Business North Carolina articles from September 2006

Business North Carolina archives from September 2006

Shut up and drive.(UP FRONT)
September 1, 2006... I am getting old. How I know is not the pink of my pate peeking through thinning thatch nor the persistent pain that predicts plastic and metal soon will replace gristle and bone in both my knees. No, how I can tell is by catching my reflection...

Trend.(Statistical table)
September 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Latest Previous Previous % change month month year from last year EMPLOYMENT Employed...

Stock watch.(Statistical table)
September 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Highest price/earnings ratios P/E 7/28/06 52-week Company ratio (3) price range Winston Hotels ...

N.C. house buyers have little room to complain.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)(Interview)
September 1, 2006... It might seem hard to believe as you're glancing through the real-estate listings, but houses in much of the state are priced about right, says a national study by Global Insight Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based economic forecaster, and National...

Eastern.(investments of Spatial Integrated Systems)(Stone Arcade Acquisition)
September 1, 2006... Pact to improve Teflon doesn't stick A partnership between UNC Chapel Hill and DuPont ended, and a proposed $275 million plant won't be built. They had been collaborating since 1999 to discover a cleaner way to make Teflon. They found it,...

Working capital.(REGIONAL REPORT)
September 1, 2006... Jobs: 495,405 YTD change: 7,873 Index: 103.1 Jobs: 765,190 YTD change: (6,126) Index: 100.3 Jobs: 898,400 YTD change: 31,726 Index: 110.0 Jobs: 1,014,508 YTD change: 1,764 Index: 105.2 ...

Triangle.(REGIONAL REPORT)
September 1, 2006... Holly Springs catches flu-vaccine plant Swiss drug maker Novartis will spend $267.5 million during the next five years to build a flu-vaccine factory that will employ 350 in Holly Springs. Novartis, which employs 677 in North Carolina,...

Triad.(Amarr Garage Doors)(Piedmont Triad Research Park)
September 1, 2006... Garage doors will lift Mocksville jobs Amarr Garage Doors, a Winston-Salem-based maker of residential and commercial garage doors, will spend $10.5 million to open a factory in Mocksville, creating 143 jobs in the next three years....

Charlotte.(REGIONAL REPORT)
September 1, 2006... Plants will rev up county's economy Boat maker Chris-Craft and Indian Motorcycle will open factories in Cleveland County and create more than 800 jobs. The companies, based in Sarasota, Fla., plan to invest $42 million during the next five...

Western.(Thieman Metals)(Carolinas HealthCare System)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Contract doesn't read like pulp friction Workers and management at Blue Ridge Paper in Canton (cover story, July 2005) have agreed on a three-year contract that provides pay increases and a guarantee that employees will keep their jobs if...

CED congratulates its 2006 Entrepreneurial Excellence Award winners.
September 1, 2006... ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS Karen LeVert, President, Southeast TechInventures Inc. DEAL OF THE YEAR - PUBLIC Targacept, Inc. DEAL OF THE YEAR - PRIVATE Square 1 Bank GROWTH...

Ports' cruising is bruising, but it still lands business.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
September 1, 2006... A cruise aboard a state-owned ferry for politicians, economic developers and prospects ended as a public-relations shipwreck. The State Ports Authority wound up apologizing, and Gov. Mike Easley berated Department of Transportation officials...

WHAT THEY'RE READING.(Brief article)(Recommended readings)
September 1, 2006... Jim Andrews, president, North Carolina State AFL-CIO Fourth Down & Goal to Go by Pat Taylor Pat Taylor is a former lieutenant governor of North Carolina, and his book is partly autobiography. It's a narrative--storytelling--that looks at...

You can drive his six-figure cars for five figures a year.(Privatus Ltd)(Company overview)
September 1, 2006... For Tom Pollan, owning a 2003 Ferrari 575 Maranello wasn't everything it was cracked up to be. The $240,000 car demanded costly insurance and lots of maintenance. When he went to a shopping center, he parked at the far edge of the lot to avoid...

Ex-Red Hat CEO bets big on bookmaking.(PEOPLE)
September 1, 2006... Bob Young left his job as CEO of Raleigh-based Red Hat Inc. in 1999, just after the maker of Linux operating-system software went public. But he didn't leave behind his open-source ethos. Lulu Inc., the Morrisville-based publishing company...

Blue Rhino founder converts gas to [H.sub.2]O.(PEOPLE)
September 1, 2006... Billy Prim is trying to do with water what he did with gas. In 1994, he launched propane distributor Blue Rhino and nurtured it into a $250 million business. Last year, he started Winston-Salem-based Primo Water Corp., based on the concept that...

Fleet Feet competes by staying on its toes.(SPORTS SECTION)
September 1, 2006... Huge chains such as Dick's Sporting Goods and The Sports Authority, which offer everything from lacrosse sticks to Gatorade mix, are dominant in sporting-goods retailing. But when it comes to increasing sales year after year, Carrboro-based...

Pay setters: chairmen of compensation committees give the lowdown on why executive pay keeps going up.(FEATURE)
September 1, 2006... Tom Smith ran a big grocery chain for 13 years and was paid handsomely for it. In 1998, his last full year as CEO of Salisbury-based Food Lion Inc., he earned $3 million, according to the formula BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA uses to calculate...

Pay vs. performance.
September 1, 2006... PAY VS. PERFORMANCE CEO COMPENSATION Exchange- Base 2006 CEO/ ticker/ salary Bonus 2005 Company Headquarters (000s)...

Game of chance: the N.C. Mountain State Fair in Asheville had been Powers Great American Midways' biggest date. That's how Corky Powers won the state fair midway contract. But will his fortune be tolled?(Big Butler Fair )(Cover story)
September 1, 2006... Gravel crunches underfoot as Corky Powers prowls the midway. In less than 24 hours, the Big Butler Fair will open. Off to one side, The Claw will beck-on daredevils. On the other, the spinning teacups will spill children's laughter. They are...

Down by the river; Nantahala Outdoor Center is one place business sends individuals to train them to work as teams.(PICTURE THIS)
September 1, 2006... I firmly believed that I didn't need anyone but me / I sincerely thought I was so complete / Look how wrong you can be. Rod Stewart, who wrote those lyrics, recorded them on the title track of Every Picture Tells a Story 35 years ago. That...

Bricks & mortar.
September 1, 2006... Shadow and sunlight fill the atrium of Wachovia's headquarters in Charlotte. Completed in 1990, it's a haven for the lunch crowd and shelter for strollers. It occupies what once was a plaza at the base of a 32-story bank tower. ...