A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 8:42 a.m.
KFC: British authorities have fined the restaurant chain $126,000 after it pled guilty in Cwmbran Magistrates’ Court to three charges over hygiene issues at a Pontypool restaurant in Wales last year. An environmental health inspector found no hot water in the bathrooms or food preparation areas, meaning employees couldn’t properly wash their hands, and the premises and food equipment could not be cleaned. The problem stemmed from a boiler that had failed 10 days before the inspection. Janet Cox, head of health, safety and environment at KFC U.K. said the company accepted the findings, and noted that 97% of the 890 U.K. restaurants have a food hygiene score of four out of five or above (Wales Online).
In other news, Mid-City Mall’s $1 million renovation last year was slowed by the discovery of asbestos in the roof, delaying completion of the nearly 60-year-old Highlands institution past the critical Christmas shopping season. “It’s been a disaster to my tenants,” majority owner Sandy Metts told Louisville Magazine in the just-published June issue. Metts, whose family bought the Bardstown Road property in 1976, had to reduce rent, and plans for renovating the Baxter Street side are now on hold.
Metts had to please critics who weren’t happy with the design from the git-go. “This is lipstick on a very old pig,” Debra Richards Harlan told the Bardstown Road Overlay District during the planning stages last year, according to WDRB. This was the first renovation since the 1980s. The mall’s development started in 1959, and was built on the former site of the German Protestant Orphan’s Home; photo, below:
And finally, private-equity shop Blue Equity of Louisville bought 3 Kings Entertainment, a broadcasting talent agency in Washington representing more than 100 news anchors, reporters, sportscasters and other media personalities for an undisclosed amount. The deal comes as Blue Equity builds a new sports and entertainment platform (Sports Business Daily).
A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 8:23 a.m.
Those crazy kids: 12 British Pizza Hut employees show off their new names.
HUMANA: The U.S. Justice Department’s muscular anti-trust reviews in airline and other industries “suggests a tough battle ahead” for Aetna’s pending $34 billion takeover of Humana, and Anthem’s takeover of Cigna (Bloomberg). Aetna’s CEO last week said he expects their deal to close during the year’s second half.
PIZZA HUT employees in the U.K. celebrated their Leicester City Football Club’s unlikely victory over Tottenham in the Premier League championships in one of the most bizarre ways possible: 12 of them legally changed their names to those of club members (Telegraph). How crazy are Leicester fans? Watch this video. Note: It’s “football” there and “soccer” here.
In other news, Moody’s Investors Service has lowered its rating on the University of Louisville Foundation’s bonds, citing investment losses that have cut into the foundation’s endowment (WDRB); more about the foundation.
Finally, U.S. stock futures inched higher an hour before the opening bell, with investors hesitant to make major moves ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and a long holiday weekend (MarketWatch). The 11 big employers in Boulevard’s Stock Portfolio mostly closed lower yesterday.
A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 7:40 p.m.
In this most current board photo, retiring directors are Martin Brown (fourth from left); James Welch (seated, eighth from left), and Sandra Frazier (seated, 11th from left).
BROWN-FORMAN shifted its 13-member board of directors, electing Campbell Brown, Marshall Farrer, and Laura Frazier, effective today. The company also announced a regular quarterly dividend, and a special two-for-one stock split for both voting Class A and non-voting Class B shares. The split shares are expected to be issued to stockholders of record around Aug. 8, and distributed about Aug. 18 (press release). This is the 12th split since shares were first listed in 1933 after Prohibition’s repeal; the most recent was a three-for-two in July 2012. (Dividend history.)
The three new directors are all fifth-generation descendants of George Garvin Brown, who founded the distiller in 1870. “This election continues a multi-year evolution of Brown family representation on the board,” the company said. “As part of this process, Martin S. Brown Jr., Sandra Frazier, and management director James Welch Jr. — who’s retiring as vice chairman on Tuesday — have elected not to stand for re-election at the annual stockholders’ meeting in July” (press release also includes bios of new directors). Brown-Forman said the directors’ decision to exit the board wasn’t due to a disagreement with the company (SEC filing).
Laura Frazier
The company didn’t disclose the new directors’ ages; those retiring are in their 40s and 50s. (Executive and board profiles.) Today’s moves were not unexpected; the Brown descendants effectively control the company through their ownership of more than 50% of the Class A voting stock, and have historically voted as a bloc (2015 proxy report). Of particular note, Laura Frazier is owner, chairman, and past-CEO of Bittners, the more than 160-year-old high-end interior design firm on East Main Street in NuLu. At the end of trading today, Class A shares closed at $104.21, down 25 cents.
KINDRED just filed a raft of documents disclosing stock awards to members of the board of directors (SEC filings; look for all Forms 4 on today’s date). Also, the hospital and nursing home giant disclosed the breakdown of yesterday’s shareholder vote tallies at the annual company meeting; no surprises (SEC filing). Yesterday, Kindred had only reported that stockholders approved the executive compensation plan, and re-elected the full slate of 11 directors to the governing board — but without providing details.
KFC Canada says a much-loved, one-of-only-two-left, all-you-can-eat buffet-style restaurant in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, won’t be shut down after all — yet, anyway. Residents had taken to social media this week when rumors circulated the buffet was a goner. A sit-in was planned for yesterday. Even high government officials got involved: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall took to Twitter (see below) on Tuesday, asking Yum to reconsider. The Weyburn KFC buffet was the first to open among the Canadian franchises in 1988; there’s now just one other left, in Saskatchewan’s Humbodlt (Global News).
Elsewhere in KFC land, actress Ann Hathaway jokingly compared comedian James Corden to a 16-piece you-know-what during a rap battle on The Late Late Show last night. “You look like a KFC bucket with a lot of extra breasts,” she said (Express).
UPS and its 2,500-member Independent Pilots Association union are making progress on bargaining a new contract (Courier-Journal). The pilots have been working under the terms of their previous contract for five years, and the union late last month set up a strike center here in Louisville.
GE: Qingdao Haier Co. has launched India’s first 44-lb. capacity washing machine. The Chinese company’s pending $5.4 billion purchase of Appliance Park is expected to close this summer (Newkerala and Courier-Journal).
Ramsey
In other news, the University of Louisville Foundation paid President James Ramsey $2.8 million in 2014, according to its newly disclosed IRS tax return (WDRB). The return “appears to belie Ramsey’s claim last year that his compensation in 2013 was an anomaly” (Courier-Journal). The disclosure came one day after a published report that the foundation lagged many other Kentucky school foundations in annual investment performance.
Finally, Louisville Magazine has released the finalists in its annual Best of Louisville awards for businesses and individuals (Louisville).
A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 9:16 p.m.
A model year 2014 F-150 of the kind being recalled.Ford
FORD is recalling about 271,000 2013-14 F-150 pickups with 3.5-liter V-6 engines because the brakes may malfunction, the automaker said today. The company said it was aware of nine accidents but no injuries (New York Times). Also, Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. defended the automaker against blistering criticism by White House candidate Donald Trump, saying it should be held up as an example of a company doing things right. Trump has called Ford’s decision to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico an “absolute disgrace” that would not happen if he becomes president (Detroit News).
UPS is doubling the size of an expansion announced last fall that was already going to add another 300 jobs to the so-called Centennial Hub; it’s unclear whether the bigger project will require even more hiring (Courier-Journal). UPS originally announced the project last October, saying it would cost $300 million and would be substantially complete by 2018 (press release).
HUMANA: Missouri’s insurance regulators are asking Humana and Aenta to make changes before the state approves their pending $34 billion merger announced July 3 (Business First).
KINDRED‘s shareholders approved the executive compensation plan during a non-binding advisory vote today at their annual meeting. They also re-elected the full slate of 11 directors to the governing board; the company didn’t provide a vote breakdown, which will likely come in a future regulatory filing (press release).
CHURCHILL DOWNS broke ground yesterday on a previously announced $25 million expansion of its Oxford Casino in Maine. The project includes a 106-room hotel, new dining, and an expanded gaming area. Churchill bought the casino in 2013 (WLBZ).
AMAZON said today it would open a second distribution center in Joliet, Ill., 46 miles southwest of Chicago. The company will create more than 2,000 full-time jobs at the facility in addition to the 1,500 full-time employees currently working at its existing Joliet center (press release). The city has 148,000 residents; more census facts. Also, the company plans to expand its Fresh grocery delivery service this year to new markets including Boston (Recode). More about Amazon’s Louisville area operations.
In other news, Bardstown Road is getting another craft beer restaurant: The Eagle, which has locations in Cincinnati and Indianapolis. It’s taking the space now occupied by El Camino, which is moving to another, undisclosed location two miles away and with half the current 300 seats (Insider Louisville). The Eagle will join the soon-to-open HopCat at Grinstead and Bardstown, which will have 130 craft beers and seating for 600. Also in the works: Sterling Brewing has announced plans for a restaurant at 1300 Bardstown Road (Courier-Journal). And there are already so many more.
Elsewhere in hospitality land, the average Louisville hotel room rate will jump 13.9 percent to $119.35 by 2020, according to a new report (Insider Louisville).
Finally, U.S. stocks soared for the second consecutive day after positive economic data, rising oil prices, and a new debt deal for Greece. The Dow Jones Industrial average and other major indices all closed up nearly 1% after similar gains yesterday (Google Finance). Nearly all 11 big-employer shares in the Boulevard Stock Portfolio rose, too.
A news summary, focused on big employers; updated at 2:01 p.m.
Google Fiber cities: Louisville is potential (gray); current (blue); upcoming (purple).
KINDRED: The global home health market will expand rapidly in the next four years, according to newly released research (Home Health Care News).
BROWN-FORMAN: Asia-Pacific Marketing Director Michael McShanerecalls the worst time he ever got lost traveling on business: New Orleans. “I was so excited to be in this famous city, that I went out exploring without my hotel key and promptly forgot where I was staying” (Financial Review).
TACO BELL: Employees in Brunswick, Ohio, called police at 3 a.m. Friday to report a drunken driver in a white Ford Taurus in the restaurant’s drive-thru. Police pulled the man over a short time later (Cleveland).
In other news, Louisville now looks like the next city to get super high-speed Internet service from Google Fiber. The Metro Council is set to pass a crucial ordinance Thursday, giving the search giant a franchise to continue to the next stage of installation. Service could become available in the fall. The service would provide speeds up to 100 times faster than conventional broadband (Courier-Journal). On Google Fiber’s website, Louisville is shown as “potential.” The service is already available in Atlanta, Kansas City, Nashville and Provo, Utah.
Meanwhile, AT&T this week started imposing higher rates for customers using large volumes of data — and customers aren’t happy (Courier-Journal, too). Boulevard adds: way to not compete with Google Fiber.
U.S. stocks jumped less than an hour into trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other indices all up more than 1%. Big employer shares in Boulevard’s stock portfolio were all higher, too (Google Finance).
A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 5:57.m.
FORD: Why Ford will beat Tesla, even as electric cars gain a toehold (Barron’s).
YUM: The company’s stock has overthrown McDonald’s as the hottest fast-food stock around. Year to date, shares have surged 9% vs. 4% for McDonald’s and a skinny 0.2% for the S&P 500 index. (The Street). Also, former Chairman David Novak says workers are “starved for recognition” from their supervisors (Business First).
PIZZA HUT today introduced 8-inch Hershey’s Toasted S’mores Cookies for a limited time at $6.99 (press release).
AMAZON has started hiring up to 500 employees for a new distribution center in Florence Township outside Trenton, N.J. “They want to be up and running in time for the Christmas holiday,” Township Administrator Richard Brook said last week (Burlington County Times).
GANNETT: Tribune Publishing’s shares dove 15% today on fears that Courier-Journal owner Gannett may rescind its $15-a-share takeover offer; Gannett’s stock fell 2.4% (Talking New Media). The chances Tribune would pursue a “Pac-Man” defense takeover of Gannett had already eased when Tribune decided to share confidential information that could pave the way for Gannett’s $864 million purchase of Tribune (Reuters).
KFC: A 29-year-old man was arrested last night in Columbus, Ga., after he allegedly approached the KFC drive-thru on Manchester Expressway completely nude (Ledger-Enquirer).
BROWN-FORMAN said today it will release fourth-quarter financial results on June 8, followed by a conference call with Wall Street analysts (press release). Meanwhile, Boulevard is sad we missed the chance on Saturday to celebrate World Whisky Day, where everyone was invited to “try a dram and celebrate the water of life” (Hot Rum Cow).
TEXAS ROADHOUSE opens one of its newest restaurants today, a $1.3 million outlet in the college town of Ithaca, N.Y. (Ithaca Voice).
CHURCHILL DOWNS: Thoroughbred racing’s now increasingly international, as NBC Sports made clear during Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, when the network teased its coverage of the Royal Ascot meeting in Britain starting next year (Chicago Now). Ascot got a big publicity boost in 1964’s “My Fair Lady.” The women’s dress code for the royal enclosure is super-strict, including this admonition: “strapless, off the shoulder, halter and spaghetti straps are not permitted” (Ascot).
Photo, top: Pizza Hut.
News about business and culture in Louisville, Ky.
In other news, Mid-City Mall’s $1 million renovation last year was slowed by the discovery of asbestos in the roof, delaying completion of the nearly 60-year-old Highlands institution past the critical Christmas shopping season. “It’s been a disaster to my tenants,” majority owner Sandy Metts told Louisville Magazine in the just-published June issue. Metts, whose family bought the Bardstown Road property in 1976, had to reduce rent, and plans for renovating the Baxter Street side are now on hold.
In other news, Bardstown Road is getting another craft beer restaurant: 
Boulevard 