Business news in brief

In this Nov. 21, 2013 file photo, models pose beside the Rolls-Royce Canton Glory at the company's booth during Guangzhou 2013 Auto Show in China's southern city of Guangzhou. Britain-based Rolls-Royce on Tuesday, July 8, 2014 said that global sales in the first half of the year were up 33 percent compared with the same period in 2013.
In this Nov. 21, 2013 file photo, models pose beside the Rolls-Royce Canton Glory at the company's booth during Guangzhou 2013 Auto Show in China's southern city of Guangzhou. Britain-based Rolls-Royce on Tuesday, July 8, 2014 said that global sales in the first half of the year were up 33 percent compared with the same period in 2013.

LR’s Promenade at Chenal to expand

An 8,000-square-foot building will be erected at the Promenade at Chenal, an open-air mall in west Little Rock.

Work on the multi-tenant building to be built near the main entrance will start this week, with completion expected in the fall, according to a news release from Promenade.

The release said the tenants would be revealed later.

It will be the second expansion of what is now a 303,000-square-foot shopping center. A 24,000-square-foot home for HomeGoods is about 80 percent built and projected to open in September, the release states.

The shopping center was opened in 2007. It is a mix of upscale national retailers and restaurants. It is owned and operated by RED Development of Overland Park, Kan.

— Jack Weatherly

China instructs cell carriers to cut costs

China told the nation's three state-owned wireless carriers to cut marketing expenses Tuesday because they overspent on subsidies and advertising for devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone, people familiar with the matter said.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission told the carriers to cut promotional spending by a combined $6.4 billion in three years, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the order hasn't been made public. China United Network Communications Ltd., China Mobile Communications Corp. and China Telecommunications Corp., each have a Hong Kong-listed unit.

China Mobile, which began selling the iPhone in January after six years of negotiations, cited the Apple device as one of the reasons subsidies on all phones will rise 29 percent to $5.48 billion this year, Chief Financial Officer Xue Taohai said in March. The company hasn't received formal notification of the SASAC policy, said Rainie Lei, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for the listed unit, China Mobile Ltd.

-- Bloomberg News

Ford recalls to affect 100,566 vehicles

DETROIT -- Ford is recalling 100,566 vehicles in North America for various safety defects.

The company announced the six separate recalls Tuesday. No injuries related to the defects have been reported.

The largest recall, of 92,022 vehicles, affects the 2013 and 2014 Taurus, Lincoln MKS, and Police Interceptor sedans, the Flex and Lincoln MKT crossovers, the 2012-2014 Edge and 2014 Lincoln MKX. Ford says the right-hand halfshaft, which is part of the axle, may disengage over time, making the vehicles inoperable.

Ford is recalling 5,264 2011-2014 F59 commercial stripped chassis because corrosion could lead to a fire risk. It's also recalling 2,124 Escape SUVs from the 2014 model year because their panoramic glass roofs might leak or fall out.

Ford will notify owners and dealers will repair the vehicles for free.

-- The Associated Press

Rolls-Royce says global sales up 33%

LONDON -- Sales of luxury Rolls-Royce cars, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, soared all around the world during the first half of the year, even in Europe, which is recovering slowly from recession.

The Britain-based manufacturer said Tuesday that global sales were up 33 percent compared with the same period in 2013.

Growth was strongest in Europe, up over 60 percent. That increase came in spite of fairly muted economic growth across many parts of the continent, where a number of countries remain burdened by high levels of government and household debt.

Across the Asia Pacific region, sales spiked by almost 40 percent. Middle East sales were also strong, up 30 percent, while the United States and China also saw double-digit sales growth.

The company said it sold 1,968 cars in the first half of this year, compared with 1,475 in the same period last year. In 2013, it sold a total of 3,630.

-- The Associated Press

GE to supply Scottish project's turbines

General Electric Co., the largest U.S. producer of wind turbines, won an order to supply systems with 94 megawatts of capacity to energy company SSE PLC for a project in the Scottish Highlands.

GE will deliver 33 2.85-megawatt turbines to the Dunmaglass Wind Farm, near Inverness, according to a statement Tuesday. Terms weren't disclosed.

SSE has about 3.3 gigawatts of renewable-energy capacity, the most throughout the U.K. and Ireland, according to the statement. This is the British utility's second deal this year to use GE turbines.

-- Bloomberg News

Gourmet cupcake maker Crumbs shutters

NEW YORK -- Crumbs Bake Shop says it is shuttering all its stores, a week after the struggling cupcake shop operator was delisted from the Nasdaq.

The New York City-based company said all employees were notified of the closures Monday. A representative for Crumbs could not immediately say how many workers were affected or how many stores it had remaining on its last day.

"Regrettably Crumbs has been forced to cease operations and is immediately attending to the dislocation of its employees while it evaluates its limited remaining options," the company said in an emailed statement. That will include filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

A news release from its website in March listed 65 locations in 12 states and Washington, D.C.

Crumbs was founded in 2003 and went public in 2011, selling giant cupcakes in flavors including Cookie Dough and Girl Scouts Thin Mints. More recently, however, it had been suffering from a steep decline in sales. For the three months ending March 31, Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. reported a loss of $3.8 million, steeper than the loss of $2 million from the same period a year ago.

-- The Associated Press

Business on 07/09/2014

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