A new company, Tarboro Textiles, has begun manufacturing knit fabric at the former Glenoit Fabrics mill. It has 62 employees and could expand to 140 by this spring. Glenoit shut down in October because of declining demand.

Eagle Press.(EASTERN)
March 1, 2006... ROCKY MOUNT -- Eagle Press, which prints cards, envelopes and other items for businesses, will add about 40 jobs within three years, bringing its total to about 90.

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

REIT says these numbers are right.(TRIANGLE)
March 1, 2006... It took about nine months longer than usual, but Highwoods Properties, a Raleigh-based real-estate investment trust, finally filed its annual report for 2004--along with restated earnings for 2000 through 2003. It earned 20 cents a share in...

ATC Panels.(TRIANGLE)(investment in adding jobs)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... MONCURE -- ATC Panels will invest $25.5 million the next three years and add 65 jobs, bringing its total here to about 175. ATC Panels, part of Chile-based Aconcagua Holdings, makes composite wood panels, including particleboard and fiberboard....

Sageworks.(TRIANGLE)(employee relocation)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- Software developer Sageworks moved its 75 workers into a 15,000-square foot office twice the size of its old digs. It plans to hire 130 employees by May to keep up with demand for its products, which help businesses make sense of...

Centex Construction.(TRIANGLE)(prison construction)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- The State Construction Office says it found no proof of claims by minority business owners that subcontractors of Centex Construction, part of Dallas-based Centex, offered them money to pretend they were working on a Columbus County...

Workplace Options.(TRIANGLE)
March 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- Workplace Options, a provider of services for employee-assistance programs, is building a headquarters and service center here, which it hopes to move into next year and boost employment from 105 to 205 by 2009.

Brookdale Senior Living.(TRIANGLE)
March 1, 2006... CHAPEL HILL -- Brookdale Senior Living, a Chicago-based operator of nursing homes, agreed to buy Southern Assisted Living for $82.9 million. Included in the deal, expected to close by April, are 41 senior centers with 2,887 beds.

Ring Industrial Group.(TRIANGLE)
March 1, 2006... GARNER -- Ring Industrial Group, an Oakland, Tenn.-based maker of drainage systems, plans to open an assembly plant this month that will create up to 20 jobs.

Athenix.(TRIANGLE)
March 1, 2006... DURHAM -- Athenix, a biotech developing crops with greater herbicide tolerance and insect resistance, raised $13 million in its third round of venture capital, bringing the total to $33.5 million. The latest round was led by Finistere Partners...

Dimension Data.(TRIANGLE)
March 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- Dimension Data, a South African information-technology provider, plans to add as many as 40 employees here within three years, bringing the total to more than 80. Dimension recently launched a division aimed at winning more business...

August C. Stiefel Research Institute.(TRIANGLE)
March 1, 2006... The August C. Stiefel Research Institute, part of Coral Gables, Fla.-based drug maker Stiefel Laboratories, will invest more than $50 million to move to Research Triangle Park and create 200 jobs, most of them in research and development. Pay...

BB & T.(TRIAD)
March 1, 2006... WINSTON-SALEM -- BB & T agreed to buy Cleveland, Tenn.-based First Citizens Bancorp for $142.6 million. First Citizens is not connected with Raleigh-based First Citizens Banc-Shares. It has 16 branches in Tennessee, two in North Carolina and...

The Turman Group.(TRIAD)
March 1, 2006... LEXINGTON -- The Turman Group, a Floyd, Va.-based collection of businesses that make wood products, bought a Thomasville Furniture Industries factory for an undisclosed price. It opened Wilderness N.C., a lumber-drying operation that employs 15...

TIMCO Aviation Services.(TRIAD)(Ron Utecht appointed as president and chief operating officer)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... GREENSBORO -- TIMCO Aviation Services, which repairs and maintains airplanes, hired Ron Utecht, 62, as president and chief operating officer. He replaced Gil West, 44, who left in December. Utecht, a former senior vice president of maintenance...

Morton Metalcraft.(TRIAD)(expansion)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... WELCOME -- Morton, Ill.-based Morton Metalcraft is expanding its fabrication plant and will add up to 30 workers, for a total of about 280. The company makes metal parts for companies such as Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Ill., and...

Gold Toe Brands.(TRIAD)
March 1, 2006... BURLINGTON -- Sock maker Gold Toe Brands cut about 30 jobs at its plant here, reducing employment to about 500. The jobs were moved to a Gold Toe factory in Mexico to reduce costs.

PGA Tour.(TRIAD)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Greensboro will keep a spot on the PGA Tour, with its golf tournament moving to late August in 2007. The PGA Tour decided to reduce its tour dates, and many feared the Greensboro tournament wouldn't make the cut. Now it just needs to find a new...

Biotech will nourish organic farming.(TRIAD)
March 1, 2006... King of Prussia, Pa.-based biotech Tengion will pay for research by Wake Forest University Health Services' Institute for Regenerative Medicine to grow human organs. Terms weren't disclosed, but Wake officials say it is a multiyear,...

Lost generation finds Duke $330 million.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... Charlotte-based Duke Energy agreed to sell its wholesale power-generation assets outside the Midwest for $1.5 billion to New York-based LS Power Group. The deal includes part or all of eight power plants. Duke expects a one-time, pretax gain of...

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, part of Falls Church, Va.-based defense contractor General Dynamics, won a $19 million contract to supply the Army with enhanced armor for Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The armor will...

Gerdau Ameristeel.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- Gerdau Ameristeel, a Tampa, Fla.-based subsidiary of Brazilian steel maker Gerdau, will spend $26.3 million to expand operations here and add 30 jobs, for a total of nearly 300, in three years. The average weekly wage of the new...

Hexcel.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... STATESVILLE -- Stamford, Conn.-based Hexcel, which makes reinforcement materials, is closing a factory in Washington, Ga., and moving production here. The move, to be completed by July, will add 60 jobs to the Statesville plant, bringing...

American Tire Distributors.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- American Tire Distributors agreed to buy Sparks, Nev.-based Silver State Tire. Price was not disclosed. The purchase will allow the company to expand in California and into Nevada.

Active Concepts.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... LINCOLNTON -- South Plainfield, N.J.-based Active Concepts opened a factory here, employing about 25. The company makes materials for cosmetics.

Madison Marquette.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... MONROE -- Madison Marquette, a Washington, D.C.-based investment company, bought Monroe Mall for $19.7 million. It plans to start renovating this fall.

Air T.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... MAIDEN -- John Gioffre, 61, will retire June 30 as chief financial officer of Air T. The company, which offers overnight air-freight service, has not announced a successor.

US Airways Group.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways Group cut fares to 20 destinations from its hub at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. The airline, which merged last year with America West Holdings Group, is trying to remake itself as a...

UNC Charlotte.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- UNC Charlotte will add two doctoral programs this fall--one in business administration and one in organizational science. The school now offers 14 doctoral programs.

RBC Centura Banks.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- Raleigh-based RBC Centura Banks made a five-year commitment to sponsor UNC Charlotte's men's and women's basketball teams. Terms were not revealed, but the sponsorship allowed the school to install a new video scoreboard at Halton...

SPX.(CHARLOTTE)
March 1, 2006... Charlotte-based industrial conglomerate SPX sold Vance International, an investigation and security company, to Montreal-based Garda World Security for $67 million in cash. SPX, which owned Garda less than four years, wants to focus on growing...

Upgrade might stabilize parts plant.(WESTERN)(Continental Teves)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Continental Teves, which makes electronic braking systems at its Morganton factory, has begun a $100 million upgrade to make electronic systems that help prevent vehicles from overturning. Customers include automakers such as Ford, Mercedes,...

Maymead Materials.(WESTERN)
March 1, 2006... SPARTA -- Maymead Materials, a Mountain City, Tenn.-based asphalt maker, wants a court to reject an Alleghany County anti-pollution law passed after Maymead said it would build a plant here. The county in November banned land uses that are...

Carriage House Door.(home furnishing company completes renovation)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... OLD FORT -- Carriage House Door, a Sacramento, Calif.-based maker of garage doors, renovated a former textile plant and planned to open an 80-employee factory here in February. It will pay an average weekly wage of $490, compared with the...

Harris, Murr & Vermillion.(WESTERN)
March 1, 2006... WEAVERVILLE -- The Town Council rezoned land and cleared the way for a 500,000-square-foot shopping center, Northridge Commons, overriding opponents who insist it will hurt other businesses. The developer, Charlotte-based Harris, Murr &...

Beaver Paper.(WESTERN)
March 1, 2006... MARION -- Beaver Paper will move here from Atlanta by this fall. It will employ six initially and 45 by 2009. The paper maker is building a $4.7 million, 100,000-square-foot plant. Pay will average $817 a week, compared with the county average...

State wants company's jobs, not its business.(Hewitt Associates Inc.)
March 1, 2006... When a company offers to create 900 well-paying jobs, it's usually a no-brainer for the state Commerce Department. Officials craft an incentive package to cinch the deal and rush to get it signed before another state ups the ante. But it's...

BB & T has low view of high court's ruling.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
March 1, 2006... Looking back, what made BB & T Corp.'s highly publicized stand against eminent domain unusual was that the Winston-Salem-based bank took a stand at all. Banks usually don't. A Wachovia spokesman says that bank doesn't comment on loan policy. A...

New school buses are heater beaters.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
March 1, 2006... Federal regulators might like the 1,300 school buses bought by the state from High Point-based Thomas Built Buses two years ago. They produce fewer emissions. Students who have to ride in them, though, are more likely to gripe--once their teeth...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2006... The Legal Elite list in the January issue gave the wrong firm for James D. Wall, who practices business law at Wall Law Firm PC. The article about William K. Davis, top vote-getter in litigation, misidentified Walter W. Pitt Jr., one of his...

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
March 1, 2006... Tom Eagar, CEO, N.C. State Ports Authority The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This book facilitates discussion on building a cohesive leadership team,...

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Bill Redding, CEO, Acme-McCrary The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gladwell looks at change in society and compares it to an epidemic. He believes that ideas...

1776.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
March 1, 2006... Tim Rice, CEO, Moses Cone Health Systems 1776 by David McCullough [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I enjoyed learning about the leadership struggles that George Washington went through. This book really gives a sense of the difficulties...

Going, going, going.(TATTLE TALES)
March 1, 2006... Going, going, going: When John Forlines retired as chairman Jan. 8, it still didn't end the 88-year-old's 51-year gig with Bank of Granite. As part of his $1.3 million retirement package, he'll get $100,000 a year the next five years for...

Year's worth.(TATTLE TALES)
March 1, 2006... Year's worth: That's a bargain, considering Wachovia's tab for Vice Chairman Wallace Malone Jr.'s departure: $134 million. Malone, who retired Jan. 31, was chairman and CEO of SouthTrust when Wachovia bought the Alabama-based bank in November...

Next.(TATTLE TALES)
March 1, 2006... Next: Malone, 69, has a leg up on Forlines as far as future employment. His noncompete bars him from working for another bank for three years. Forlines has to wait five--when he'll be 93.

Black magic.(increase in revenue for convenient store The Pantry)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Black magic: Doubling net income during the first quarter would be cause for celebration in most companies. But The Pantry CEO Peter J. Sondini went out of his way to call it "an aberration." That's because the 27% increase in the price of gas...

Trolley folly.(TATTLE TALES)
March 1, 2006... Trolley folly: Tipped off by an old-timer, researchers discovered that the 81-year-old building housing Napper Tandy's Irish Pub in downtown Raleigh and listed in numerous historic registries as the city's former streetcar garage, well, wasn't....

Rising to the occasion.(TATTLE TALES)
March 1, 2006... Rising to the occasion: PHE is parent of Adam & Eve, a Hillsborough purveyor of porn and sex products that preachers once picketed. It's also Orange County's Business of the Year. Chamber officials lauded the great lengths the 325-employee...

Take that, please.(TATTLE TALES)
March 1, 2006... Take that, please: A meeting in which two Asheville insurance-agency partners told a third they wanted out ended when he allegedly shot them. "He was always polite," says one of the two wounded. "Personally, until he shot me, I liked him."

Data bits.
March 1, 2006... Voting-age residents of two counties with big universities were most likely to vote in the last presidential race. Orange 66.7% Watauga 66.2 Yancey 65.5 Wake 65.1 Those in some southeastern...

Government's lead.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2006... "Following the government's lead, I recommend we approve the use of torture and wiretapping to obtain vital product-satisfaction data from any customers who refuse to answer our in-store survey!" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Figuratively speaking.
March 1, 2006... * Average time American office workers spend each day organizing their work spaces: 20.1 minutes. Percentage of information stored only in electronic formats: 44.6. On paper: 34.4. Both: 20.9. * Percentage of wine drinkers who say they...

You don't change a lot converting to his system.(PEOPLE)
March 1, 2006... Call Bruce Thomas a driving force behind buses, tractor-trailers and other heavy-equipment vehicles. He has marketed them or technology for them more than 25 years. His latest product--a bypass-filtration system that he says will allow...

Ex-Dem operative wants Black sacked.(PEOPLE)
March 1, 2006... Joe Sinsheimer has long been a master at crafting political messages. His latest one is concise: Jim Black must go. Black, a Democrat from Matthews, is a 10-term state representative in his fourth term as House speaker. He's also a key figure...

She runs a couple of shell companies.(PEOPLE)(Rhee Sutton)(Peanut Processors Inc.)(Southern Peanut Co.)
March 1, 2006... Houston Peanuts, the salted-in-the-shell goobers bagged by Dublin-based Peanut Processors Inc., have been sold in nearly every Major League ballpark sometime or another the past 30 years. But in the middle of the 2001 season, they were dropped...

Scrumtious: retailer gets into another gear.(SPORTS SECTION)
March 1, 2006... A 1995 Inc. magazine article questioned whether Mike Moylan, CEO of Hills-borough-based soccer-equipment retailer Sports Endeavors Inc., had put his passion for the game above his stewardship of the business. The Fan Versus the Businessman...

Safety in numbers: it works for some, but merging hospitals into health-care systems isn't the remedy for all their financial afflictions.(FEATURE)
March 1, 2006... In the fog, bare trees loom like skeletons. A sidewalk leads from Fayetteville Street to ornate doors framed by a brace of caduceuses, the entwined serpents that symbolize medicine. From some vantage points on a winter morning in Asheboro,...

Luck of the draw: Charles Sanders knows a doc can't always pick his patients.(Cover story)
March 1, 2006... The doctor was probing, trying to determine the extent of the injury. How bad was it, Charles Sanders asked Kevin Geddings, a public-relations consultant and member of the N.C. Education Lottery Commission, which Sanders chairs. Before moving...

Howling success: Bobby Purcell has managed to bring out the beast in N.C. State boosters. Not bad for a Carolina grad.(FEATURE)
March 1, 2006... Most people like to brag about the college from which they graduated. Not Bobby Purcell. He brags about the one he left. Purcell heads the Wolfpack Club, the money machine that is the fundraising arm of N.C. State University athletics, but...

Slick trick: turning a basketball court into a hockey rink is merely a matter of picking up the pieces without losing your cool.(PICTURE THIS)
March 1, 2006... Considering that the main tenant of the Charlotte Bobcats Arena loses far more often than it wins, some of the best work there is done after the basketball team and its fans clear the exits. That's when Matt Sarabyan, 34, the Bobcats' director...

Center stage: Greenville helps keep a focus on the east.(Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce)(Advertisement)
March 1, 2006... The Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce's Web site stakes the claim, calling the city and county "the hub of Eastern North Carolina." It takes more than talk to make it true, of course. But Greenville leaders are doing their best to let...

Bricks & mortar.(Westin Hotel Co.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... All angle and attitude, the Westin Hotel in downtown Charlotte has 700 rooms and a shiny skin that reflects the mood of the sky. More than a pretty face, the slim profile hides 44,000 square feet of space. It opened in 2003. Portman Holdings...