Business North Carolina

Browse past and current articles from this publication.

Upfront.(best magazines award)
The BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA magazine staff pays attention to business and the people important to the state's stories," the judges--members of the University of Missouri journalism faculty--said. "T . . .

Nctrend.
Latest Previous Previous % change month month Year from last year EMPLOYMENT Employed 4,059.4 4,088.3 4,256.9 (4.6) (000s) . . .

Stockwatch.(Statistical table)
HIGHEST PRICE/EARNING RATIOS P/E 6/26/09 52-week Company ration (3) price range Highwoods Properties 321.7 . . .

Triangle adapts to tight money: startups and schools in the region are forging partnerships and finding other new ways to surviv
Entrepreneurs need capital, of course, but maybe greater needs are expertise in running companies and partnerships with larger businesses. That's what a group of Triangle region leaders said during . . .

Politicians' nicotine fix.(FINEPRINT)(tobacco habit)
I'm not a smoker, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Once, as a kid, I sneaked an unfiltered Chesterfield out of the pack my father always had within easy reach and lit it up outside. I didn't unders . . .

Getting the right number.(CAPITALGOODS)
Back in the '90s--you remember, when the dot-com bubble pushed your stock portfolio so high that early retirement seemed right around the corner--Congress and Bill Clinton decided the time had come . . .

Tar Heel agriculture loses ground.(Statewide)
Farming remains important to the North Carolina economy, accounting for about $70 billion a year. But the state had more than 1.8 million fewer acres of farmland in 2007 than it did in 1982, accordi . . .

Few eschew phew lagoons.(Eastern)
Nearly 10 years after Hurricane Floyd flooded dozens of hog-waste lagoons, Tar Heel leaders are still looking for ways to avoid a repeat. Virginia-based Smithfield Foods Inc., the state's largest po . . .

A second bank sank.(Eastern)
North Carolina went 16 years between bank failures. But it has had two within two months this year, both in Wilmington. In mid-June, federal and state regulators shut down Cooperative Bankshares Inc . . .

Eastern region.(Working Capital)
EASTERN REGION Jobs: 1,014,227 YTD change: (7,706) Index: 106.2 Source: Employment Security Commission, May. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percent . . .

Aurora.(Eastern)
AURORA -- The Wilmington office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted PCS Phosphate a permit to expand its mine here by about 11,000 acres. The company, a subsidiary of Canada-based Potash Cor . . .

Wilmington.(Eastern)
WILMINGTON -- Drug tester Pharmaceutical Product Development hired David Grange, 61, as CEO. He replaces Fred Eshelman, 60, now executive chairman. Grange, a former Army brigadier general, has been . . .

Fayetteville.(Eastern)(Cape Fear Valley Health System )(Brief article)
FAYETTEVILLE -- Cape Fear Valley Health System asked the state for permission to build a 50-bed hospital near the Hoke/Cumberland county line. That plan likely will conflict with a proposed 16-bed h . . .

New Bern.(Eastern)
NEW BERN -- Hatteras Yachts shut down production at its local plant July 1 for six weeks, furloughing most of its 300 employees. About 90 are on indefinite furlough. The boat builder is a division o . . .

Pembroke.(Eastern)
PEMBROKE -- Chancellor Allen Meadors, 61, left UNC Pembroke to become president of the University of Central Arkansas, his alma mater. During his 10 years as chancellor, enrollment more than doubled . . .

Elizabethtown.(Eastern)
ELIZABETHTOWN -- Pender County native Charles Cameron Highsmith Jr. is the new CEO of Bladen County Hospital. The former chief executive of St. Luke's Hospital in Columbus replaces David Masterson, . . .

Fayetteville.(Eastern)(Karen Long has been promoted at Crown Center)(Brief article)
FAYETTEVILLE -- Cumberland County officials promoted Karen Long, 45, to CEO of the Crown Center. She has worked 14 years at the entertainment complex, which includes a 10,500-seat coliseum, a 4,500- . . .

Both 2014 opens have got their number: 2.(Triangle)
United States Golf Association Executive Director David Fay doesn't know exactly how much his organization will save by holding the men's and women's U.S. Open golf tournaments in Pinehurst on back- . . .

Triangle region.(Working Capital)
TRIANGLE REGION Jobs: 890,261 YTD change: (12,511) Index: 107.9 Source: Employment Security Commission, May. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percent . . .

FTC: Pharma compound is too strong to swallow.(Triangle)
After nearly a yearlong engagement, Talecris Biotherapeutics Inc. and Australia-based CSL Ltd. broke up before reaching the altar. But not because they had a falling out. Blame a third party. CSL's . . .

Garner.(Triangle)
GARNER -- A natural gas leak caused an explosion that killed three and injured 40 at the local ConAgra Foods plant, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The pla . . .

Research Triangle Park.(Triangle)
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Swedish cell-phone maker Ericsson will lay off 167 workers at its local campus by the end of the year, leaving it with fewer than 25. About 1,800 worked here a decade ago. . . .

Cary.(Triangle)
CARY -- Loparex, a Dutch manufacturer of specialty paper and films, will move its U.S. headquarters here from Willowbrook, Ill., by the end of the year. It will employ 60. The company also plans to . . .

Raleigh.(Triangle)
RALEIGH -- State Employees' Credit Union plans to begin construction this fall on a 12-story speculative office building near the state government complex. The 240,000-square-foot building would inc . . .

Durham.(Triangle)
DURHAM -- Semprius, which develops advanced semiconductors, raised $6.4 million to continue work on solar modules that it says will generate power more efficiently for utilities. It employs about 20 . . .

Durham.(Triangle)
DURHAM -- Interim CEO Kevin Sowers, 47, was named chief of Duke University Hospital. He had filled in since June 2008, when William Fulkerson was promoted to senior vice president of clinical affair . . .

Benson.(Triangle)(facility closed at Polymer Group)(Brief article)
BENSON -- Charlotte-based Polymer Group, which makes diapers, wipes and other products, plans to close a factory in North Little Rock, Ark., and shift production here. It didn't say whether it would . . .

Thomas Built thinks small.(Triad)
In 1936, during the Great Depression, a High Point company that built and renovated streetcars started a new line of business. That's how Perley A. Thomas Car Works Inc. became Thomas Built Buses In . . .

Take it off the top.(Triad)(Piedmont Triad Research Park)(Brief article)
Talk about knocking out layers of management. Bill Dean lost his job this summer as director of Piedmont Triad Research Park, six buildings totaling 554,000 square feet of wet-lab, office, meeting a . . .

Triad region.(Working Capital)
TRIAD REGION Jobs: 712,891 YTD change: (30,471) Index: 93.3 Source: Employment Security Commission, May. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percentage . . .

Winston-Salem.(Triad)(baseball park construction)(Brief article)
WINSTON-SALEM -- City officials approved an additional $14.7 million--mostly in loans--for a downtown baseball park (Regional Report, July). Mayor Allen Joines says the City Council wanted stalled c . . .

Greensboro.(Triad)
GREENSBORO -- American International Group fired Billy Nutt as CEO of its United Guaranty subsidiary, based here. Eric Martinez, who joined New York-based AIG in January, replaced him at the mortgag . . .

Winston-Salem.(Triad)
WINSTON-SALEM -- BB&T repurchased more than $3.1 billion in preferred stock that the federal government had bought as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bank also paid the government $92 . . .

Winston-Salem.(Triad)
WINSTON-SALEM -- Jostens plans to close its plant here within months, putting about 185 out of work. The Minneapolis yearbook publisher is consolidating production elsewhere. . . .

Greensboro.(Triad)
GREENSBORO -- Metalcraft of Mayville will close its local plant by mid-September, idling 121. The metal fabricator is consolidating operations in its hometown, Mayville, Wis., and in West Bend, Wis. . . .

Greensboro.(Triad)
GREENSBORO -- NewBridge Bancorp elected Michael Albert, 54, chairman. He has been a director since the company was formed in 2007 and on predecessor LSB Bancshares' board since 1995. He replaced Rob . . .

Mebane.(Triad)
MEBANE -- Becton, Dickinson and Co. plans to open a plant here in September. The Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based company will employ about 40 to make instruments used to test for cervical cancer. For a . . .

Slow progress prods PPD to depart project.(Charlotte)(Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc.)
A year ago, Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc. CEO Fred Eshelman couldn't have been more effusive in his praise for the North Carolina Research Campus, which billionaire David Murdock is develo . . .

Charlotte region.(Working Capital)
CHARLOTTE REGION Jobs: 977,026 YTD change: (23,977) Index: 101.6 Source: Employment Security Commission, May. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percen . . .

Maiden.(Charlotte)
MAIDEN -- Ethan Allen will add more than 300 jobs within three years at its upholstered-furniture factory. The Danbury Conn.-based manufacturer employs 540 here. . . .

Gastonia.(Charlotte)(Daimler Trucks North America L.L.C.)(Brief article)
GASTONIA -- Portland, Ore.-based Daimler Trucks North America recalled about 115 Freightliner workers--more than 80 at its Gastonia parts plant and warehouse, where it employs 460, and 35 at its Mou . . .

Charlotte.(Charlotte)
CHARLOTTE -- Duke Energy promoted Lynn Good from president of commercial businesses to chief financial officer. She replaces David Hauser, who left to become chairman and CEO of FairPoint Communicat . . .

Monroe.(Charlotte)
MONROE -- Country commissioners put Carolinas Medical Center-Union up for sale. The 157-bed hospital, operated by Charlotte-based Carolinas HealthCare System under a lease that expires in 2020, gene . . .

Charlotte.(Charlotte)
CHARLOTTE -- Mac Everett stepped down as interim president of United Way of Central Carolinas (cover story, April). Its board hired the former Wachovia executive last summer after it fired Gloria Pa . . .

Charlotte.(Charlotte)
CHARLOTTE -- U.S. Bancorp will add 30-35 employees here by the end of the year, bringing local employment to about 130. The Minneapolis-based financial-services company will base its Southeast corpo . . .

Charlotte.(Charlotte)
CHARLOTTE -- DiscoverReady opened a local office with 25 employees and plans to expand to 100 within a year. The New York company analyzes e-mails and electronic documents for law firms and corporat . . .

Lincolnton.(Charlotte)
LINCOLNTON -- Carolina Trust Bank is buying Gastonia-based Carolina Commerce Bank in a stock deal valued at $5.5 million. For a daily roundup of business news in the Charlotte region, go to www. B . . .

Lake is dammed if they don't.(Western)
Don't demolish the Dillsboro Dam. That's the message Jackson County commissioners sent Duke Energy Corp. In the wake of their vote to condemn the property for a park, it will be up to the courts to . . .

Another Parton shot.(Western)(Brief article)
In Roanoke Rapids, Dolly Parton's brother Randy got nearly $3 million in public money to perform at and manage a theater, a deal that ended in his firing after the town accused him of blowing money . . .

Western region.(Working Capital)
Jobs: 465,244 YTD change: (14,662) Index: 95.8 Source: Employment Security Commission, May. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percentage of the average . . .