Tag: Jack Daniel’s

Latest Headlines

Humana stock jumps for second day; Amazon Prime Day sales soared, and yuck: Man chases Jack with bottle of Elmer’s glue

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:38 p.m.

Ford 2017 Escape
The 2017 Ford Escape built in Louisville took top honors in Cars.com’s annual compact SUV challenge.

HUMANA‘s stock closed moments ago up 4.3% at $161.30, posting its second consecutive day of gains. The beleaguered stock has been buffeted since last week’s surprising news that top executives met Department of Justice anti-trust officials in a last-ditch effort to keep the insurer’ $37 billion merger with Aetna on track (Google Finance).

The New York state insurance regulator has conditionally approved the deal, one of the last state sign-offs needed, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. The approval is significant because New York is one of the nation’s biggest insurance markets. Alongside the Justice Department, state insurance regulators have been conducting their own assessments, which are in some cases required before a transaction can proceed (Bloomberg).

The Louisville insurer is adding 70 telesales jobs to its existing 305 in Middleton, Wisc., to meet anticipated demand for the upcoming Medicare open enrollment period, Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 (Wisconsin State Journal).

KINDRED: Arkansas state lawmakers are giving mixed reviews to the state’s plan to sell its in-home health care services program to Kindred for $39 million, a deal closing Aug 1. Kindred submitted the highest bid of the six bidders and got the highest scores in the state Health Department’s bid evaluation (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette).

UPS fired an employee at its Maumee distribution center yesterday after investigating a photo posted on Facebook purporting to show a noose hanging inside the northeast Ohio facility. It’s unclear whether the employee taking the photo was fired, or the person responsible for the noose itself. Maumee is 18 miles southwest of Toledo (Toledo Blade).

AMAZON said yesterday’s second annual Prime Day Continue reading “Humana stock jumps for second day; Amazon Prime Day sales soared, and yuck: Man chases Jack with bottle of Elmer’s glue” →

Latest Headlines

Humana dives another 3% as investors watch DOJ fallout; and prison time for N.C. man who duped ad agencies over fake Brown-Forman contract

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 5:30 p.m.

AdWeek cover
Ad exec fraudster appears on trade weekly’s just-published cover this week.

HUMANA‘s shares fell another 2.6%, or $4.15, to close at $154, as investors watched developments at the Louisville company and proposed acquirer Aetna, after executives mounted an 11th-hour battle Friday before antitrust officials to save the companies’ $37 billion merger. Aetna’s shares closed down 0.5%, or 56 cents, to $116.44. Last week, Humana tumbled 11% and Aetna a smaller 2% after news first leaked about the Department of Justice talks on Thursday (Google Finance). The company’s charitable foundation today announced a $225,000 grant to the Louisville Urban League to launch “It Starts with Me.” The insurer’s employees will visit the California, Parkland, Russell and Shawnee neighborhoods, helping families get health insurance, connect participants with support resources and find after-school activities for children (WLKY). Based in Louisville, Humana employs 12,500 employees in the city.

BROWN-FORMAN: A former North Carolina advertising executive was sentenced to 57 to 81 months in prison for defrauding two ad agencies in a scheme where he faked a series of contracts in 2012 with Brown-Forman and Coca-Cola Co. supposedly worth $269.9 million. The man, Bill Grizack, went so far as to create email addresses with domains closely resembling addresses of actual Brown-Forman employees, and used “burner” cellphones for made-up  conversations with the whiskey giant (AdWeek).

Rick Bubenhofer
Bubenhofer

Former Brown-Forman public relations chief Rick Bubenhofer has opened a boutique public relations agency, RBPR, with offices in Louisville and New York (TR Business).

In Nashville, the distiller’s Jack Daniel’s unit later this month is opening its first branded retail store outside its corporate home in Lynchburg, Tenn. Called the Nashville General Store, the outlet will sell clothing to barware and custom-made musical instrument displays. But it won’t sell whiskey because the store would need a liquor license (Tennessean via USA Today).

The Filson Historical Society is nearing completion of a $12 million expansion and renovation project partly underwritten with nearly $600,000 in contributions from Brown-Forman’s founding Brown family. The project includes a new, 20,000-square-foot Owsley Brown II History Center honoring the late Brown-Forman CEO. Founded in 1884, Filson is devoted to Kentucky and Ohio River Valley history and culture (Courier-Journal). Here’s a drone’s eye view of the project:

AMAZON Prime members now make up more than half the online retailer’s customer base, according to a new study. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates Amazon counts 63 million Prime members among its shoppers — an increase of 19 million from last June (Fortune). Amazon stock traded at a new intraday high of $755.90 before giving back some; shares closed at $753.78, up $7.97, or 1%. Investors are anticipating tomorrow’s second annual Prime Day super sale; the stock closed at $. The retailer’s stock has soared 70% from a year ago vs. a much smaller 2.8% gain in the S&P 500 index. The company employs a total 6,000 workers at distribution centers in Jeffersonville and Shepherdsville.

TEXAS ROADHOUSE‘s stock also traded intraday at a new record 52-week high, $46.83, but closed at $46.54, up $1.12, or 2.5%.

Media and Marketing

150th-birthday campaign: How to play the Jack Daniel’s whiskey barrel scavenger hunt

Starting Friday in its Lynchburg, Tenn., hometown, the Brown-Forman unit is hiding 150 prize-filled whiskey barrels across the globe at historic and cultural sites, with clues on Jack Daniel’s Facebook pages to help fans find them.

The clues, tied to the history of each region, will be revealed on the day of each local Barrel Hunt, and barrels will be opened when the first person to arrive gives the correct password. The hunt is a social-media marketing centerpiece of the distiller’s 150th anniversary. It runs through Sept. 30.

Photo, top: A barrel gets the Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 brand.

How important is Jack to the company?

It’s the only one of Brown-Forman’s product lines to be Continue reading “150th-birthday campaign: How to play the Jack Daniel’s whiskey barrel scavenger hunt” →

Latest Headlines

Saturday night dive: a bad one for Pizza Hut, after a good one for Roadhouse; and Jack Daniel’s reveals a hard truth

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 6:36 p.m

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In an undated photo, Jack Daniel — center, in white hat — and to the left, a man who could be a son of Nearis Green, a slave who taught Daniel how to make whiskey.

PIZZA HUT: In Memphis, police are investigating why an officer shot and critically wounded a suspect around 11:10 last night in front of a Pizza Hut, after a caller reported two men were robbing a driver there. One suspect was shot and taken to the Regional Medical Center in critical condition. The second suspect fled; it’s unknown if he was also hit (Commercial Appeal).

In Ohio, Harrison Township deputies were investigating a break-in at a Pizza Hut early this morning; reports indicate a cash register from the business was located by deputies, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether burglars were able to get away with anything (WHIO).

And in northern Delaware yesterday, two armed men confronted a male clerk closing a Pizza Hut in Bear at 1 a.m., demanding cash from the register. The clerk complied and turned over an undisclosed amount. The suspects then fled the store; no injuries were reported (Delaware Online). BTW: Yelp reviewers don’t like the Bear restaurant one bit.

BROWN-FORMAN‘s Jack Daniel’s unit is using its 150 anniversary celebrations this year to talk candidly about its history: the founder learned his craft from a slave named Nearis Green. “This version of the story was never a secret,” The New York Times says today, “but it is one that the distillery has only recently begun to embrace, tentatively, in some of its tours, and in a social media and marketing campaign this summer” (New York Times).

TEXAS ROADHOUSE‘s new restaurant in Roanoke, Va., drew 350 diners when it opened last week for the first time. But managing partner Eric Grow wasn’t surprised in the least, “even though there was very little spectacle at the opening — no formal ribbon cutting or announcement,” says the Roanoke Times. “A few weeks ago he began switching on the building’s LED lights. The first night he did this, he estimates the restaurant got more than a hundred calls asking if it was open yet” (Roanoke Times).