TheState.com: Business

Talking Shop: Saffron adds spicy touch

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:09 EDT

Saffron is spicing up the dining scene on Devine Street.

Open for about two weeks, the Moroccan restaurant has replaced Al-Amir Mediterranean at 2930 Devine and has brought a flavor-packed menu along with it.

The restaurant’s name is indicative of one of the many spices and herbs used to prepare its North Africa-influenced fare — including baba ghanouj, couscous, lamb kabobs, baklava and pizza.

“We just wanted to do something new,” Sarah Amar said of her and her husband, David,’s decision to open the restaurant, which neighbors Half-Moon Outfitters and Za’s Brick Oven Pizza on Devine.

Her husband’s years of working in his family’s Moroccan restaurant in Israel and her training as a chef readied them for the challenge of operating their own, she said. They chose to make a start in Columbia because she had friends and family here.

Jerry Fowler, innovative broker, dies

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:12 EDT

Jerry Fowler, a self-employed real estate broker who pioneered the use of radio in Columbia to educate listeners about buying and selling property, died Thursday.

Fowler, 61, succumbed to cancer and kept a diary of the ups and downs of his treatment for more than a year. Weekly installments were published in a suburban weekly newspaper and posted on the Web site of his Chapin-based company.

Fowler’s death creates a vacancy on the Lexington-Richland 5 school board, the second time in less than a decade the panel has lost an incumbent to cancer. Former board chairman David Eckstrom died from complications of brain cancer in 2000.

“I knew it was coming, but you always hope for that miracle,” said Carol Sloop, a friend, colleague in the real estate industry and fellow school board member.

Sloop’s husband, Steve, was diagnosed with cancer shortly before Fowler. When her husband was in the hospital, Sloop said Fowler called several times a day to see if he could help with her real estate clients. His upbeat attitude gave her hope for his and her husband’s recovery.

High fuel costs curb memorial day travel plans

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:12 EDT

Fewer people nationwide are expected to hit the road this Memorial Day weekend because of skyrocketing gas prices, the AAA said a week before the traditional start of the summer travel season.

“It looks like there’s going to be a cutback this year for the first time in a long time,” said Tom Crosby, spokesman for AAA Carolinas, which releases its Memorial Day forecast next week.

Gas is still a bargain in South Carolina, compared with the rest of the country.

The state’s average of $3.63 a gallon falls behind only Arizona and Wyoming.

Still, the average cost of a gallon of gas in South Carolina state is up 78 cents from last year and 41 cents from just a month ago.

Cutting the cord —cell phone use grows

Thu, 15 May 2008 20:50 EDT

For nearly three in 10 households, don’t even bother trying to call them on a landline phone. They either only have a cell phone or seldom if ever take calls on their traditional phone.

The federal figures, released this week, showed that reliance on cells is continuing to rise at the expense of wired telephones.

In the second half of last year:

• 16 percent of households only had cell phones

• 13 percent also had landlines but got all or nearly all their calls on their cells

Hydrogen fueling station under way

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:12 EDT

Work formally began this week on a hydrogen refueling station in the Vista that’s supposed to help make the city a center for alternative fuels.

When it opens in February, the station will fuel a bus that will travel around the USC campus and on several city transit routes, said Russ Keller of the South Carolina Research Authority, the project manager.

The bus from the Federal Transit Administration will remain in Columbia for a year. Officials hope the station will next fuel shuttles used at Midlands military bases and forklifts used by area companies.

The station at Huger and Laurel streets would be the Southeast’s only publicly accessible hydrogen fueling station, outside of Florida.

Hydrogen fuel is supposed to be less environmentally harmful than fossil fuels and would lessen dependence on oil, proponents say.

Reversing trend, cable modems top DSL

Thu, 15 May 2008 20:50 EDT

Cable companies attracted more Internet subscribers than phone companies did in the first quarter, reversing a 3½-year trend, according to a research report Thursday.

The 19 largest cable companies in the U.S. added 1.19 million broadband subscribers in the January-to-March period, according to a tally by Leichtman Research Group.

Phone companies added 1.01 million DSL customers in the same period, the report said.

Since the third quarter of 2004, phone companies had been adding subscribers faster than cable, closing in on cable’s lead in total subscribers. But that lead is now widening, with cable companies having a total of 34.7 million subscribers compared with 29.5 million at the phone companies.

Phone companies have moved resources into upgrading their networks rather than marketing basic DSL service.

Gassing up

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:12 EDT

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline:

COLUMBIA

Thursday: $3.64

Week ago: $3.50

Month ago: $3.23

What the boss makes

Thu, 15 May 2008 20:50 EDT

This is a daily series profiling CEO compensation for South Carolina’s largest publicly traded companies. They are being published from the smallest total pay to the largest. The daily reports will be compiled at thestate.com/business

Company

AVX Corp. a Myrtle Beach electronics components manufacturer with 12,100 employees

CEO

John Gilbertson

Daily report: Winner, loser and the top 10

Thu, 15 May 2008 20:50 EDT

Winner:

TOYOTA HYBRID’S

SALES TOP 1 MILLION

The Prius, which went on sale in Japan in 1997, started out as a risky experiment in green technology, but the popularity of the gas-electric hyrid is going strong amid surging gas prices and growing concerns about the environment. Of the more than 1 million Prius sales worldwide, nearly 592,000 were sold in North America and 315,000 in Japan, Toyota said. Japan’s top automaker sells other hybrid models, but the Prius has been by far the most popular model. Toyota has said it plans to sell a million hybrids annually sometime in the few years after 2010.

Loser:

Blythewood plans new chamber

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:58 EDT

Blythewood business owners, with support from town leaders, are planning to use hospitality and accommodations tax funds to transform the Blythewood Business Coalition into a chamber of commerce.

Some Blythewood business owners have long expressed their dissatisfaction with the town’s inability to spend $1.4 million in hospitality and accommodations tax funds they’ve collected since 2003 to promote the Northeast Richland town.

Forming the chamber is another step Blythewood leaders are taking to create an identity for the town and set it apart from the rest of the Northeast and the city of Columbia.

“We want to stay a specialty and niche community, especially at the core of Blythewood,” said Mayor Keith Bailey, who backs the plan. “The real draw is that we have a rural and community setting.”

The Blythewood Chamber of Commerce would be the second chamber in Richland County. The first, the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, has more than 2,000 members, president and CEO Ike McLeese said.

Pontiac plant to close in July

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:59 EDT

One of South Carolina’s business success stories will be moving to northern California this summer.

Omnicell Inc., which paid $26 million for Rioux Vision last December, told workers Monday it will be shutting down the Pontiac medical carts plant and moving the operations to Livermore, about 45 miles east of San Francisco.

When the Mountainview, Calif.-based company announced its deal to buy Rioux Vision last December, it said it would keep the 60-employee plant at its site in Northeast Richland.

On Monday, the company issued a statement saying the move to the Silicon Valley will put cart manufacturing — “in near proximity to other Omnicell manufacturing and development resources.” The Pontiac plant will close July 3.

Efforts to reach Omnicell officials were unsuccessful.

Biggest sellers setting limits

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:59 EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The nation’s biggest toy sellers are requiring their suppliers to meet new standards that limit the amount of lead and other metals and compounds in toys and children’s products, getting ahead of federal legislation.

The House and Senate have passed versions of a wide-ranging bill to overhaul the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The bill contains language that would toughen current standards for products used by children.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said Wednesday that the nation’s largest retailer crafted its requirements so that they meet or exceed standards in the working legislation. The bill has not yet moved to a conference committee, where the House and Senate would work out differences between versions of the bill.

“We gave these guidelines to these suppliers back in January and February when making new orders for this fall,” O’Brien said.

• Wal-Mart, the top toy seller in the United States, said products meeting the new standards will be on the shelves for the holiday shopping season.

More workers planned for Bishopville plant

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:14 EDT

A Finnish company plans to add 56 jobs through an $11.7 million expansion of its Bishopville operations making fiberglass-reinforced materials.

The jobs and investments are in addition to those announced in 2006 by Ahlstrom Specialty Reinforcement, said Wayne Merritt, general manager at Bishopville.

The company said then it would open a plant in a 116,260-square-foot facility at the I-20 Industrial Center in Bishopville in early 2007. Ahlstrom planned to create 100 jobs and spend $16 million.

Cutting the cord—cell phone use grows

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:15 EDT

For nearly three in 10 households, don’t even bother trying to call them on a landline phone. They either only have a cell phone or seldom if ever take calls on their traditional phone.

The federal figures, released Wednesday, showed that reliance on cells is continuing to rise at the expense of wired telephones.

In the second half of last year:

• 16 percent of households only had cell phones

• 13 percent also had landlines but got all or nearly all their calls on their cells

Kroger expands drug discount

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:00 EDT

About a week after Wal-Mart and Target added 90-day prescriptions to their discounted generic drug programs, Kroger has done the same.

The Ohio-based grocer announced this week that its pharmacies are selling three-month supplies of prescribed generic drugs for $10.

Kroger’s new plan builds on the one it introduced in February that only included 30-day prescriptions at $4 each. More than 300 generic drugs are discounted.

Wal-Mart and Target have had low-cost generic drug plans since 2006.

The three retailers also have extended additional discounts to select women’s health medications. Some of the generic drugs used to treat breast cancer and osteoporosis now are $9 for 30-day supply and $24 for a 90-day supply.

Manager of Doctors Care earnings down

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:00 EDT

UCI Medical Affiliates Inc., the Columbia-based manager of Doctors Care, reported earnings of $508,000 — a 50 percent drop from a year ago.

The drop was caused by increased expenses associated with the opening of two new locations in Florence during the first three months of 2008. There are now 60 Doctors Care offices in South Carolina, and one in Tennessee.

Revenues for the quarter increased 8 percent to $20.9 million.

Shares fell 9 cents to $3.26 Wednesday.

UCI Medical Affiliates Inc. 2nd qtr earnings as of Mar. 31

Daily report: Winner, loser and the top 10

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:14 EDT

DELTA PILOTS OKCONTRACT REVISIONS

The airline’s pilots voted overwhelmingly in favor of changes to their contract that will give them pay raises, a 3.5 percent equity stake and other benefits, but also will give management more leeway as part of a proposed combination with Northwest Airlines Corp. The contract covers more than 7,000 pilots at Atlanta-based Delta. Northwest’s 5,000 pilots are not part of the agreement.

Loser:

MACY’S POSTS LOSS

ON LOWER SALES

Gas prices still spiking

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:00 EDT

Drivers continue to pay record prices at the pump as oil costs remain at or near all-time highs Gas prices averages have risen nearly 15 cents a gallon in the past week. And premium-grade average gas prices have passed the $4 a gallon mark in most parts of South Carolina. (Prices below are for a gallon of regular gas.)

COLUMBIA

Wednesday: $3.63

Week ago: $3.49

Month ago: $3.23

What the boss makes

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:15 EDT

Company

World Acceptance Corp. a Greenville small consumer loan company with 2,200 employees

CEO

A. Alexander McLean III

Construction supplier to add jobs, expand

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:14 EDT

A construction supplier will expand its distribution operations in Georgetown County, adding 20 jobs and building a $1.5 million addition, the S.C. Department of Commerce said Wednesday.

South Strand Contractors Inc. plans to build its new facility on land bought in the Georgetown County Airport Industrial Park.

Company president Tom Rufus said the expansion was driven by increased market demand from commercial builders and high-end residential builders along the S.C. coast. The company has been operating in the county for eight years.

“Our business has seen an increasing customer base and more requests for the products we provide, so the time is right to expand,” Rufus said.

Contributors: Jim DuPlessis and Ben Werner