Category: Latest Headlines

Latest Headlines

Yum! Brands wins trademark case in Philippines!!!; Kindred attorney bolts for a competitor, and a KFC beanie promo on Twitter captivates New Zealand

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 2:39 p.m.

Jolibee YumYumYUM has won a trademark case in the Philippines brought by fast-food chain Jollibee, which sought to block the Louisville company from using its business name in the country. The government’s trademark office said the word “yum” is a commonly-used interjection, and the chain’s “Yum!” logo employs an exclamation point and a different font — in caps-and-lower case — that distinguish the mark from Jollibee’s (Interaksyon). The Philippines is a potentially big market: its population is nearly 100 million.

HUMANA CEO Bruce Broussard knew his personal and work lives were out of whack after his mother died in a car accident. “I regretted the time I was not able to spend with family members. I also regretted that I defined life success as career success,” Broussard told Georgetown University graduates at their Saturday commencement ceremonies. The school gave him an honorary doctorate in humane sciences (The Hoya). Brossard, CEO since 2013, attended Texas A&M and the University of Houston.

David Pearce
Pearce

KINDRED: David Pearce, chief counsel for Kindred’s home division for 11 years, has been named senior vice president and chief compliance officer at home health provider Amedisys of Baton Rouge, La. (Home Health Care News).

KFC: It was the competition that captivated a nation on Twitter, according to Spinoff magazine: The busy working world of New Zealand ground to a halt last week as one tweet from a KFC New Zealand social media person — featuring three, identical, crimson beanies — got 6,800 retweets and a 16-piece bucket full of favorites. “This is the oral history of the greatest online giveaway in New Zealand history, as told by key players” (Spinoff).

PAPA JOHN’S: In the Seattle area, Continue reading “Yum! Brands wins trademark case in Philippines!!!; Kindred attorney bolts for a competitor, and a KFC beanie promo on Twitter captivates New Zealand” →

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Chinese company said beating Amazon to be first delivering by drone; and Ford wins at Le Mans

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 1:06 p.m.

AMAZON: A Chinese company has reportedly beaten Amazon in the race to deliver online goods by unmanned drone, carrying loads of up to 33 lbs. with a top speed of 34 miles per hour. E-commerce giant Jingling has been deploying them in rural areas, with smaller populations and less demand for goods that would strain the fledgling service. Amazon is planning to introduce a similar service called Prime Air, but not until 2017 or 2018 (Mirror). At a minimum, Amazon says it must win regulatory approval from the FAA. In the meantime, it’s released an amusing video, top, about Prime Air (Amazon). The FAA on June 3 released an FAQ on the process for getting permission. Six myths about Prime Air.

FORD‘s No. 68 GT won the GTE Pro class at Le Mans today, beating long-time rival Ferrari in Ford’s first victory at the French endurance race since 1980. The No. 69 Ford GT finished third, and the No. 66 GT finished fourth (Detroit News and Motor Trend). The winning car is based on the $400,000 2017 GT supercar the company unveiled in January. Ford has received more than 7,000 applications from fans hoping to buy one, with just 500 planned for production. It’s been more than a decade since Ford last launched such a pricey vehicle. In Louisville, the automaker employs nearly 10,000 at its auto and truck factories.

TACO BELL: No injuries were reported when a pickup crashed into the front doors of a Taco Bell restaurant in Marion, Ind., yesterday afternoon; employees and several patrons reportedly were inside (Marion Star).

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

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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” →

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Better than money-laundering: GE Appliances’ new owner says hello to in-house innovation

A slowdown in its mainline white goods business has the new owner of GE Appliances, Haier Group, looking for fresh paths to growth.

“At the core of its revitalization push is a program to create in-house venture businesses that take advantage of talent and ideas that otherwise might not have seen the light of day,” says Nikkei Asia Review.

China’s biggest consumer electronics and home appliance company has established 180 such ventures over the past three years, the Review says. One of those ventures created through Haier’s incubation program makes Hello Kitty-themed washing machines.

Haier completed its $5.6 billion purchase of Louisville-based GE Appliances last week. The deal included 6,000-employee Appliance Park in the city’s South End. Another 6,000 work at other worksites.

Related: Japan’s Sanrio produces and licenses all things Hello Kitty. There are numerous blogs about Hello Kitty, some less reverential than others: Kitty Hell. And counterintuitively, she’s not a cat.

Photo, top: Hello Kitty Junkie.

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Bevin deflects question on whether he asked Ramsey to quit; calls UofL board ‘dysfunctional’
Matt Bevin
Bevin

Gov. Matt Bevin, asked if he sought James Ramsey’s resignation, said he’d spoken to many people, including the embattled University of Louisville president himself, and the “culmination of all the conversations I’ve had with everybody on all fronts is what I just announced to you,” the Lexington Herald Leader says.

Bevin said today those conversations also included leaders in the higher-education community,” and there is pretty much uniform agreement . . . (that) the board as it exists right now is not particularly functional. Its dysfunction has precluded it from doing what its responsibility is, and that is to be effective fiduciary leaders of the university,” according to The Courier-Journal.

Ramsey, 67, has been president since 2002. He offered his resignation, but it hasn’t been formally accepted, because a new board of trustees hasn’t been formed to replace the one Bevin dismissed today, according to multiple media accounts. The governor said Ramsey’s exit could come in the next two weeks. But state Sen. Morgan McGarvey, a Louisville Democrat, said Bevin’s firing the board is illegal, the Courier-Journal says.

James Ramsey
Ramsey

Bevin issued an executive order this morning that scolded the 20-member board for its “lack of transparency and professionalism” and described the relationship between the U of L administration and trustees as “operationally dysfunctional,” according to WDRB.

The governor appointed a temporary three-person board until a permanent one can be assembled: Junior Bridgeman, a businessman and former U of L basketball player; Bonita Black, a Louisville attorney, and Dr. Ron Wright, said WAVE.

Larry Benz
Benz

The board chairman is Larry Benz, a healthcare business owner. He’s been a trustee since July 2011.

Trustee Robert Hughes, the Murray physician who has supported Ramsey, said he learned about Bevin’s plans via social media — echoing statements by other trustees about being in the dark, the Courier-Journal reported).

According to Ramsey’s contract, if he resigns at the request of the board of trustees, he can keep a tenured professor position — for 75% of his most recent base pay as president, which is $350,000, according to WFPL.

Ramsey has been under fire for numerous scandals over the past several years, said WFPL. The NCAA is investigating the basketball program after a former escort alleged an ex-coach paid for strippers and sex for players and recruits. Last October, Ramsey apologized after he and his senior staff posed for a photograph at a university Halloween party wearing stereotypical Mexican garb, the radio station said.

One of the university’s most influential and wealthiest graduates is Humana co-founder David A. Jones Sr., who received a bachelor’s degree in business there in 1954.