QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s a segregated labor market, and men and women do work in different industries, and even in different areas within industries.”
Heidi Hartmann, Institute for Women’s Policy Research economist and president Article, 1D
Great Dane CEO drops president role
Great Dane President Bill Crown announced Friday that he is stepping down from day-to-day activities with the company. Crown will remain chief executive officer but is relinquishing his duties as president to Dean Engelage, executive vice president of sales and strategic planning.
Engelage will take over Oct. 1, and the move is part of what the company described in a news release as a “managed executive transition.” Great Dane, which manufacturers dry van, refrigerated and flatbed trailers, employs close to 480 people in Arkansas, including more than 400 employees at a plant in Jonesboro, and has sales and service facilities in North Little Rock and Springdale.
Great Dane is headquartered in Chicago and has additional corporate offices in Savannah, Ga. Engelage has worked for Great Dane since 2011 and, in addition to overseeing sales and strategic planning, he manages company subsidiary Johnson Truck Bodies.
“I am delighted to take up my new role as president of Great Dane,” Engelage said. “I look forward to working with our dedicated employees to further the company’s market leadership and growth by bringing new levels of innovation, customer experience and value to the marketplace.”
JetBlue computer failure delays flights
JetBlue Airways Corp., the carrier with the most domestic flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, said delays caused by a computer system failure slowed service throughout the day Friday.
The airline couldn’t immediately say how many flights were disrupted or how long the delays would be, Anders Lindstrom, a spokesman for the New York-based carrier, said in an email.
“JetBlue experienced an IT system outage early [Friday] morning that has created delays in the system,” Lindstrom said. “The system is now up and running and we are slowly returning to normal service.”
The failure occurred a day after United Airlines mistakenly sold an unknown number of tickets online for free after faulty data was put into its reservations system. The unit of United Continental Holdings Inc. is reviewing whether to honor the tickets.
Fiat no closer to fully owning Chrysler
MILAN - Fiat and Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said Friday that he is no closer to a deal for the Italian car maker to take full ownership of Chrysler and was moving ahead on the formalities of a public offering for the U.S. group.
Marchionne told reporters in Turin, where Fiat has its headquarters, that talks were continuing with a United Auto Workers health care trust, which owns 41.5 percent of Chrysler. But the two sides continue to disagree on price. Fiat took control of Chrysler as it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 and owns a 58.5 percent stake.
Marchionne said the trust wants $5 billion for its stake, which is too much. “They should buy a lottery ticket,” he was quoted as saying by the LaPresse news agency.
Failure to reach a deal could force Fiat’s hand on a public offer for Detroit’s No. 3 car maker, as the autoworker’s health care trust presses to cash out of its Chrysler holding.
The trust has asked Fiat to begin working on the IPO but can’t force it to follow through.
Marchionne said an IPO of Chrysler could delay his plans to fully merge Fiat with Chrysler and that the SEC filing will be ready by the end of the month.
Bayer AG under investigation in China
BEIJING - The pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG confirmed Friday that it is being investigated in China for possible unfair competition, making it the latest foreign drug maker to come under scrutiny in the country.
The Germany-based company said it is cooperating with Chinese authorities in the investigation after industry and commerce regulators visited a Bayer office at the end of August. It did not provide further details of the case or say where the office was, but said it would investigate any allegations thoroughly and take proper action.
“In China, as in other regions around the globe, it is our responsibility to base our business models on absolute integrity,” it said in a statement. “At Bayer we have very strict compliance rules in place, which clearly forbid incompliant behavior of our employees.”
A wave of investigations has rattled foreign drug manufacturers in China. Authorities are investigating whether British based GlaxoSmithKline PLC and French rival Sanofi SA paid doctors to encourage the use of their medications.
- The Associated Press
Bordeaux grape crop hurt by late start
The Bordeaux region grape harvest is about two weeks delayed after a cold start to the season, with production set to fall to the lowest level in 22 years, according to the region’s wine bureau.
Some growers in Pessac Leognan will start picking sauvignon blanc grapes for dry white wines next week and most will begin Sept. 23, compared with last year’s Sept. 4 start, Valerie Descudet, a spokesman for industry group Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux, said by phone Thursday.
The wine bureau has predicted this year’s vintage will slump 20 percent from last year’s 139 million gallons, for the smallest volume since 1991. Bordeaux suffered from a cold spring that hurt pollination, and hailstorms last month.
“We’re going to see the lowest crop we’ve seen in Bordeaux since 1991, so the pricing will be really interesting to see, how it comes out onto the market,” said Tom Gearing, director of Cult Wines Ltd., a wine investment company based in Richmond, England.
- Bloomberg News
Piggly Wiggly chain selling 29 stores
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Piggly Wiggly is slimming down.
The family-owned Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. based in Charleston has announced it is selling 23 of its stores in South Carolina and 6 stores in Georgia.
Twenty-two stores are being sold to Bi-Lo and the rest to Harris Teeter. Officials say none of the stores are expected to close.
Eleven of the stores are in the Charleston area where the chain is based. That will leave the company with about 10 in the Charleston area. The company did not disclose sales prices. It said that increasing competition in the grocery business was among the reasons for the sales.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 32 on 09/14/2013