Latest Headlines

At Pizza Hut, stuffed crust began 21 years ago with a self-deprecating Trump; plus Amazon shares soar to new record high

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 12:57 p.m.

PIZZA HUT‘s introduction of its newest stuffed crust pizza — a grilled cheese version — recalls the fact that the original was launched 21 years ago by a kinder and gentler version of Donald Trump, according to AdWeek.

The new pizza debuted March 26, 1995. Six days later, Pizza Hut kicked off a $45 million national ad campaign, buying TV time during the NCAA’s Final Four weekend. The 30-second spot created by BBDO New York showed a tuxedo-clad Trump in a gilded suite along with Ivana Trump, whom he’d divorced five years earlier. (Watch the ad below.) In the commercial, the two poke fun of their headline-grabbing split.

“He was an egomaniac billionaire and almost charming,” said Hayes Roth, principal of brand and marketing firm HA Roth Consulting. “His egomania was so huge that he makes fun of himself. He’s lost that sense of humor. But he put on a great show, and back then we bought it” (AdWeek).

AMAZON‘s stock traded at a new record high today, $805.77, up $16.09, or 2%. The retail giant employs 6,000 workers at distribution centers in Jeffersonville and Shephardsville. More Amazon news.

Latest Headlines

Yum to issue 10M shares as part of China spinoff; Pizza Hut nabs Walmart exec for digital initiatives; and Kindred pays record $3M regulatory fine

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 8:24 a.m.

YUM‘s 7,200-restaurant China Division said today it would issue 10 million common shares to Yum Brands shareholders as part of its planned spinoff next month. The offering could result in Yum China receiving proceeds of up to $54.05 million, implying a maximum offering price per share of $5.405, according to a regulatory filing. (bit.ly/2ctqkQy) The China division, which operates in more than 1,100 cities, is higher risk and potentially more rewarding, while Yum  without the China division is likely to be more stable with greater cash flow (Reuters and SEC document).

helen-vaid
Vaid

PIZZA HUT has hired a Walmart technology executive to help develop digital ordering initiatives as its chief customer officer, a new position. The executive, Helen Vaid, will lead the international e-commerce, technology and operations business for the 16,000-location pizza chain. Vaid was Walmart’s vice president of digital store operations and experience. Before that, she was a general manager at Snapfish, a web-based photo-sharing and photo-printing company (press release).

KINDRED has paid a $3.1 million penalty to the federal government after failing to comply with a corporate integrity agreement it signed with regulators. The penalty came after the hospital and nursing home giant failed to correct improper billing practices in the fourth year of the five-year agreement. This penalty is the largest issued for corporate integrity violations to date, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said yesterday. The violations were discovered after several unannounced site visits were completed by the inspector general’s office. Under the agreement, Kindred had agreed to a number of corrective actions, including outside scrutiny of billing practices. In exchange for the agreement, the agency agreed not to exclude Kindred from participating in Medicare, Medicaid or other federal healthcare programs (Home Health Care News).

chipotle-logoTACO BELL competitor Chipotle is launching a new marketing campaign today in a bid to convince people they can trust what’s in their burritos, nearly a year after two E. coli outbreaks sickened dozens of its customers in several states. In the campaign, the fast-Mexican chain says its now tracing ingredients back to the farm, blasting pathogens off chorizo with high-powered water jets, and requiring restaurant managers to receive food-safety certification (Wall Street Journal).

Latest Headlines

New York attorney general asks for $900M in penalties against UPS over untaxed cigarette shipping case

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

eric-schneiderman
Schneiderman

UPS: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is seeking $872 million in penalties from UPS for allegedly shipping 683,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes to residences and unauthorized sellers — charges the shipper denied at the start of a trial yesterday. The cheaper cigarettes attracted young people who are disproportionately lured to smoking by lower costs, lawyers for Schneiderman say. UPS’s lawyer, Carrie Cohen, said the company was in full compliance with the law and that the dispute was triggered by the city and state mistaking cartons of legally shipped “little cigars” for cigarettes (Bloomberg).

The Jennifer Lawrence Diary™

Watch the just-released trailer for Lawrence’s new ‘Passengers’ sci-fi adventure, hitting screens Christmas week

Jennifer LawrenceBoulevard 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:

Four starsSony Pictures early today released the first trailer to the movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, where they unexpectedly wake up 90 years early during a 120-year-long journey to an interstellar colony aboard a 5,000-plus passenger spaceship. Here’s the 2:42-minute trailer:

The film, for which Lawrence, 26, is getting paid a whopping $20 million, is generating buzz because it includes her first on-screen sex scene.

Pratt, 37, is perhaps best known for the big screen’s “Jurassic World” last year and television’s “Parks and Recreation” comedy series.

“Passengers” is scheduled for a Dec. 21 release — 91 days, 15 hours and 9 minutes from now, according to Boulevard’s exclusive Jennifer Lawrence “Passengers” Countdown Clock™.

Cops and Courts

Iowa Papa John’s employee run over in parking lot by cellphone thief

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*.

Crime scene tapeA man ran over a Des Moines Papa John’s Pizza employee with his car in the restaurant’s parking lot after stealing another employee’s cellphone Sunday afternoon, according to a police report.

The victim of the hit-and-run told police he and a co-worker ran outside after seeing an unknown man in the passenger side of the co-worker’s car in the parking lot, according to the Des Moines Register. When the man saw the two employees running outside, he reportedly grabbed a cellphone out of the car and jumped into his own vehicle. The suspect locked his car’s doors, according to the report.

The the hit-and-run victim started pounding on the suspect’s car windows until the suspect put the car in reverse and ran over the victim’s legs.The victim sustained cuts and scrapes to his elbows and legs, the newspaper said.

Taco Bell

In Ohio’s Washington Township, two suspects robbed a Taco Bell restaurant of an undetermined amount of cash at gunpoint Monday night, according to police. No employees were hurt during the robbery, according to WDTN.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 outlets in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants across the U.S. and in five other nations. With that many locations, crimes inevitably occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Latest Headlines

UPS gives 10% raises to CEO and three other top executives

The shipping giant, which is Louisville’s single-biggest private employer, said the pay increases to their base salaries were meant to “improve the competitiveness of UPS executive compensation,” according to a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In addition to the 10% raises to their base pay, the executives also received thousands of stock options. The pay increases are effective Oct. 1. The executives and their base salaries last year:

  • Chairman and CEO David Abney, $1 million.
  • CFO Richard Peretz, $382,431.
  • Alan Gershenhorn, chief commercial officer, $550,125.
  • Myron Gray, president of U.S. operations, $484,251.
David Abney
Abney

Abney got 37,617 options. Peretz, Gershenhorn, and Gray each receive 7,807. All the options have an exercise price of $106.86, Friday’s closing price. They vest at a rate of 20% annually starting Sept. 16, 2017.

Also, Jim Barber, president of international operations, got 7,807 options, too, but no increase in his base pay, according to the SEC filing.

UPS employs 22,000 workers at its Louisville International Airport hub; more about the shipper’s local operations.

Related: See total top executive compensation last year for major Louisville-area employers in our exclusive database.