Business First-Columbus articles from May 1999

Business First-Columbus archives from May 1999

DLZ is juiced on India.(DLZ Corp.)
May 7, 1999... Vikram "Raj" Rajadhyaksha knew expanding his business internationally would be difficult, but he didn't expect culture shock when his efforts took him back to his homeland. But that's what Rajadhyaksha, CEO of Columbus' largest engineering...

Hospitals' admissions up in '98, led by Riverside.(Columbus, Ohio)
May 7, 1999... Riverside Methodist Hospital's campus, bustling with patients last year, maintained its position as the busiest hospital in town. Riverside reported an increase of 3,172 parent admissions in 1998, a 7 percent increase from 1997, according...

Donatos gives McDonald's another recipe for growth.(Donatos Pizza Inc.)
May 7, 1999... The acquisition of Donatos Pizza Inc. by McDonald's Corp. may have come as a surprise in Columbus, but it didn't shock restaurant industry analysts and observers. Roger Blackwell, Ohio State University marketing professor and president of...

Ricart turns over operation of agency.(Ricart Automotive Group)
May 7, 1999... Gardiner Allen runs Tracir day to day following restructuring Ricart Automotive Group has turned over operation of its Tracir insurance agency to Gardiner Allen Insurance Agency after premium volume failed to live up to expectations. ...

Fourthchannel set to strut for venture capital partners.
May 7, 1999... Firm heads to Innovest '99 to find fuel for its growth Jonathan York thinks his company is the only pure Internet software start-up in Columbus. But his Fourthchannel tech firm won't be the only one of its kind at next week's Innovest...

Limited's moves shifting attention to flagship stores.(Limited Inc.)
May 7, 1999... Analysts think a Limited Inc. with its Limited Too division spun off and 60 percent of its growing Galyan's Trading Co. sporting goods retailer sold will be a company that can focus on turning around its ailing apparel business. But...

Robys rev up the Toy Barn: auto merchants adding Panoz cars to exotic lineup.
May 7, 1999... Roby Automotive Group will sell a street-legal high-performance sports car from a Dublin automobile dealership that owners Dick and Jeff Roby appropriately named the Toy Barn. The cars are manufactured by Georgia-based Panoz Auto...

Property manager Steiner picks its GM for Easton Town Center.(Steiner + Associates)
May 7, 1999... With less than two months to the June 30 opening of Easton Town Center, the shopping and entertainment complex's management company has picked the executives who will run the center. Columbus-based Sterner + Associates said Mike...

City's demands spawn DubLink development.(Dublin, Ohio)
May 7, 1999... If you build it, they will come. That was Eric Smith's staunch belief two years ago when Fishel Co. decided to develop a first-of-its-kind fiber optic communication network for Dublin's business district. Nowadays, Smith, who is Fishel...

A piece of the pie: a city advocacy group helps minority and female-owned firms grow their businesses by helping them compete for city contracts.
May 7, 1999... Business has been good for Communications Design Group Inc. (CDG), a local dealer and servicer of Motorola two-way radios and other related products. In fact, the company was recently authorized by the Nextel Corp. to sell its line of digital...

Retail remake: Yoder crafts Kroger upscale design.(Inside Report: Office Equipment & Design)
May 7, 1999... It can be a meeting of the minds or a marriage made in hell when corporate biggies want a new look for their retail entity. But a new creative bent can be successfully integrated with retail efficiency, said Roy J. Yoder, president of Roy...

Riverside eyes heart hospital.(Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospitals)
May 14, 1999... Cardiac project pumps more investment into growing line of business for hospitals Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospitals is proposing a heart hospital on its Riverside campus to maintain its edge for heart services in Central Ohio. Plans...

Dealers mull Ford network in Columbus.(Ford Motor Co.)
May 14, 1999... Columbus automobile dealers are talking with Ford Motor Co. about forming a joint venture to sell the automaker's vehicles under a Columbus Auto Collection, Business First has learned. Auto Collection is the new moniker for Ford Retail...

Day trading dawns in Columbus.(Ohio)
May 14, 1999... Day trading is coming to Columbus. Soon area investors will be able to enjoy direct access to the stock market, where they can grab a sliver of the billions of dollars changing hands every day and retire early - or blow their life savings...

Sorting union differences delaying Honda vote push.(Honda of America Manufacturing)
May 14, 1999... A decision to push for a union election at Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. has been delayed until at least late June as the Teamsters and United Auto Workers await word on which union can attempt to organize workers at the automaker's...

Keim keeps car dealership in family, but not North Side.(Jim Keim Ford)
May 14, 1999... Jim Keim Ford shifts expanded showroom to west end On May 13, at the North High Street car dealership his father operated for 20 years, Jim Keim locked the door to Bob Keim Ford for the last time. Four days later, he opened Jim Keim...

Mekka operator has plans for 2 clubs at Easton center.(nightclub)
May 14, 1999... A little of the tang of Miami's South Beach is planned for Easton Town Center. Thomas Higgins, owner of the Columbus nightclub Mekka, will spend $1 million to develop Dominica, a restaurant and bar, and the Shark Club Bowling & Billiards...

Buoyant economy lifts area's construction industry.(Columbus, Ohio)
May 14, 1999... Drive anywhere, in any direction on Greater Columbus' freeways and a visitor can spot the cranes and steel skeletons that mark perhaps the greatest building boom in the city's history. Even downtown, which received less than its share of...

CEOs' hopes accompany business plans to Innovest.
May 14, 1999... Sri Sriram had been working on his company's business presentation for more than two months. This week, he was given 10 minutes to tell a group of national investors and technology professionals about it at Innovest '99. The president of...

Huntington puts its name on the line in ad campaign.(Huntington Bancshares Inc.)
May 14, 1999... Huntington Bancshares Inc. will launch the most expensive advertising campaign in its history May 16 as it tries to build its brand awareness. The campaign will differ from other advertising by the Columbus-based bank because it will focus...

Bound for success: sure, customers are important, but building good relationships with vendors also is key to long-term growth.
May 14, 1999... It certainly pays to secure good relationships with customers, but nurturing friendships with vendors can be just as important, experts say. For example, good ink suppliers are hard to find, said Steve Held, president of Old Trail Printing...

ER diversions stir concern: ambulances sometimes steered from crowded hospitals.(emergency room)
May 21, 1999... A Clinton Township ambulance crew was en route in December to a local hospital with a patient in cardiac arrest only to discover the hospital's emergency room was unable to treat more patients. Immediately, the squad headed for the nearest...

Duke expands New Albany project profile with 'spec' project.(Duke Realty Investments Inc.)
May 21, 1999... Duke Realty Investments Inc. plans its first speculative office building at the New Albany Business Campus with a Columbus-based designer and installer of communications cabling systems as the anchor tenant. Indianapolis-based Duke has...

Secretary of State division gets overhaul: upgrades, equipment coming to beleaguered business services unit.
May 21, 1999... In eight years under Bob Taft, the Ohio Secretary of State's business services division was run so poorly that incorporation filings that used to take a week to process can now take more than two months, business and corporate attorneys said....

Tech worker demand prompts $6M DeVry expansion.(includes related article on another DeVry division)
May 21, 1999... Galen H. Graham knows more technology-related jobs exist in Columbus than employees qualified to fill them. He's trying to do his part to change that. Graham, president of DeVry Institute of Technology in Columbus, will oversee a $6...

Custom control: Custom Coach, other manufacturers, opt for unified computer systems.
May 21, 1999... The good old days were not all that good as far as Joe Green is concerned. When he was hired by Custom Coach 18 years ago, the company was doing everything by hand - accounting, inventory control, invoices and estimating labor and material...

Vision of 'optical village' sharpens at Rickenbacker.(Cole Vision Corp.'s new lens-grinding lab at Rickenbacker Air Industrial Park)
May 21, 1999... Twinsburg, Ohio-based Cole Vision Corp. will open a lens-grinding lab at Rickenbacker Air Industrial Park by late summer, a move expected to add momentum to plans to make Columbus the focus of the North American optical industry. The Cole...

Ariz. acquisition marks Symix foray into supply-side software.(Symix Computer Systems Inc.)
May 21, 1999... If all goes according to plan next month and Symix Systems Inc. completes its latest acquisition, the Columbus-based company will have a brawny new tool in its software arsenal. Symix is buying Tempe, Ariz.-based Distribution Architects...

Chill out: consulting firms find laid-back work world keeps staff happy.(Applied Innovation Inc. of Dublin, Ohio)
May 21, 1999... Consulting firms find laid-back work world keeps staff happy Tech industry consulting firms have turned relaxed dress, flexible hours and no-road-trips promises into bonus selling points when it comes to making an in-demand computer staff...

Q&A with Ora E. Smith, who wants to turn Columbus into... techtown.(president of Ohio State University Science and Technology Campus Corp.)(Interview)
May 21, 1999... Last year, Ora E. Smith was named president of the Ohio State University's Science and Technology Campus Corp. Fifteen years in the planning stages, the Campus is starting to take shape and is expected to contribute substantially to Central...

Tech stocks showing signs that make investors cautious: anticipation of Y2K troubles, rapid changes in PC business giving some of the jitters.(year 2000 transition)
May 21, 1999... Anticipation of Y2K troubles, rapid changes in PC business giving some the jitters Is the bubble about to burst on high-flying technology stocks? Recent convulsive weeks have some investors wondering if it's finally time to bail out of...

TicketMaster flees job market.(abandons Central Ohio because of acute worker shortage)
May 28, 1999... 320-worker call center moving to West Virginia amid struggle to find employees TicketMaster will close its Columbus call center on Schrock Road and move it to Charleston, W. Va., throwing 320 people out of work, Business First has learned....

Lacrosse pros eye Columbus, Crew park.(Major League Lacrosse; Crew Stadium, Columbus, OH)
May 28, 1999... Major League Lacrosse is setting its sights on Columbus and Crew Stadium. Officials said the league, formed May 24, is considering Columbus for one of its eight outdoor lacrosse teams scheduled to hit the field in June 2000. The league is...

A distinct business, an extinct product.(entrepreneur Sherm Byers' Jurassic Journey shows)
May 28, 1999... The sales calls are coming from the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Tel Aviv and Venezuela. But for the moment, Sherm Byers has about all the business he can handle. The former used-car dealer will shepherd his flock of more than...

One eve of Conrail breakup, shippers keeping on guard.(Consolidated Rail Corp's operations to be folded into two acquiring railroads)
May 28, 1999... Logistics planners will take a deep breath the morning after Memorial Day, when they wake up to a changed railroad industry. On what is being calling "Split Day," Consolidated Rail Corp. will be merged into Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX...

Utilities' reach for diversity puts worry in contractors.
May 28, 1999... A school district plans a high school. A local contractor submits a bid for the mechanical work while the power company helps the school design its geothermal well fields. After three different bidding processes, the mechanical contract is...

ONN takes firmer foothold, but without Time Warner.(Dispatch Printing Co-owned Ohio News Network)
May 28, 1999... Two years ago, Ohio News Network was launched to 45,000 Central Ohio residences. Today, the network can be seen in 510,000 homes across the state. Two years ago, Columbus-based ONN was offered to none of the cities or towns Time Warner...

A home of their own.(several small and mid-sized Ohio businesses explore real estate business)
May 28, 1999... Many small- and mid-sized business owners look forward to ending their monthly lease payments as much as most apartment dwellers anticipate the purchase of their first home. After all, owning property gives a sense of stability to a company...

Corning: testing the limits.(Owens Corning Testing Systems)
May 28, 1999... ... for other companies A large Granville-based company's innovative venture has created a favorable business environment for that firm and others like it. In the wake of corporate spin-offs, consolidations and profitability mandates,...

Chiropractors have bone to pick.(Ohio)
May 28, 1999... Bone manipulation still left out of some medical reimbursement Chiropractic benefits are often the first to go when employers look for ways to reduce their health-care costs. For years, chiropractors have been labeled as practicing...