Day: June 18, 2016

Raising pressure on UPS, analysts map Amazon’s own growing air delivery fleet

213046_800
Amazon has now leased 40 of these 767 wide-bodies.

After Amazon leased 40 Boeing 767 wide-body freighters in two separate deals in March and May, Pacific Crest analysts identified seven main airports the retail goliath is now using for its home-grown air shipping service — and then pinpointed some of the routes being flown, according to Business Insider.

Amazon logoThe airports include Covington; Allentown, Pa.; Dallas-Fort Worth; Phoenix; Ontario in Southern California and Stockton in Northern California; Tampa; and Wilmington, Ohio, 56 miles northeast of Cincinnati.

Many of those are within a 60-minute drive of Amazon distribution centers. But in Kentucky, there’s only: Hebron. Another four in the state are all closer to UPS’s mammoth Worldport hub at Louisville International Airport: Campbellsville, Lexington, Jeffersonville and Shepherdsville; those last two employ 6,000 workers. In total, those five centers make the commonwealth one of Amazon’s biggest overall distribution areas in the U.S.

The online retailer’s growing fleet saves the company an estimated $450 million a year, according to Pacific Crest. But it’s another sign one of UPS’ biggest customers could be a rival, even as the shipper expands Worldport, where it employs 22,000 workers — making it the city’s single-biggest private employer.

Outside the U.S., Amazon started competing head-on with UPS, plus FedEx and DHL this winter, after it bought the 75% of the French package-delivery company Colis Privé that it didn’t already own, according to the Seattle Times.

Jeff Bezos
Bezos

Even so, CEO Jeff Bezos told a high-profile technology conference three weeks ago that the retail giant isn’t aiming to compete head-on with UPS and other shippers it now partners with. Instead, Amazon wants to pick up the slack when delivery services can’t handle the final stretch.

Lawrence’s next movie on disgraced Silicon Valley executive Holmes is the ‘hottest package’ for weekend talks

Lawrence and Holmes
Dress for success, and failure: Lawrence (left) and Holmes.

Boulevard reviews the latest media coverage of the Oscar-winning Louisville native in our exclusive Jennifer Lawrence Diary™. Today’s news, rated on a scale of 1-5 stars:

Five starsMultiple offers are already on the table for the drama starring Jennifer Lawrence, about controversial Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes. And that’s even before a round of pitches Monday as director Adam McKay nears a final decision, according to Deadline.

The Hollywood trade publication revealed only last week that Lawrence and McKay would be teaming on the project, and a package of background materials was sent to numerous buyers just yesterday morning.

The sizzling competition among producers is hardly surprising. Lawrence, 25, is Hollywood’s most bankable star, and McKay won an Oscar this year for co-writing and directing another hot-button film, The Big Short.

Deadline’s got the background:

Holmes, 32, launched Theranos in 2003, with claims it could test blood with only a pinprick vs. the traditional method of drawing blood by injection. That pumped up the company’s valuation to $9 billion as recently as two years ago. The company has since come under investigation over claims of inaccurate testing. And Holmes’ own worth — at one point valued at $4.5 billion for her 50% stake — has fallen to a fraction of that.

Today’s free admission promotion at the Louisville Zoo: coincidence, or wink-wink gay pride weekend joke?

Zoo admission is free today — if your name’s Dorothy — to celebrate its oldest resident, “Dot,” the Aldabra tortoise; she’s turning 80 today.

At least, that’s the official explanation, according to WDRB. But amid this weekend’s gay pride festivities, Boulevard observes that “friend of Dorothy” has long been playful code for being gay.

Photo, top: a still from the terrifying scene where the Wicked Witch uses her broom to skywrite a demand that Emerald City turn over a terrified Dorothy Gale in 1939’s classic Wizard of Oz.

Ford summer factories shutdown whacked in half; Calif. taqueria gives KFC the finger, plus: how to profit from Taco Bell rival Chipolte’s misery

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 8:59 a.m.

2017 Super Duty truck
The Kentucky Truck Plant will retool this summer to build the new 2017 Super Duty F-series.

FORD‘s auto and truck factories in Louisville will shut down for only one week this summer vs. the usual two, because of unexpectedly strong demand for SUVs, and the need to gear up for launching the new 2017 Super Duty F-series truck later this year.

The company says it will crank out an extra 22,000 SUVs at the Louisville Assembly Plant and at two other sites in Chicago and Oakville, Ontario. Through May, SUVs sales totaled 325,475, a 9% increase from a year ago, including Escape, Edge, Explorer, Flex and Expedition. The 4,700-employee Assembly Plant closing will be the week of July 4. Ford had disclosed the SUV production increase to investors in its second-quarter production guidance April 28.

This is the fourth consecutive year the automaker has trimmed its summer shutdowns (press release).

The Kentucky Truck Plant employs 5,100, but that figure is growing substantially. In December, Ford said it would add 2,000 jobs and invest $1.3 billion there to produce the new F-series; it originally opened in 1969. The factory already produces F-250 and F-550 Super Duty pickups, plus Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator trucks. More about Ford’s history and operations in Louisville.

KFC: The owner of the El Taqueria Amigo restaurant in southern California has sued KFC after the chain started using the Spanish-language slogan, “para chuparse los dedos,” which translates to “suck your fingers” or Continue reading “Ford summer factories shutdown whacked in half; Calif. taqueria gives KFC the finger, plus: how to profit from Taco Bell rival Chipolte’s misery”

The CJ reveals the tick-tock plan for how it covered Ali’s death

Muhammad Ali
Ali in 1967.

The Courier-Journal’s Muhammad Ali news coverage immediately after the prize fighter died near midnight on June 3 was more than a decade in the making, the paper’s editor said today, in an inside account of how it came together. The New York Times literally stopped the presses to get the news in print. The Louisville native was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery amid a celebrity-studded memorial service after he died in Phoenix following a decades-long battle with Parkinson’s disease; he was 74.

Holy moly! Only 321 days, 16 hours, and 46 minutes left

Citation Derby TrophyWe’re talking about the 143rd Kentucky Derby, of course! That’s according to our exclusive 2017 Derby Countdown Clock™.

Left: Citation‘s winning trophy from 1948; he was the eighth Triple Crown Winner. It was designed by George Lewis Graff for the Louisville firm Lemon & Son, according to the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington.