Tag: Taco Bell

Latest Headlines

Louisville companies snap two-day losing streak, as Dow Jones soars 269 points; and Yum China bidders reportedly bust deadline, balk at $10B valuation

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:16 p.m.

Those 10 companies tracked by Boulevard joined U.S. stocks clawing their way back from two consecutive days of steep losses, following Britain’s stunning vote last week to quit the European Union. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed moments ago at 17,410 — up 1.6%; the broader S&P 500 index jumped 1.8% to 2,036 points, and the Nasdaq climbed 2.1% to 4692.

June 28 Guardian
Today’s Guardian.

“This is going to take a long time to play out and I think the initial shock is being a little reversed right now,” Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management told CNBC. “This is not 2008. It’s more like 2011.” (Read the latest Brexit developments in Britain’s Guardian.)

In Louisville, virtually all of Boulevard’s top 10 rose by the time markets closed at 4 p.m. They included Kindred, which got pounded yesterday, falling 7%. The closing prices:

Those gains came even as Ford said it expects the double-whammy of any softer post-Brexit industry and a weaker British sterling “would have an adverse impact on our operations in the long term,” a Ford spokesman told financial news site The Street. Ford also said it would issue revised 2016 guidance during its second-quarter earnings call July 28 (The Street). Ford shares have now tumbled nearly 8% since Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union — nearly twice as much as the broader S&P 500 index.

In its most recent annual report, in February, Ford warned about the impact of a possible Brexit, saying it “could cause financial and capital markets within and outside Europe to constrict, thereby negatively impacting our ability to finance our business, and also could cause a substantial dip in consumer confidence and spending that could negatively impact sales of vehicles.”

Last year, the U.K. was Ford’s single-biggest market after the U.S., accounting for 8% of the automaker’s $149.6 billion in sales:

Ford sales graphic

Ford employs nearly 10,000 workers at an auto assembly and a truck factory in Louisville.

In non-Brexit business news: At YUM, potential bidders for the fast-food giant’s mammoth China division  Continue reading “Louisville companies snap two-day losing streak, as Dow Jones soars 269 points; and Yum China bidders reportedly bust deadline, balk at $10B valuation” →

Cops and Courts

A dangerous mix: brandy ‘shooters,’ two boyfriends, and one angry woman

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

KFC

Crime scene tapeIn Athens, Ga., 30-year-old Tina Gail Anderson was arrested after she showed up drunk with her current boyfriend at her former boyfriend’s KFC workplace,
called for him to come outside, and then drove recklessly in the restaurant’s parking lot.

When police arrived, they saw Anderson driving over a curb and into the parking lot of Ingles next door, according to a police report cited by the Athens Banner-Herald.

After Anderson was stopped, police said they found empty “shooter” bottles of brandy in her car, along with an open pint bottle of the liquor, the newspaper said.

Taco Bell

In upstate New York’s Genesco, two men who already had a string of misdemeanors were charged by police with three more on Saturday, after they allegedly crashed their U-Haul truck into a Taco Bell restaurant awning, then drove off after causing minor damage.

One of the men, Ricky Jackson, 49, had 15 suspensions on his expired permit, plus an active bench warrant for misdemeanor petit larceny, according to WHEC. After driving off, Jackson then returned to the scene and allegedly told a cop he watched police investigate from afar (which seems weird, right?).

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

Latest Headlines

Prominent U.S. senators ask DOJ to block Humana-Aetna deal; and FAA hits Amazon with another hazardous shipping fine

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:23 p.m.

Richard Blumenthal
Blumenthal

HUMANA: A group of high-profile U.S. Senate Democrats yesterday urged the Justice Department to block the proposed Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna mergers, which would shrink the number of national health insurers to three from five. In a letter, they argued the pending tie-ups would threaten jobs, raise premiums, and reduce the quality of care. The letter was signed by Al Franken of Minnesota, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California, Mazie K. Hirono of Hawaii — and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, in whose state both Aetna and Cigna are headquartered (Business Insurance). Aetna officials have said they expect the $37 billion merger with Humana will close in this year’s second half.

AMAZON: The FAA has proposed fining Amazon another $130,000 for twice shipping hazardous packages in 2014 without warning labels or emergency response information. In one,  the retailer offered UPS a box with a 19-ounce container of Simple Air EZ Green HVAC Cleaner. The flammable gas was discovered by UPS workers in Kentucky; the second incident involved FedEx. The proposed penalty comes two weeks after the FAA fined Amazon $350,000 over a similar incident that caused injuries to several UPS workers (CIO). Also, a San Francisco Bay area woman learned the hard way that Amazon can, indeed, ban you for good if you return too many orders — although she eventually got a reprieve (NBC). Amazon employs 6,000 at two distribution centers near Louisville.

Papa John's logoPAPA JOHN’S: Researcher Nomura yesterday downgraded Papa John’s stock to neutral from buy, partly because of concerns traffic accidents involving delivery drivers could push up insurance costs. Among the examples cited: A jury in DeKalb County, Ga., awarded $11 million to a woman who suffered long-term brain damage after an incident involving a Papa John’s driver. “While this award likely will be appealed (if it hasn’t already),” Nomura told clients, “it does highlight what appears to us to be the growing risks.” The firm also downgraded Domino’s shares for the same reason (MarketWatch). Wall Street was unfazed: Papa John’s shares closed today at $67.79, up 2.3%.

BROWN-FORMAN is launching a global scavenger hunt to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its flagship Jack Daniel’s Distillery. Starting July 1 through September, the distiller will provide clues via its Facebook page to 150 hidden whiskey barrels around the world and give fans the opportunity to find and win prizes. The barrels will be hidden at airports in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Heathrow, Milan, Paris, Singapore, Los Angeles and Sydney, plus cultural and historic sites (Frontier Magazine and Travel Retail Business).

FORD and the other two big U.S. automakers collectively outperformed import brands for just the second time in 30 years in this year’s closely watched J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. Still, Ford finished No. 11; Kia was No. 1 (Detroit Free Press). The automaker employs nearly 10,000 workers at its auto and truck factories in Louisville.

UPS: A Idaho woman is praising a UPS driver after he likely saved her and her sons from what could have been a deadly house fire last month (East Idaho News). UPS is Louisville’s single-biggest employer, with about 22,000 workers its Worldport hub at Louisville International Airport, the biggest fully automated package handling facility in the world.

TACO BELL: A viral video of a teenager’s arrest for allegedly brandishing a knife at a Taco Bell employee in Wisconsin has sparked protests and an internal police inquiry (The Root).

In other news, Texas Roadhouse shares closed at $46.55, up 3% — another record closing high — after setting an earlier intraday high of $46.60. And Churchill Downs shares closed at $127.60 up 63 cents as nearly two million shares changed hands — 10 times average volume. Standard & Poor’s announced the Louisville company would replace Fortune Brands Home & Security in the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading today (RTT News).

Latest Headlines

FAA drone rules buzz Amazon; KFC launches smartphone charging gadget, and McD paces Yum with $3B China bids

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:36 p.m.

AMAZON‘s plans to use drones for delivery were slowed yesterday when the Obama Administration released new rules limiting their use, including over urban areas. The Federal Aviation Administration said commercial drones are OK so long as the drone and its payload weigh less than 55 lbs., stays within unaided sight of their pilot, and operators pass a test every two years. In addition, each drone must have its own pilot (Guardian). Also yesterday, Amazon said it’s expanding grocery delivery service to Boston (Boston Inno). The retail giant employs 6,000 employees in the Louisville area, and thousands more across the state.

KFC: In India, the fast-chicken giant has introduced its latest mobile technology to lure younger diners: Watt a Box, a 5-in-1 meal box that comes with a Chicken Zinger, two hot wings, hash browns, a chocolate pie, Pepsi and a 6,100 mAh Lithium-ion battery to charge smartphones. The device isn’t sold, but instead can be won as part of a week-long competition; watch the demo video, above (The Memo). Some customers aren’t so thrilled, however: Testers who charged an iPhone with the box said it only gained 17% battery after charging for half-an-hour, during which time the powerbank became completely drained (Eater).

Meanwhile, in an unusually public spat with an employer, Darrell Hammond — the Saturday Night Live comedian hired to play Colonel Sanders in the new KFC commercials — says the company “played” him into thinking he’d have the gig permanently. He was later replaced by another SNL veteran, Norm Macdonald, in what’s now a running joke of actor switches (Hollywood Reporter). Indeed, it’s part of the script in comedian Jim Gaffigan’s version:

Here are spots by Hammond and MacDonald, who’s none-too-pleased with the switch, either.

YUM: As Yum gears up to spin off its China operations in October, rival McDonald’s has received more than half a dozen bids for its China and Hong Kong stores, including from Beijing Tourism Group, Sanpower and ChemChina, in an auction that could fetch up to $3 billion. In March, McDonalds said it was reorganising its Asian operations by bringing in partners who would own the restaurants within a franchise business (Reuters).

BROWN-FORMAN and other developers Continue reading “FAA drone rules buzz Amazon; KFC launches smartphone charging gadget, and McD paces Yum with $3B China bids” →

Latest Headlines

Aetna-Humana clear big hurdle as California regulators OK $37-billion merger, but Anthem-Cigna deal stumbling

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:56 p.m.

HUMANA: Regulators in the nation’s biggest insurance market, California, have signed off on Aetna’s $37 billion plan to buy Humana, saying yesterday the deal could move forward after Hartford-based Aetna agreed to invest $50 million in the state’s health-care infrastructure (Bloomberg). The companies have said they expect the deal to close in this year’s second half. In another big merger before regulators, Anthem and Cigna may find it impossible to divest themselves of large chunks of their health insurance businesses in order to overcome reported Justice Department antitrust concerns (Wall Street Journal). Meanwhile, Humana plans to move 1,000-1,200 employees to the Waterside and Clocktower buildings it owns downtown, from leased space at 12501 Lakefront Place in the Blankenbaker Station Business Park (Courier-Journal, Business First and WDRB).

Papa John's logoPAPA JOHN’S ranked No. 2 among fast-food restaurants in the annual American Consumer Satisfaction Index survey with a score of 82 out of a possible 100, a 5% increase from 2015. No. 1 Chick-fil-A got 87 points, according to the survey results out today. KFC was No. 9 at 78, and Pizza Hut was No. 79 at 77 (CNN).

TACO BELL makes good on a promise to give away potentially millions of Locos Tacos today, in a promotion tied to the NBA championship finals, which ended yesterday with the Cleveland Cavaliers beating the Golden State Warriors (WISH).

GE: Rival LG’s home Continue reading “Aetna-Humana clear big hurdle as California regulators OK $37-billion merger, but Anthem-Cigna deal stumbling” →

Latest Headlines

Kindred pays $39M for Arkansas home-health ops; Humana top doc sells $603K in stock; and no charges for St. Louis cop in fatal KFC robbery shooting

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 8:29 p.m.

KINDRED: Under the agreement announced late his afternoon, Kindred said it will expand its existing home health and hospice services to 70 of the state’s 75 counties from the current six.

Smaller Kindred building detail
Fourth and Broadway headquarters.

The deal with the Arkansas Department of Health includes the Louisville company’s buying the agency’s 74 home health locations; seven hospice service offices, providing hospice services in 42 counties, plus personal-care service business that helps patients with daily living activities. It’s expected to close in the third quarter, pending regulatory and other approvals (press release).

HUMANA: Chief Medical Officer Roy Beveridge sold 3,228 company shares for $186.67 each — a total $603,000 — in a two-step transaction Friday, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this afternoon. The shares were among 7,947 he received earlier that day as restricted stock units awarded under the insurance giant’s 2011 stock incentive plan. Humana appointed Beveridge to the post in 2013 (SEC document). Humana’s stock closed at $189.90 a share today, up 1.5%.

KFC: A St. Louis police officer who gunned down a robbery suspect in the doorway of a KFC restaurant in January won’t face charges because he acted in self-defense, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced today (Riverfront Times).

PAPA JOHN’S franchisees have signed a three-year contract to become the official pizza at the Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR track in Joliet in a deal announced today. The track previously served Chicago-based chains Giordano’s Pizza at its concession stands and Connie’s Pizza in its suites (Crain’s).

Laura Kay Roberts
Roberts

TACO BELL: In Eugene, Ore., police arrested a 44-year-old woman at a Taco Bell Friday night when a dispute with a teenager turned ugly in the restaurant’s drive-though lane. Laura Kay Roberts was booked and released from the Lane County Jail on charges of interfering with police, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. “Thank God county [jail’s] full,” read a post on her Facebook page, followed by several emoji icons. “No pickle suit for me hahaha.” When a commenter asked what happened, she replied, “I had beer muscles with a side of fireball” (Register-Guard).