Tag: GE

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Haier in home fix-up show deal; and Taco Bell franchise owner gives Fla. ‘coma’ guy $2.5K
Tebow Home Free
Tebow (left) and Holmes host show where Haier is now a sponsor.

A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 10:32 a.m.

GE: Haier has signed on as a sponsor for the second season of the reality TV-game show Home Free, where contestants compete to win a home outfitted with Haier appliances. Co-hosts are Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner, and Mike Holmes, the series’s creator and professional contractor. On the Fox Network show, nine couples compete to renovate a dilapidated home each week, facing elimination until the winners are awarded their dream home. The series starts June 16 (press release). China-based Haier’s pending $5.4 billion purchase of the 6,000-employee Appliance Park in Louisville is expected to close this summer.

Michael Booth Taco Bell coma man
Booth in hospital with tacos.

TACO BELL: The Florida man who became an Internet sensation after waking from a 42-day coma in April and immediately asking for Taco Bell as his first meal is now closer to paying his medical bills, too: The franchise owner whose restaurant supplied the 8½ crunchy tacos last month presented Jake Booth with an oversized check for $2,500 at his Bonita Springs home, plus $250 in gift certificates for more tacos; Booth’s request led to untold millions of dollars in free publicity for Taco Bell. “We wanted to meet one of our greatest fans,” said Carlos Silva, chief operating officer of Prometheus Franchise Restaurant Holding; the Clearwater, Fla.-based company owns Taco Bell franchises throughout Southwest Florida. The money will go toward a Wake the Jake Go Fund Me campaign to raise $50,000 to help Booth pay medical bills (Naples Daily News). Watch the video. Booth’s story caught fire when someone posted a photo of him on Reddit. “Taco Bell’s marketing team have a slam dunk with this one,” said one poster.

AMAZON‘s latest round of distribution center openings is set for Edwardsville, Ill., where it plans two centers with more than 1,000 full-time jobs total. The company said today that one center will specialize in handling big-screen TVs, sports equipment or kayaks and the other will handle smaller items, including books, toys and electronics; no opening date was given for the centers (press release). Rumors had circulated last month that Amazon was headed for the area (Belleville News-Democrat). Edwardsville has 25,000 residents and is 27 miles northeast of St. Louis (Census facts). Today’s news follows Amazon’s announcement just a week ago that it would open a second distribution center in Joliet, Ill., with 2,000 jobs on top of the 1,500 already at the existing center; Joliet is an hour south of Chicago (press release).

In other news, University of Louisville has given baseball coach Dan McDonnell a $325,000 raise, to a base salary of $1 million a year, to discourage other schools from trying to poach him (Courier-Journal). U.S. stocks were modestly lower an hour into trading as Wall Street digested fresh ADP payroll data, watched an OPEC meeting, and waited for tomorrow’s May employment report from the Labor Department (Google Finance). The Boulevard Stock Portfolio of 11 big employers was mixed.

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B-F closes $405M BenRiach deal; Bezos says Amazon isn’t gunning for UPS — but he wants ‘better prices’; and Taco’s new Chalupa is one of ‘grossest fast food items ever offered’
BenRiach Distillery
The distillery is in the Highlands of northern Scotland.

A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 3:47 p.m.

BROWN-FORMAN said today it had completed its previously announced acquisition of Scotland’s BenRiach Distillery Co. for £281 million ($405 million). The deal includes three BenRiach labels and brings Brown-Forman back into the single-malt scotch whisky business. “The GlenDronach, BenRiach, and Glenglassaugh single-malt brands are among the finest single malts in the world,” CEO Paul Varga said in a statement. The purchase includes three distilleries, a bottling plant, and the headquarters in Edinburgh. BenRiach was founded in 1826 — 44 years before Brown-Forman was launched (press release). Today’s announcement follows a published report two weeks ago that the Louisville spirits and wine company is considering selling its Finlandia vodka business amid a broader effort to focus on whiskey. Brown-Forman’s Louisville operations.

Jeff Bezos
Bezos

AMAZON CEO Jeff Bezos told a high-profile technology conference last night 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. He cited India and the U.K. as examples. “We have had to take over a lot of the last-mile delivery in the U.K. over the last several years,” he told the Code Conference, in wide-ranging remarks. “The Royal Mail ran out of capacity at peak” (Bloomberg). Bezos did, however, hint at another motivation: wrangling better terms on delivery contracts. “Better prices on transportation would be acceptable to us,” he deadpanned (Recode). The Amazon founder was “equally comic, candid, and clever as he offered his views on artificial intelligence, data privacy, free speech, leadership, streaming video, and aerospace” (Fortune).

Elsewhere, Amazon is hiring more than 1,000 workers for its new 855,000 square-foot distribution center opening this summer outside San Antonio; the company already has six other Texas centers, including another one in the San Antonio area (Houston Chronicle). Amazon has five centers in Kentucky, including two in the Louisville area employing 6,000. And with more than 20,000 workers, UPS is Louisville’s biggest private employer.

TACO BELL‘s newest menu offering — a Chalupa with a fried chicken shell — is one of the “grossest fast food items ever offered” (New York Daily News). How it’s made (BuzzFeed). Also, the company has started construction on a restaurant in Nitro, West Virginia (WSAZ).

Ford logoFORD recalled 1.9 million vehicles with certain Takata passenger-side frontal airbag inflators after Takata said the inflators were defective. The vehicles affected are 2007-2010 Ford Edge; 2006-2011 Ford Fusion; 2005-2011 Ford Mustang; 2007-2011 Ford Ranger; 2007-2010 Lincoln MKX, and 2006-2011 Lincoln MKZ, Zephyr and Mercury Milan (Reuters and press release); all about Takata’s airbag scandal. Separately, Ford said total U.S. vehicle sales in May declined 6% from a year ago, to 235,997. That was despite F-Series pickup sales posting a 9% gain, and van sales hitting their best May since 1978 (press release). Ford shares closed down 2.9% at $13.10.

KINDRED said it completed a deal where it’s buying four leased hospitals in Indianapolis, Houston, Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo., and selling two in Cleveland, one owned and another leased. The Louisville hospital and nursing home giant said it paid about $800,000 cash and additional cash consideration to Select Medical Holdings Corp. as part of the deal (press release). Separately, Kindred said it’s closing its Bashford Manor area nursing and rehabilitation center, where 153 employees care for 110 residents (Courier-Journal).

PAPA JOHN’S will be one of the first U.S. restaurant brands to enter Tunisia; it’s the second African country after Egypt to have one of the pizza chain’s franchises. The country in North Africa only recently opened its borders to franchising (Meat & Poultry). More about Tunisia.

GE is scaling back plans for a factory that will build big gas-powered engines in Welland, Ontario; the factory is now in Waukesha, Wisc. The company will create just 150 jobs at the new site, down from 350 at Waukesha, when it first announced the move in September. GE is taking advantage of tax incentives (CBC).

TEXAS ROADHOUSE got only a so-so review in Augusta, Ga., partly because of the restaurant’s signature item: steak. “My first bite of the filet seemed pleasantly salty, but as I went on, the meat was overwhelmed with salt — I couldn’t even finish it,” the reviewer said. “It was tender, but not the most tender filet I’ve ever had. And while I ordered it medium, it was more of a medium rare” (August Chronicle). The restaurant chain tweeted a recommended topping on Sunday:

In other news, the embattled Cahoots bar on Baxter Avenue in the Highlands is closing (Business First). Brawls had been a problem, leading a customer to post a truly gross review, complete with photo! “Blood on the men’s room sink,” wrote John R. “From one of the (many) fights I’ve witnessed at this place. Disgusting” (Yelp).

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$1.7B deal to sell Middle East Hut-KFC franchiser collapses

A news summary, focused on on big employers; updated 1:31 p.m.

YUM: A proposed $1.7 billion deal to sell a majority stake in the Middle Eastern franchise rights-owner of Pizza Hut and KFC to a local group of businessmen has been scrapped. Kuwait Food Co. had been up for sale for years, but talks to sell failed amid a diminished appetite for large transactions in a region where low oil prices have dented investors’ confidence (Wall Street Journal).

GE logoGE picked Boston for its new headquarters, but not before the border state of Rhode Island made its case by comparing itself favorably on labor costs. The average R.I. tech worker makes $93,000 per year vs. $109,000 in Massachusetts, state officials said. Gov. Gina Raimondo told The Providence Journal that the state’s final offer to GE was more than $100 million and “competitive” with the Massachusetts package. Providence and New York City were among the finalists before GE chose Boston in January. (Boston Globe).

In other news, over the past four years, the Louisville police have logged more than 9,200 calls for service from six area Walmarts, 33% more than the next-highest location, seven area Kroger stores (WDRB).

Latest Headlines

New boomers on Brown-Forman board; Kindred’s got stock awards; big love for KFC’s threatened buffet, and big bucks for U of L’s Ramsey

A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 7:40 p.m.

Brown Forman board 2015
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
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).

James Ramsey
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).

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For Humana’s top brass, Anthem-Cigna’s private ‘squabbles’ offer a window on mega-merger pitfalls

A news summary, focused on big employers; updated 6:12 p.m.

anthem-cigna-logos-thumb-400Quarrels have broken out behind the scenes of Anthem’s proposed acquisition of Cigna, as the health insurers seek regulatory approval for their landmark $48 billion deal, according to a series of letters reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “People on both sides say the squabbles could delay or derail antitrust approvals, which are typically harder to obtain if both parties aren’t in sync,” the Journal is reporting today.

The deal was announced July 24, three weeks after Aetna and Humana announced their own planned $34 billion tie-up, as big insurers sought scale and efficiency in a shifting U.S. health care industry. The Anthem-Cigna dissension suggests their proposal may fall behind in the regulatory review,  worrisome because it’s “thought to have better odds if reviewed alongside Aetna-Humana,” the Journal says.

On Friday, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said he expected his company’s purchase of Humana would close during the second half of the year. He also said he couldn’t rule out the possibility Aetna might move its headquarters from its historic Hartford home once the deal is complete.

In other news, new federal overtime regulations could force employers to boost the pay of about 149,000 Kentuckians, although mostly at small and mid-sized companies. Starting in December, salaried employees earning $47,476 or less annually must be paid time-and-a-half for working more than 40 hours in a week; that’s twice the current level (Courier-Journal).

Latest Headlines

How Amazon keeps 90,000 employees from unionizing; GE CEO lists $5.5M home for sale
2016055733b4891bce0
GE CEO Immelt’s $5.5 million Connecticut house.

A news summary focused on big employers; updated 4:26 p.m.

AMAZON has successfully blocked unions from organizing its 90,000 workers at giant warehouses, including in Shepherdsville and Jeffersonville, where it has a combined 6,000 employees; here’s how (New York Times). Also, the company is reportedly rolling out new lines of private-label house brands that will only be available to members of its $99-a-year Prime program; they could hit retailer’s site by the end of this month or early in June (Wall Street Journal).

KINDRED‘s business mix has changed significantly since last year’s $1.8 billion purchase of Gentiva Health Services. Now the Kindred At Home division, it was 32% of overall revenue during the 12 months ended in March, the company told analysts at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch health care conference  (Business First); .pdf of Kindred’s presentation. Kindred’s shares closed today at $12.14, little changed.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt has listed his 10,458 square-foot home for sale in exclusive New Canaan, Conn., for $5.5 million (Boulevard thinks that’s a steal!) (Realtor). Meanwhile, Immelt’s reportedly bought a triplex near the top-drawer Boston Public Garden that was listed for $8 million; GE’s moving its headquarters to Boston (Boston Business First).

KFC: In Ohio, a man who ordered a sandwich without pickles Saturday reportedly returned to the restaurant angry about having pickles on his order anyway, and ended up throwing a phone into a wall (Mansfield News Journal). Also, the chain has leased 300 environmentally friendly electric scooters (The Star).

PAPA JOHN’S: Still in Ohio, a 44-year-old man was issued a summons for disorderly conduct after he yelled and cursed at employees during an argument about the number of toppings on his pizza (Mansfield News Journal, too). As if living in glamorous Miami Beach wasn’t enough, a landlord is advertising an apartment with an extra amenity: a Papa John’s is right next door (Craigslist).

FORD: With the month of June about two weeks away, it looks like the end of the road has come for the 2016 Ford Bronco rumors (Master Herald).

TEXAS ROADHOUSE is planning a new restaurant in Plymouth, Mass (Plymouth).

In other news,  U.S. stocks were soaring at mid-afternoon, with the S&P 500 index up 1% at 2,069, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.2% higher at 17,737 (Google Finance). Nearly all stocks in Boulevard’s portfolio of big local employers were higher as well.

Ocean's 13Finally, Louisville native and Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence may star opposite Sandra Bullock in an all-female remake of the “Ocean’s 11” franchise; the last sequel was “Ocean’s 13.” (Tracking Board).