Tag: Ford

Latest Headlines

Kindred to open new hospital in Tacoma; Amazon’s Q2 beats top and bottom; orange you glad: Taco Bell’s burrito + Cheetos = ‘peak stoner’; and Ford’s stock dives 8% on poor results

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 7:25 p.m.

KINDRED said it would build a 60-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Tacoma, Wash., in a new joint-venture partnership with CHI Franciscan Health. The new hospital will care for adults recovering from stroke, neurological disease, injury to the brain or spinal cord and other long-term illnesses or injuries. The Louisville-based hospital and nursing home giant will manage the day-to-day operations at the new facility. Subject to regulatory and other approvals, Kindred expects the hospital to open by the first quarter of 2018.

In its Seattle market, Kindred already operates two transitional-care hospitals, two nursing centers, two co-located hospital-based sub-acute units, and it provides home health and hospice services. CHI Franciscan is affiliated with Catholic Health Initiatives, the third-largest nonprofit health system in the nation, with operations in 19 states (press release). Kindred has more than 2,200 employees in Louisville, and 102,000 company-wide. More about Kindred.

UPS is considering a $106 million expansion of its ground hub in Lexington (Herald-Leader).

AMAZON: The retailer just reported second-quarter financial results that beat Wall Street’s forecasts on the top and bottom lines. It earned $1.78 a share on sales of $30.4 billion. Analysts were expecting $1.11 EPS on revenue of $29.6 billion, according to FactSet (MarketWatch and press release). The company’s stock rode a roller coaster in extended trading: Shares are now up 2.7%, or $20.34, to $722.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt bought 50,000 shares of company stock at $31.45 a share on Tuesday, for a total cost of $673,000 — a bullish sign he thinks the stock may be headed higher (Reuters). Shares closed today at $31.25, barely changed.

Cheetos bagTACO BELL is introducing its latest mash-up experiment, the Cheetos Burrito, mid-August in Cincinnati for $1. This is the second version sold by the Yum unit; it rolled one out last spring, the Cheetos Crunchwrap Slider,  that GrubStreet dismissed as the “height of laziness” (GrubStreet). According to the Orange County Register, it’s a burrito “stuffed with crunchy Cheetos, buttery white rice, seasoned beef and nacho cheese” (Register). We can only imagine how the concoction will taste, muses Uproxx. “Will the Cheetos inside get soggy and soft? Or will they maintain that crunch that everyone loves?” Its verdict is already in: “Peak Stoner” (Uproxx).

FORD‘s stock fell 8.2%, or $1.13, closing at $12.71 a share on weak second-quarter financial results. Revenue totaled $39.49 billion and adjusted earning per share came in at 52 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 60 cents. But that’s a beat on the consensus revenue forecast of $36.31 billion, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters (press release and MarketWatch).

BROWN-FORMAN: How one bourbon distillery makes its handcrafted barrels (Al.com).

In other news, embattled University of Louisville president James Ramsey agreed to resign yesterday, effective immediately, in a deal with the school’s trustees where he’ll be paid $690,000 in severance, the equivalent of about two years of his university salary only. Provost Neville Pinto will lead the university until a new president is selected.

James Ramsey
Ramsey

Chairman Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman said the board rejected Ramsey’s proposal to serve for up to one year as interim president. Bridgeman indicated that at one point the board considered firing Ramsey, 67, outright (Courier-Journal).

His exit caps a tumultuous period where Gov. Matt Bevin fired the previous board of trustees last month because, he said, it had become too dysfunctional to deal with multiple scandals on Ramsey’s watch.

Latest Headlines

Yum China buyout said stalled as two bidders balk at terms; U.S. farmers binge on rye as Brown-Forman whiskey demand soars; CJ owner Gannett’s stock tanks 9% on weak Q2 results

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:03 p.m.

KFC Shanghai
A KFC in Shanghai, where the Yum China division is headquartered.

YUM: Two of what may be the only serious bidders for Yum’s mammoth China Division have submitted offers — including one for just $2 billion — but have failed to reach a final agreement for a business once expected to command $10 billion, according to The Financial Times. The bidders are China-based private equity fund Primavera and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Primavera made the $2 billion offer for part of the franchise, people briefed on the talks said. “The bid conformed to Yum’s original conditions for the sale, but the buyout group and Yum could not agree on pricing,” the FT says.

Greg Creed
Creed

Temasek also made an offer — the newspaper didn’t say how much — but also couldn’t reach an agreement on the 7,200 KFC and Pizza Hut units. They accounted for more than half Yum’s revenue last year.

The Louisville-based fast food giant put the China operations on the auction block last year after being pressured to do so by investors including Corvex Management founder Keith Meister. CEO Greg Creed is preparing to lead a road show that Yum expects will end with a spinoff by Oct. 31.

Keith Meister
Meister

But the FT’s report raises doubts about the timetable, particularly after Bloomberg News reported that a consortium of the only other known bidders dropped out in May: private equity firm KKR and Chinese state investor CIC.

A company spokesperson whom the FT didn’t identify said Yum is “making great progress toward the separation of our China business,” which last year accounted for 61% of Yum’s $11.1 billion in revenue and 39% of $1.9 billion in profits.

The FT’s report was published yesterday. This afternoon, Wall Street wasn’t worried; Yum’s stock closed less than 1% higher, or 47 cents, to $89.72 — just below its record trading high of $90.38 on Monday (FT).

BROWN-FORMAN: Racing to meet consumer demand for whiskey, U.S. farmers planted 1.76 million acres of rye for the 2016-17 season, the most since 1989 and a 12% increase from a year ago. Planted in autumn and harvested in mid-summer, rye fell out of favor over the past decade as other crops produced bigger profits (Reuters).

In Nashville yesterday, Jack Daniel’s officially opened its second retail store — the first in its 150-year history outside the distiller’s corporate hometown of Lynchburg. “We get about 275,000 visitors that come see us every year, and there’s certainly a lot more people in this world, and we’d like to take Lynchburg to them,” said Dave Stang, director of events and sponsorships. The store doesn’t sell its namesake liquor :(, but does sell Jack Daniel’s-branded merchandise (News Channel 5).

Meanwhile, the Jack Daniel’s Barrel Hunt promotion is coming to South Africa as part of the distiller’s 150th anniversary — a global scavenger hunt to find 150 handcrafted barrels at historic and cultural sites (Biz Community). Clues for the next barrel, in Lithuania’s Kaunas, will be revealed tomorrow. The most recent found was in the U.K.’s Manchester; still to be found: barrels in Prague and Riccione, Italy. How the hunt works.

Garvin Brown IV
Garvin Brown

And Brown-Forman stockholders hold their annual meeting tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. in the company’s Louisville headquarters conference center at 850 Dixie Highway. Board Chairman Garvin Brown IV will oversee the meeting. On the agenda, according to the proxy statement:

  • Electing 12 directors to the board. They include three new members initially elected this spring, all fifth-generation members of the Brown family controlling the company. They are Campbell P. Brown, Marshall B. Farrer, and Laura L. Frazier.
  • Voting on a proposal to amend the Restated Certificate of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of Class A common stock in connection with the company’s previously announced two-for-one stock split.

GE/HAIER: In Everett, Wash., a Daily Herald reader takes issue Continue reading “Yum China buyout said stalled as two bidders balk at terms; U.S. farmers binge on rye as Brown-Forman whiskey demand soars; CJ owner Gannett’s stock tanks 9% on weak Q2 results” →

Latest Headlines

KFC to double outlets in Germany; Jack Daniel’s is going down under; Papa John’s quiere gerentes que harlan Inglis; Taco Bell wants 😀 applicants; and a UPS wedding in Fla.

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

KFC plans to more than double its presence in Germany over the next five years, to 300 restaurants from 140, according to Insa Klasing, head of the chicken giant’s German subsidiary. Where most locations were major city drive-ins, “today we are also on the market with smaller restaurants,” Klasing said. But even with 300 sites, KFC will still be overshadowed by the nation’s biggest fast-food chain: McDonald’s (Europe Online). And the addition of 160 restaurants would increase total KFCs by just over a 1% vs. the current 15,000 worldwide (KFC corporate website).

KFC bucket of chickenIn India, KFC is re-emphasizing chicken at its approximately 300 restaurants, two years after a push to sell more vegetarian burgers. In the last six months, the Yum division has rolled out three campaigns for its new chicken items, including the Chizza fried chicken slathered with cheese. During the same period, it didn’t start any new ads for vegetarian meals. KFC won’t stop selling vegetarian meals or launch vegetarian options, which still account for 30% of its India menu. But it won’t invest significantly on it either, KFC India marketing chief Lluis Ruiz Ribot said in an interview: “While chicken has always been a large part of our menu, 2016 is the year that we have refocused on our core,” he said (Quartz).

Jack Daniel's bottleBROWN-FORMAN: In Australia, Jack Daniel’s assistant Master Distiller Chris Fletcher will host a series of master classes and tastings in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth, as part of the Brown-Forman brand’s 150th anniversary celebrations (Au Review). BF executives toured Ontario’s Collingwood, where it distills Collingwood Canadian Whiskey, and saw first-hand the impact of a $100,000 company donation to the YMCA and a community hospital. “We work from the corporate office and a lot of the things that we do, we only get to see on paper,” said BF civil engagement manager Karen Krinock. “We knew what the ask was, but to see both the YMCA and Collingwood General and Marine Hospital was really meaningful” (Enterprise Bulletin). Louisville-based BF employs 1,300 in the city, and another 3,300 worldwide.

HUMANA: The Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the $37 billion Humana-Aetna merger on antitrust grounds seeks, ironically, to prevent what Obamacare aimed to achieve: government-directed oligopolies, according to The Wall Street Journal editorial board. “The new regulations and mandates since the law passed in 2010 are designed to encourage consolidation,” the paper’s lead editorial says. “But now the trust busters are fretting that these giants will have less incentive to innovate to reduce costs and improve quality, and patients will have fewer choices” (WSJ). Humana employs 12,500 in its Louisville hometown, and a total 50,000 across the country.

Concord mapPAPA JOHN’S: In the San Francisco Bay area, prospective managers who can communicate with customers in English are especially welcome, although bilingual skills are a plus, too, according to a new Craigslist helped-wanted ad for Papa John’s in Concord, Pleasant Hill and Martinez (Craigslist). In surrounding Contra Costa County, 24.4% of the population is Hispanic vs. 23.5% for the San Francisco Bay area; 37.6% for California, and 17.6% for the nation as a whole (Census).

TACO BELL: Language skills aren’t the hiring issue at Detroit area Taco Bells, but something much more basic: Applicants “must be able to come to work on time, show up for scheduled shifts, and be productive when at work.” Also: be happy (Craigslist). Meanwhile, on Craigslist’s Missed Connections section for the Seattle area, a man is looking for a woman Continue reading “KFC to double outlets in Germany; Jack Daniel’s is going down under; Papa John’s quiere gerentes que harlan Inglis; Taco Bell wants 😀 applicants; and a UPS wedding in Fla.” →

Latest Headlines

Lexington judge won’t budge on $5.3M bias award against UPS; Humana’s got slim chance beating anti-trusters; BF nabs top disability award; and Chinese nationalists expand protests beyond KFC

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:37 p.m.

UPS: This morning in Lexington, Ky., a Fayette Circuit judge denied a motion to overturn a jury’s April verdict and $5.3 million in damages to eight black men who claimed a hostile work environment at a UPS facility in the city. Judge Ernesto Scorscone also rejected UPS attorney Neal Shah’s motion for a new trial. Shah didn’t have any comment after the hearing (Herald-Leader).

HUMANA and Aetna have only a slight chance to reverse the Justice Department’s decision yesterday to block their $37 billion merger, analysts and investors told Reuters, even as the two insurance giants promise to fight tooth and nail to win. “My initial impression from the complaint . . . is that the Justice Department and the states are on much safer ground” in their argument against an Aetna-Humana, said Beau Buffier, co-head of the antitrust group at Shearman & Sterling in New York (Reuters). Meanwhile, New Hampshire and Florida — with an especially big population of seniors — joined the Justice Department suit filed yesterday to block its $37 billion acquisition by Aetna of Hartford; Illinois joined the suit yesterday (Union Leader and News 4 Jax).

Humana logoIn more encouraging news, Humana was awarded a six-year Defense Department contract for the East Region of TRICARE, the military health care program providing benefits to service members, retirees and their families. Under the award, Humana’s service area would expand to about six million beneficiaries in a 30-state region. The Louisville-based insurer already has the contract for the South Region: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, most of Texas and the Ft. Campbell-area in Kentucky. The new East Region is a combination of the current South and North regions (press release). The contract is worth $41 million (Federal News Radio). Humana’s announcement, nearly buried in yesterday’s DOJ news, to exit eight of 19 state health-care exchanges drew critics, who saw the move as a direct challenge to the Obama administration to block the Humana-Aetna merger (New York Post).

BROWN-FORMAN was awarded a score of 100 in the 2016 Disability Equality Index survey, by the US Business Leadership Network and the American Association of People with Disabilities. The survey awarded points in four major categories: culture and leadership, company-wide access, employment practices, and community engagement and support services. This year, 83 Fortune 1000-size companies completed the survey; two-thirds of these top the Fortune 500 list; complete list (news release).

KFC: Chinese nationalists have added iPhones and Continue reading “Lexington judge won’t budge on $5.3M bias award against UPS; Humana’s got slim chance beating anti-trusters; BF nabs top disability award; and Chinese nationalists expand protests beyond KFC” →

Latest Headlines

Analysts: Papa John’s outlook brighter amid civil unrest; Humana stock edges up after DOJ shocker; and Louisville’s big on $1,500 apartments

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 10:39 a.m.

Papa John's vs. S&P July 20
Papa John’s stock, in blue, has zoomed ahead of the S&P 500 index over the past three months, when civil unrest has been in the news.

PAPA JOHN’S stock jumped 3.7% to $71.69 a share in the first hour of trading, after Wall Street analysts upgraded the Louisville pizza chain on the surprising view that diners, concerned about political and civil unrest, are choosing to stay home for pizza delivery rather than go out for a meal. “After speaking with several large operators and industry contacts,” KeyBanc Capital Markets analysts said yesterday, “we believe the recent decline in casual dining restaurant segment fundamentals — traffic down 3% to 5% the past several weeks — may be the result of consumers eating more at home amid the current political/social backdrop, which we believe could last through the November election.” The company’s stock has jumped 22% in the last three months vs. a much smaller 3% gain in the broader S&P 500 index (MarketWatch and Google Finance). Louisville-based Papa John’s employs 750 workers at its headquarters, and another 21,000 across the globe. More about the company.

HUMANA‘s stock rose 74 cents to $154.12 a share a day after word surfaced the Justice Department was poised to block the Louisville insurer’s $37 billion acquisition by Aetna of Hartford. Aetna climbed 74 cents to $115.84. Yesterday, Humana tumbled 4%, and Aetna fell 2.7% (Google Finance). Humana employs 12,500 workers in its Louisville corporate hometown.

KFC: In New Zealand, franchisee Restaurant Brands hasn’t ruled out home delivery of KFC now that McDonald’s has started offering the service. But CEO Russel Creedy said KFC had tried home delivery before and found customers preferred drive-throughs rather than waiting for their chicken to be brought to their front door. Creedy’s franchise already has experience with delivery through its Pizza Hut restaurants (New Zealand Herald).

FORD‘s Flat Rock Assembly Plant south of Detroit — where the popular Mustang and Fusion are built –- caught fire around 7 last night and forced a partial evacuation of the sprawling 400-acre complex that employs 3,200 workers. No injuries were reported (Detroit Free Press). In Louisville, Ford employs nearly 10,000 workers at two vehicle and truck assembly factories.

Amazon logoAMAZON is signing up amateur drivers in the U.K. to deliver packages in their spare time from distribution centers to customers’ homes, expanding a system it started last year in its corporate hometown of Seattle. Starting this month in Birmingham, a smartphone app will allow the company’s part-time mules to choose when and where they want to work, as well as guiding them to customers’ homes and allowing customers to track their orders (Financial Times).

PIZZA HUT: With the Aug. 5 start of the Summer Olympics closing in, Pizza Hut has launched its patriot-themed Big Flavor Dipper in a red-white-and-blue box emblazoned with “Go USA!”

In other news, Louisville ranked No. 6 among 30 U.S. cities offering the biggest apartments renting for $1,500 a month, according to a new Rent Cafe report. The top 10:

  1. Memphis: 1,948 square feet
  2. Oklahoma City: 1,786
  3. Indianapolis: 1,724
  4. El Paso: 1,667
  5. Columbus, Ohio: 1,667
  6. Louisville: 1,648
  7. Jacksonville, Fla.: 1,579
  8. Las Vegas: 1,546
  9. Phoenix: 1,415
  10. Fort Worth: 1,389

In contrast, New York City had the smallest apartments, at 271 square feet (MarketWatch and Rent Cafe).

Latest Headlines

Ind. Kindred exec accused of child molestation found dead; layoffs hit Deutsch ad agency that lost Pizza Hut account; GE Firstbuild’s cold-brew coffee maker set for 2017 release

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 7:42 p.m.

KINDRED: The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office says Kindred Greenwood hospital CFO William Brenner was found dead inside his home near Indianapolis yesterday, 10 days after authorities accused him of molesting a 6-year-old boy he was fostering in 2014 and 2015.

William Brenner
Brenner

Police say there was no evidence of a struggle and no weapons were found near the body. Investigators believe he may have had a medical episode and had died several days earlier. His body was found in a hallway and was badly decomposed (WIBC).

Brenner, 49, faced four counts of felony child molesting and one count of felony dissemination of matter harmful to minors, according to the Indianapolis Star. The Greenwood facility is one of Louisville-based Kindred’s 95 transitional care and rehabilitation hospitals. Greenwood is 12 miles south of Indianapolis.

Also today, Kindred said it would release its second-quarter financial results on Aug. 4 after stock markets close. The following day, it will host a teleconference with Wall Street analysts to discuss the report (press release).

In downtown Louisville, construction is picking up at Kindred’s new headquarters expansion at Broadway and Fourth streets after a relatively slow start. The $36 million project financed with substantial public incentives will add 142,000 square feet and around 500 new jobs. Plans also include around 7,000 square feet of restaurant space (Broken Sidewalk).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVBhL2HJajg

PIZZA HUT: Advertising agency Deutsch went through a round of layoffs at its Los Angeles office last week directly related to the loss of the Pizza Hut account last spring. A Deutsch spokesperson would say only that less than 2% of the L.A.-based team had been affected. Deutsch won the struggling Yum unit’s account two years ago and went on to create the agency’s debut campaign (which essentially said, “We’re Italian”); video, top. Last December, the pizza chain started shopping the account, eventually choosing the independent Droga5 agency in May — its fifth agency of record in six years. Multiple sources have told Adweek that Pizza Hut is not the world’s most agreeable client. It’s not yet clear when Droga5’s first work for the chain will appear (Adweek).

Prisma
Prisma.

GE: A cold-brew coffeemaker developed by GE Appliances’ Firstbuild laboratory in Louisville is scheduled to reach the market next summer, after first passing through a crowdfunding round on IndieGoGo. The lab is using unconventional funding for the coffee maker, called Prisma, not so much as a financial requirement as it is an awareness-raising launchpad. “We believe crowdfunding is a great way to validate products with the early adopter community,” Firstbuild Senior Design Engineer Justin Brown told Daily Coffee News. The Prisma can make anywhere from five to 25 ounces of ready-to-drink cold coffee (Daily Coffee News).

AMAZON has reportedly fired one of its delivery men Continue reading “Ind. Kindred exec accused of child molestation found dead; layoffs hit Deutsch ad agency that lost Pizza Hut account; GE Firstbuild’s cold-brew coffee maker set for 2017 release” →