St. Louis Business Journal articles from November 1998

St. Louis Business Journal archives from November 1998

Furbys to the rescue? Retailers brace for weaker holiday sales.(sales of Furbys talking fuzzy toy; St. Louis, MO, toy retailers)
November 2, 1998... Furbys, the talking fuzzy toys that just hit the St. Louis market, already promise to be a bright spot in a holiday selling season marked by uncertainties in the stock market and economy. At the Toys R Us store in St. Peters, its first...

NationsBank caters to ultrarich.
November 2, 1998... When Martha Stewart talks, Ray Stranghoener listens. Stranghoener, an attorney who worked his way up the trust services ladder at the former Boatmen's Trust Co., has been tabbed to head the new Wealth Strategies Group for the Private Bank...

Bunzl sees shares traded on New York Exchange: St. Louis is U.S. headquarters for British company.(Bunzl PLC)
November 2, 1998... Americans now can buy a piece of a little-known British company that, from its U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, has been quietly ringing up better than $1 billion in yearly sales. Bunzl PLC, the London-based distributor of paper and plastic...

Hobby turns to cash cow as Kupper hits $14.7 million.(Kupper Parker Communications)
November 2, 1998... A media consulting division that Bruce Kupper started as a sideline 19 years ago is helping boost Kupper Parker Communications to revenue of roughly $14.7 million for the year. The nine-person division, which consults with radio and...

PenUltima founders sued by Colorado competitor.(Colorado Pen Company Inc)
November 2, 1998... The founders of PenUltima, The Writing Store - a retail concept launched earlier this year in St. Louis - are being sued by a Colorado-based competitor for allegedly stealing trade secrets. In a suit filed Oct. 22 in U.S. District Court for...

BJC closes, converts MedFirst offices in restructuring.(BJC Health System)
November 2, 1998... BJC Health System has closed its MedFirst offices in Fenton and Lemay and converted MedFirst locations in Crestwood, Manchester, Maryland Heights and St. Peters into primary-care practices with the name BJC Health Center. The Fenton office...

Blue Cross seeks to curb bonus payments to brokers, trim budgets.(Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri)
November 2, 1998... Seeking to cut costs, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri is trying to curb bonus payments to insurance brokers. Michael Fulk, chief marketing executive at Blue Cross, said the bonus program he found when he joined the company last year...

Anthony, Allan & Quinn lands on Inc. 500 list on its way to $16 million in revenues.(database marketing firm)
November 2, 1998... Business Activity: Anthony, Allan & Quinn is No. 156 on the 1998 Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America - but, it probably won't be on the list in 1999. Not because the firm won't still be growing fast enough, but...

After off year, convention picture brighter for 1999.(St. Louis, MO)
November 2, 1998... Hit by the loss of two major conventions, 1998 is not shaping up as a stellar year for the St. Louis Convention and Visitor's Commission, at least in terms of the industry's standard measure of success: the number of hotel room nights used by...

Drury to build hotel linked to convention center in Ohio.(Drury Inns Inc)
November 2, 1998... Drury Inns Inc. has taken the lead in plans for a limited-service hotel connected to Ohio's Greater Columbus Convention Center. The Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority board on Oct. 20 approved entering into lease negotiations...

Contemporary's Capital Tickets adds Indianapolis.(Contemporary Productions)
November 2, 1998... Capital Tickets, the ticket sales unit of Contemporary Productions, continues to spread its capital. In addition to its operations here and in Kansas City, Oklahoma City and Dallas, the ticketing business recently started operations in...

Sverdrup being sold: close to deal with industry giant Jacobs Engineering.(Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.)
November 9, 1998... Sverdrup Corp., one of the largest engineering, architectural and construction firms in St. Louis, will be sold to Pasadena, Calif.-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., according to people familiar with the negotiations. Publicly owned...

Novus plan for Kirkwood.(Novus Development Co.; Missouri)
November 9, 1998... The third time could be the charm for the former Central Hardware site at the southwest corner of Kirkwood Road and Big Bend Boulevard in Kirkwood. Novus Development Co. has an option to buy the 6.5-acre site for an estimated $3.5 million....

The rebuilding of Stifel: Kruszewski lures 50 brokers, opens eight branches.(Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Pres. and CEO Ron Kruszewski)
November 9, 1998... Ron Kruszewski is betting he can rebuild Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. in the image of his former firm, Robert W. Baird. Since Kruszewski took over as president and chief executive of Stifel in September 1997, he has invested $5 million in new...

LMI Aerospace dragged down by Boeing's woes.
November 9, 1998... Stock of LMI Aerospace Inc. is in a tailspin as the Asian financial crisis has clouded prospects for its biggest customer, Boeing Co. LMI Aerospace is the holding company for St. Charles-based Leonard's Metal Inc. Last year, LMI rang up...

Digital Teleport director resigns in flap; James O'Donnell continues to hold options to buy 150,000 shares.
November 9, 1998... Digital Teleport Inc. director James V. O'Donnell has resigned over differences with management about the company's strategy. At a special board meeting Oct. 7, O'Donnell, who is president of Bush O'Donnell & Co., a management and...

Painting contractors Aetna, Mikilson will merge.(Aetna Coatings and Mikilson Painting & Wallcovering)
November 9, 1998... Two St. Louis-based painting contractors, Aetna Coatings and Mikilson Painting & Wallcovering, are merging, effective Dec. 1. The combined company will have revenue of $8 million to $10 million, ranking it among the largest painting...

Behlmann will reopen in O'Fallon, Ill.(Behlmann's Car-nection Pre-owned Megacenter)
November 9, 1998... Ken Behlmann, who reopened his Behlmann's Car-nection Pre-owned Mega-center on Oct. 1 in St. Peters, plans to reopen early next year in O'Fallon, Ill. Part of the reason for the relaunch is General Motors Corp.'s aggressive moves to regain...

MEMC sued by N.H. firm after orders are canceled.(MEMC Electronic Materials Inc.; New Hampshire company Ferrofluidics Corp.)
November 9, 1998... Suit seeks $6.8 million; negotiations under way A New Hampshire company has sued MEMC Electronic Materials Inc., seeking to recover $6.8 million it claims it is owed after MEMC canceled orders to buy equipment. The company,...

2 Houston firms battle for $10 million X Prize.(Lone Star Space Access Corp. and Civilian Astronaut Corps; X Prize Foundation)
November 9, 1998... Designing space plane for private passengers Two Houston firms have joined the race to win a $10 million prize that the St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation will give to the first company to send private passengers into space. Lone Star...

Good ideas are the rule at E=MC2; marketing firm calculates growth using Einstein as a model.(Small Business)(Ervin Marketing Creative Communications Inc.)
November 9, 1998... Business activity: E = [MC.sup.2], Ervin Marketing Creative Communications Inc., has taken to heart the popular saying, "You have to work smarter, not harder." With images of Albert Einstein throughout the office as the "mascot" for the...

Wave Technologies International Inc.(Proxy Reports Excerpt)(Company Profile)(Brief Article)
November 9, 1998... PROXY CORNER Money and management at companies with publicly traded stock. Information is from proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Proxies are used to keep shareholders informed about stock ownership and...

New owners beef up Wendy's.(Western and Southern Food Services LLC acquires franchise rights to Wendy's International Inc. in Saint Louis, Missouri)
November 16, 1998... Ronald Saverin, a former Wall Street attorney and transplanted New Yorker, is out to change the status quo in the local fast-food market. Saverin heads the company that recently acquired the Wendy's franchise rights to St. Louis and...

Ex-Ameren official seeks $1.2 million.(former Ameren Energy Pres Shannon Burchett)
November 16, 1998... Shannon Burchett wants to know why he was fired as president of Ameren Energy and has filed a lawsuit against the company seeking more than $1.2 million for breach of contract. Ameren Energy is the energy-trading subsidiary of Ameren Corp....

A Net gain.(Anet St. Louis acquires accessU.S.)
November 16, 1998... Semaan boosts Anet with acquisition Robert Semaan has turned a business-school thesis into one of the area's largest Internet service providers. The company Semaan helped found, Anet St. Louis, has acquired accessU.S. for an estimated $4...

3-5% sales growth would give Edison holiday cheer.(Edison Brothers Stores Inc.)
November 16, 1998... Edison Brothers Stores Inc. has been trying hard to be good and thinks Santa will reciprocate in kind this holiday season. While the St. Louis apparel and shoe retailer does not expect to meet the 6 percent to 8 percent gains projected by...

Argent Capital formed by EnterBank, Moneta officials.(Argent Capital Management LLC; EnterBank Holding Co.; Moneta Group Investment Advisors)
November 16, 1998... EnterBank Holding Co. and more than a dozen principals of Moneta Group Investment Advisors have invested $312,500 to launch Argent Capital Management LLC, a money management firm. John Meara, who was a portfolio manager at Commerce Bank...

$30 million office, retail park slated for Chesterfield.(Saint Louis, Missouri)
November 16, 1998... Two developments taking shape in Chesterfield Valley will add office and retail space and a hotel to an area that has rebuilt rapidly after the 1993 flood. Gundaker Commercial Group is developing a $30 million office and retail park on...

Boarder battle: A-B takes control of snowboarding competition.(Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.)
November 16, 1998... Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. is pushing ahead with plans to produce and control its own sporting events by expanding the Bud Light Boarder Battle snowboard competition into a three-event series this winter. Resort owner American Skiing Co. is...

Laser Vision sees brighter profit picture after FDA decision.(Laser Vision Centers Inc.)
November 16, 1998... Everywhere Dr. Gregg Berdy turned at the American Academy of Ophthalmology conference, his colleagues were talking about the Food and Drug Administration giving the OK to use excimer lasers to correct the vision of farsighted people. It's...

Room for growth.(Lodging Hospitality Management)(Company Profile)
November 16, 1998... Lodging Hospitality checks in with 20% annual growth Business activity: Backed by a strong economy and a good buyer's market, LHM (Lodging Hospitality Management) expects its 20 percent annual growth to continue. LHM owns eight hotels...

Amtrak longs to be more attractive to business riders.(Transportation & Distribution)
November 16, 1998... $1.7 million appropriation could-add plug-ins for laptops, fax machines and cell phones For business people who need to make quick trips between St. Louis and Kansas City or Chicago, flying usually makes more sense than taking Amtrak. ...

New logistics system keeps Witte Bros. drivers on time.(Transportation & Distribution)(Witte Brothers Exchange Inc.)
November 16, 1998... Family owned trucking business Witte Brothers Exchange Inc. has made efficiency its driving force. The company uses a logistics system that keeps its drivers 98 percent to 100 percent on time. Witte Brothers, based in Troy, Mo., has...

Citation Computer Systems Inc.(Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
November 16, 1998... J. Robert Copper Chairman and chief executive officer Citation Computer Systems Inc. provides client/server information systems for the health-care industry. The company reported a toss of $1.7 million, or 43 cents a share, on sales of...

Case, Peck vie for top post at BJC.(Ed Case, William Peck, BJC Health System)
November 23, 1998... A split among BJC Health System board members over the future of the system is emerging as the search begins in earnest for a new president and chief executive. People familiar with BJC said administrators and physicians associated with...

NewStar burns out.(NewStar Collaborative Technologies vanishes)
November 23, 1998... Local software company NewStar Collaborative Technologies has vanished, leaving dozens of investors in the dark about what happened. Larry Cowsert and Mike Dabbs, who founded the company in 1993, said they had a falling out over the summer,...

Kemper buys stake in K.C. Royals.(R. Crosby Kemper III; Kansas City Royals baseball team)
November 23, 1998... When New York lawyer Miles Prentice submitted the winning bid for the Kansas City Royals, it was with the help of R. Crosby Kemper III, president of UMB Bank of St. Louis. Kemper and his father, R. Crosby Kemper, chairman of Kansas...

Brown Smith Wallace pads services with three mergers.(accounting firm Brown, Smith, Wallace, Librach and Gordon)
November 23, 1998... Jeffrey Smith said he is not trying to keep up with the Joneses. But the accounting practice he leads, Brown Smith Wallace, is expanding beyond its core accounting practice into other financial areas - making it the most recent of local...

Des Peres branch next for Carrollton after purchase.(Carrollton Bank)
November 23, 1998... Oregon, Mo., bank bought for $3 million The purchase of a community bank in northwest Missouri has put Carrollton Bank on the fast track to open its Des Peres branch office by the end of the month. The bank, which is based in...

Small Miracles dresses up sales with CPI, Zany deals.(CPI Corp.; Zany Brainy)
November 23, 1998... Fifteen years ago, Mary Lewis was the proud inventor of the Motor Toter, a fabric mat depicting a village with plenty of roadways for miniature matchbox cars. The product, which Lewis debuted at the Affton High School craft fair, was a hit with...

OB/GYN group resigns from Unity over contract dispute.(Women's Health Physicians; Unity Health Network)
November 23, 1998... A contract dispute has prompted more than two-thirds of the doctors in Women's Health Physicians to resign from Unity Health Network. As a result, some women insured by Mercy Health Plans Inc. are being forced to change their...

Caseload: from cabinets to countertops - the Ravenvergs provide finishing touches to laboratories, hotels, convention centers.(Ravensberg Inc.)(Company Profile)
November 23, 1998... Business activity: Ravensberg Inc. puts the finishing touches on construction projects throughout the Midwest, with everything from movable walls for convention centers and hotels to cabinets, Countertops, sinks, faucets and fixtures in local...

Adult day care.(adult day care centers in St. Louis, Missouri)
November 23, 1998... Popularity grows as "sandwich generation" struggles to take care of their children and aging parents When Loretta Anderson was running an adult day care center in Huntsville, Ala., she saw an almost miraculous transformation take place...

Elder apartment communities on the rise in metro area.(St. Louis, Missouri)
November 23, 1998... As the population ages, more apartment communities geared toward senior citizens are popping up throughout St. Louis. Construction on Sarah Community, a 180,000-square-foot complex developed for six orders of Catholic nuns, began about a...

Jefferson Smurfit Corp.(proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
November 23, 1998... Richard W. Graham President and chief executive officer Jefferson Smurfit Corp. has been a manufacturer of paper, paperboard and packaging products made from recovered fiber and renewable forest products. On Nov. 17 the company's...

$70 million deal for Clayton Hole.(development plans for a retail, residential and office complex in Clayton, Missouri)
November 30, 1998... Miami developer Darryl Parmenter plans to fill in part of the Clayton Hole with a $70 million office, residential and retail development. Parmenter has 2.5 acres in front of the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis under contract. He plans to put a...

Bissinger's to expand.(Bissinger's French Confections)
November 30, 1998... With sales booming, Bissinger's French Confections is scouting the city for a site where it could double its manufacturing space, offer tours and open a chocolate museum. The historic company, which produces handmade chocolates at its...

8 Huntleigh brokers move to Smith, Moore & Co.(Huntleigh Securities Corp.)
November 30, 1998... Eight institutional brokers from Huntleigh Securities Corp. have jumped to Smith, Moore & Co., one of St. Louis' old-line investment houses. The group, which made the switch during the past six weeks, makes up the bulk of Smith Moore's...

Bohn and Dawson passes Citizens Bank Y2K test.(Citizens National Bank of Greater St. Louis)
November 30, 1998... Bank customers face greater systems scrutiny Steve Hurster, president of Bohn and Dawson Inc. in Kirkwood, initially was annoyed when Citizens National Bank of Greater St. Louis asked about his manufacturing company's readiness to face the...

Y2K costs total $317 million for 36 area public companies.(Year 2000 date change problem)
November 30, 1998... Thirty-six publicly held St. Louis-based companies are spending nearly one-third of a billion dollars to make sure their computer systems are up to snuff for the Year 2000. The 36 firms are spending a combined $317,323,000, according to...

Some retailers getting a cold chill from warm weather.
November 30, 1998... Alpine Shop, retailers of winter apparel could use a blast of Arctic air to boost sales Yes, the weather outside is delightful, but the mild temperatures have some retailers in a bit of a sweat over Thanksgiving weekend sales. "It's...

Accu-Care, EMS to care for crowds during pope's visit.(St. Louis Fire Department Emergency Medical Service)
November 30, 1998... Accu-Care Inc. and the St. Louis Fire Department Emergency Medical Service are beefing up staff to provide health-care services for the millions of people expected for the pope's visit here. Accu-Care will provide primary medical assistance...

Handling & Storage on the move: Nolans look at acquisitions; revenue expected to hit $12 million.
November 30, 1998... Business activity: The rhinoceros is a thick-skinned, aggressive animal - a perfect symbol and mascot for Handling & Storage Concepts. Founded in 1985, Handling & Storage adopted the rhino about 10 years ago to convey the firm's philosophy...

Missouri Employers Mutual sees premium income fall.
November 30, 1998... Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance, the workers' compensation giant that began writing policies in 1995, is on track to finish the year with $80 million in business and a total surplus of about $13 million, said Dennis Smith, its president and...

President Casinos Inc.(Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
November 30, 1998... John E. Connelly Chairman and chief executive officer President Casinos Inc. develops, owns and operates dockside and riverboat casinos, including the Admiral in St. Louis. It owns and manages hotel and ancillary properties associated with...