Tag: Ford

Latest Headlines

Jury sides with Kindred in N.H. man’s death; Ford Europe focuses on subcompacts for 6-8% margins, and Texas man gets life for killing Papa John’s driver

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 8:27 a.m.

KINDRED: A jury in Nashua, N.H., yesterday cleared Kindred Healthcare and Greenbriar Terrace nursing home in the death of a Nashua man more than five years ago. Byam “Bing” Whitney Jr. died in 2011 after developing pneumonia and then bedsores that led to sepsis and his death at the age of 84 (Union Leader).

FORD:  In a radical shift, Ford is repositioning itself in Europe’s small-car market by abandoning the minicar and focusing on subcompact buyers with a larger Ka and a more upscale Fiesta. The change highlights the automaker’s strategy of picking battles to win 6% to 8% profit margins for its European business (Automotive News).

Ruimin
Ruimin

GE: Haier Group CEO Zhang Ruimin was awarded the Legend In Leadership Award at the Yale University Chief Executive Leadership Institute Summit in New York City. The conference is organized by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the prominent senior associate dean for Leadership Studies at Yale’s School of Management; he is a much sought-after commentator on management issues (press release). Haier bought GE Appliances and 6,000-employee Appliance Park for $5.6 billion in a deal completed last week.

Delcid
Delcid

PAPA JOHN’S: A 38-year-old San Antonio man was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison yesterday for killing a Papa John’s delivery driver in 2014. William “Jimmy” O’Neill, 46, had been delivering at an apartment complex when Robert Carlos Delcid stole his car and ran over him as he tried to stop the theft. O’Neil’s 86-year-old mother Edna O’Neill told the jury: “He was a good kid” who called her nearly every day, always ending the conversation saying, “I love you” (Express News).

PIZZA HUT: In Odessa, Texas, a gunman robbed a Pizza Hut Wednesday night, demanded money and fled; no injuries were reported (American).

James Ramsey
Ramsey

In other news, University of Louisville Foundation vice chair Joyce Hagen paid virtually all the cost of a full-page Courier-Journal ad in April that lauded embattled school President James Ramsey, and blasted his critics on the board of trustees (Insider Louisville). Enormous craft beer restaurant HopCat expects to open in five weeks, assuming construction is done at its Grinstead and Bardstown roads location; it’s now hiring some 200 employees to handle the 132 varieties of beer (WDRB). And the news drought continues about Louisville native and Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence :(.

Latest Headlines

Amazon wants Texas tax cut, as Trump slams Bezos anew; Haier paid $125M for Appliance Park, and much ado about new KFC pulled-porker down under in Oz

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 9:34 a.m.

AMAZON is seeking tax breaks for a proposed distribution center in Houston that would lower the retailer’s taxes there to 65% for 10 years, starting Jan. 1; Harris County officials meet today to consider whether to call a public meeting on the company’s request. The $136 million facility would create 1,000 jobs and construction would start in the third quarter (Houston Chronicle). Amazon already has at least one center in Houston; it opened in 2014. In the Louisville area, it employs 6,000 at two distribution centers. What it’s like to work in one of the centers.

Presumptive GOP White House nominee Donald Trump has renewed his attack on The Washington Post and owner Jeff Bezos, after the paper called him out for trying multiple times yesterday to quietly link President Obama to this weekend’s devastating attack in Orlando. Trump has revoked the paper’s press access to his campaign, saying Bezos is using the newspaper as his personal mouthpiece to gain tax advantages for Amazon. Bezos bought the paper from its long-time owners, the Grahams, for $250 million in 2013; he owns it separately from Amazon (The Verge). Also, Amazon is getting ready to roll out its second annual Prime Day, a special 24-hour discount extravaganza for Prime members that last year exceeded its Black Friday results. It was held in July last year; the company hasn’t set a date this year yet (Street Insider).

FORD has been much less visible than competitors in forging deals with Silicon Valley partners, raising questions about whether it’s getting left behind in the race for self-driving cars and other innovations. Talks with Google this year went nowhere, while Fiat Chrysler has already forged a relationship with that technology giant. Meanwhile, Ford’s experiments with on-demand shuttles and e-bikes have been overshadowed by General Motors’ Maven car-sharing and Toyota’s alliance with Uber (Hybrid Cars).

GE: We now know what Haier paid GE’s 61-year-old Appliance Park: $125 million, according to Jefferson County Clerk Office records reviewed by Business First. Overall, Haier paid $5.6 billion for the home appliances division in a deal completed last week.

Pulled Pork Burger
Exhibit A.

KFC: Some customers are confused and angry — and even angry about that anger — after the fast food restaurant famous for fried chicken launched a $6 limited edition burger with that other white meat: pork. The sandwich of pulled pork, coleslaw and barbecue sauce on a brioche bun is available across KFC restaurants in at least Australia starting today for the next four weeks (Emmanorris Blog and EFTM ). The Ozzie KFC division posted that video at the top of this page and the photo on the left.

News about the sandwich is spreading across Twitter, with many outraged or at least annoyed over the outrage:

Boulevard sees the Australian Mafia-of-one at work: Greg Creed has been leading a KFC makeover since become CEO of corporate parent Yum in January 2015.

TACO BELL: Our foreign news story of the day is about the Mexican chain’s move into Brazil next month in the megalopolis of Sao Paulo, just in time for the summer Olympics: “Taco Bell desembarca no Brasil ainda no segundo semestre” (Clica Piaui). For those who don’t speak Portuguese, Google Translate is your friend. Facing an increasingly saturated U.S. fast-food market, the Yum unit is ramping up overseas openings, expanding to 1,000 locations by 2020 from about 280 now (Bloomberg).

PAPA JOHN’S: Three men armed with a gun and a baseball bat robbed a driver at 10 p.m. Sunday night in Magnolia, Del., taking money and his cellphone (Delaware Online).

TEXAS ROADHOUSE is hiring in Knoxville and Alcoa, Tenn., at a job fair today (WVLT).

In other news, the newly opened Speed Cinema this weekend will present this year’s Sundance Short Film Festival Tour (Insider Louisville). And on Wall Street, U.S. stocks traded lower again right after the opening bell (Google Finance).

Media and Marketing

Cowboy in tux“A tuxedo with work boots: All-new Ford F-Series Super Duty King Ranch Platinum Editions offer premium vinyl flooring option.”

That’s the headline from a Ford Motor press release this morning, promoting an option for customers wanting a $75,000 luxury truck that can double as a work truck “without fear of damaging the interior.” The photo, below, is the one the marketing department at the employer of nearly 10,000 Louisville workers suggested news outlets use — which, of course, is why we opted for the gratuitously hotter one, above.

Vinyl floor option

Latest Headlines

Ball State defends $3.3M from Schnatter-Koch; more Humana-Aetna op; Ford GT back at Le Mans, and Brits say KFC server in Fla. was ‘most miserable’

Latest headlines, focused on big employers; updated at 4:37 p.m.

Ford GT Le Mans
Ford’s new GT faces Ferraris and other top rivals at famous French race again. Thousands have applied to buy one of the $400,000 supercars.

PAPA JOHN’S: Ball State University deflected concerns over accepting a $3.3 million donation from Papa John’s founder John Schnatter and the Charles Koch Foundation, to promote free enterprise, saying it wouldn’t subvert academic freedom (Star-Press). The March donation is only the latest from the two men.

Schnatter and Koch
Schnatter and Koch.

They gave $12 million to the University of Kentucky in December and $6.3 million to the University of Louisville in March 2015, in both cases also to establish free-enterprise institutes. Administrators there offered similar assurances about academic independence. But a contract UK signed and Schnatter’s views on capitalism point to a possibly sharp collision of goals. Schnatter graduated from Ball State in Muncie, Ind., in 1983, and started his pizza company the following year.

GE: In Appliance Park, new owner Haier is getting a facility that’s completely rebuilt itself from years of outsourcing and offshoring,” said John Shook, CEO of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, which advised long-time GE owner in trimming management and tweaking production. “GE Appliances is a lean producer with an engaged leadership that has done an excellent job involving the union workforce to build in quality on the front lines (Benzinga). China-based Haier completed the $5.6 billion deal a week ago today; Appliance Park has about 6,000 employees making refrigerators and other home appliances.

HUMANA and planned acquirer Aetna face increased opposition to the $37 billion deal — as do merger partners Anthem and Cigna — from a new coalition of consumer and medical groups worried about the consolidations,  which would shrink the healthcare insurance market to three major insurers from five (CT Mirror). Aetna officials have said recently the deal is still on track to close in this year’s second half. About Humana.

Edsel Ford II
Ford

FORD: Unfortunately misnamed Edsel Ford II leaves tomorrow for Le Mans to watch the new Ford GT return to the legendary race against Ferraris, Porches and Aston Martins, starting Sunday. Ford, 67, a great-grandson of the company’s founder, visited the track with his father, Henry Ford II, in 1966 when he was a teen to witness the Ford GT40 place 1-2-3. “Fifty years have gone by fast,” he said. “Seems like yesterday I was there with Dad” (Detroit Free Press). The GT racing is based on the all-new $400,000 supercar unveiled in January. Le Mans history. Edsel Ford is a consultant to the company and member of its board of directors. At this year’s annual meeting, he faced the most resistance from shareholders re-electing directors, apparently over the $650,000 Ford paid him as a consultant. About Ford in Louisville.

Watch video of the 1966 race, and the new car:

KFC: Job recruiters want to talk to you if you have a “friendly attitude and positive demeanor” at an open house on Thursday (CraigsList). Elsewhere in Maryland, firefighters responded to a mulch fire early Saturday afternoon that spread to the exterior of a KFC; no injuries were reported. Why was there mulch so close? The news report is silent on that important question (Carroll County Times). More about KFC corporate parent Yum.

In top culture news, Broadway’s Hamilton won 11 Tonys last night, including best musical — just shy of the record of 12 won by The Producers. Tickets are impossible to get, as we discovered when we found one for a whopping $7,075 in a travel story last month.

Latest Headlines

Regs can’t force Aetna to stay in Hartford; good B-F news: teen binge drinking dives; and $10K pet bird stolen from a N.H. Roadhouse lot is home again
aetna-headquarters
Aetna’s headquarters building in Hartford, where it was founded in 1853.

A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 2:29 p.m.

HUMANA: Connecticut insurance regulators can’t require Aetna to maintain its headquarters in the state should the Hartford insurer’s $37 billion purchase of Humana go through as planned (Journal Enquirer). Last month, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini refused to rule out the possibility Aetna might abandon its historic Hartford corporate home, saying only that the deal’s terms required the company establish a presence in Kentucky. “The rest of all of our real estate is under review,” he told the annual shareholders meeting. Aetna has 6,000 employees in Connecticut. The merger, expected to close this year if it passes regulatory review, would double its workforce to 110,000; Humana has about 12,500 in Louisville. In San Antonio, meanwhile, Humana plans to hire 140 seasonal and permanent telephone salespeople, adding to the 1,050 already working there (Express-News).

Amazon logoAMAZON is reportedly launching a full-fledged music streaming subscription service for $9.99 a month, placing it in a head-on collision with established rivals Apple and Spotify and their 30-million song catalogs. Amazon already offers a limited music stream for its $99-a-year Prime shipping members. A full service would continue its drive to be a one-stop retailer for all goods (Reuters).

BROWN-FORMAN: Teenage binge drinking has sunk to the lowest level since a prominent survey began in 1991, newly released results show — positive news for an alcoholic beverages industry where Brown-Forman is a major player. The survey, conducted every two years by the Centers for Disease Control, analyzed more than 150,000 U.S. secondary students; it’s one of three sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services (Spirits Business). The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey also covers smoking, fighting, technology use while driving, and other risky behavior (CDC).

GE Appliances launched its FirstBuild micro-factory at the University of Louisville two years ago so engineers could prototype ideas with state-of-the-art machinery and a community of helpers; an explainer (The Atlantic). GE sold the residential “white goods” business and 6,000-employee Appliance Park to Haier last week for $5.6 billion; the 20-employee FirstBuild was included.

Alan Mulally
Mulally

FORD: Retired CEO Alan Mulally, credited with saving the Dearborn, Mich., automaker, will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame next month. Mulally, a Boeing executive before Ford, mortgaged everything — including the iconic Blue Oval logo — for a complete product portfolio overhaul to avoid a government bailout as bankruptcy loomed. General Motors and Chrysler went through bankruptcy. Mulally, 70, retired in 2014 and was succeeded as CEO by Mark Fields. Other hall of fame inductees will include auto safety advocate Ralph Nader, 82 (Detroit News). About Ford in Louisville.

PIZZA HUT: In Corpus Christi, Texas, three men stole a money bag from a Pizza Hut employee yesterday morning in a crime police say may be connected to others like it (KRIS).

Yellow-naped Amazon
What birds look like.

TEXAS ROADHOUSE: A pet yellow-naped Amazon bird named Emmett has been safely returned to his New Hampshire family after he was stolen Thursday night from their car in a Texas Roadhouse parking lot in Dewitt — and the finder turned down the $10,000 reward the family had offered (WSYR).

In other news, the Louisville Metro Council passed a critical ordinance granting Google Fiber a franchise for public right-of-way access to start installing hyper-fast Internet and data delivery service; Thursday’s passage had been expected (Business First). The service would provide speeds up to 100 times faster than conventional broadband, a huge economic recruiting tool that would elevate Louisville to the top ranks of high-tech cities.

Google Fiber’s website says the service is already in Atlanta, Kansas City, Nashville and Utah’s Provo — blue push pins on the following map. Louisville and other potential cities are identified with gray dots, and upcoming cities with purple:

Google Fiber map