Port of Charleston sets record pace By Matthew French Charleston’s port, just two months into its new fiscal year, is already setting a record pace for itself, pushing more cargo through its terminals than ever before. However, experts caution the port is soon going to be pushing maximum density, reaching its maximum throughput for the amount of land available.
Proposed food and wine festival seeks to put Charleston on the culinary map By Matthew French Culinary connoisseurs, cooking critics and epicureans of Charleston, your time is near. A small but growing group of Charlestonians is looking to bring the Lowcountry to the forefront of the national food scene with an annual food and wine festival, set to begin spring 2006.
Local advertising agency expands By Matthew French A new home, new additions to the staff, new business merger and a new $4 million contract. Not a bad year for a local advertising company.
QUICK NOTES: SPAWAR offers big hand to small businesses By Dennis Quick Business buddy. There’s a good reason the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center last month scored history-making marks with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
New depth maintenance system will save port millions By Sarah G. McC. Moise Dredging in many ports is a never-ending battle, but that could soon change in one area of the port of Charleston, thanks to a new computer-driven system that eliminates the need for routine dredging alongside marine terminals. The Ports Authority Board recently approved the purchase of a new sediment suspension system for the Columbus Street Terminal in downtown Charleston.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Outsourcing doesn’t only happen in the United States
The Business Journal’s Sept. 6 article by Matthew French, “The pain of outsourcing is felt nationwide” was very interesting from an international economics perspective. In particular, Robert Bosch, the company that was “outsourcing” jobs from the United States to Asia and Brazil, is German—as Mr. French pointed out. What we as Americans fail to realize is all jobs in the United States at Bosch are outsourced already—to Americans!…
MARKETING: Give your customers more—give them an experience By David L. Rawle When Starbucks’ chairman Howard Schultz recently announced he’d hired the company’s first-ever president of entertainment, the business public was left scratching its collective head.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Hiring a superstar? It’s just the beginning By Wayne Outlaw Often executives think hiring a superstar will simply solve a problem that has been nagging the company. Executives may spend time looking for a candidate and feel they have the perfect person for the position. They make the offer and, when the employee reports to work, feel their work is done. Wrong!
Local culinary training kicks it up a notch By Dennis Quick Trident Technical College’s Culinary and Hospitality Training Center is scheduled to open in fall 2005, a year before renowned culinary school Johnson & Wales University closes its doors and moves to Charlotte after nearly 20 years in Charleston.
Listmaker: Restaurants with Meeting Facilities Business executives share many qualities, such as leadership, ambition and a drive to make a difference. The Lowcountry is home to business leaders of all types and while they may share some of the same skills and characteristics, we at the Business Journal thought you might like to have a closer look at what sets some of them and their industries apart—and puts their companies at the top of the list.
Hotels seek bigger scores on local sports events By Dennis Quick Marketing Charleston as a sports destination was the theme of the Charleston Metro Sports Council’s Sports Summit 2004, held Sept. 17 at the Charleston Riverview Hotel. Among the event’s more than 120 attendees—including representatives of the Lowcountry’s professional and collegiate sports teams, facilities managers and event organizers, event sponsors and support services personnel—were members of the area’s hospitality and tourism industry.
Dining decisions: Would an unbiased dining guide help the hospitality industry? By Matthew French Charleston is well known as a tourist haven with an excellent culinary reputation. Local delicacies include she-crab soup, shrimp and grits and Frogmore stew, to name a few. Charleston’s connection to Trident Technical College’s hospitality program and the local support of culinary excellence, new graduates and seasoned chefs both often choose to hang their shingles in the Lowcountry, giving rise to dining diversity.
Events, resources support work-from-home moms By Sarah G. McC. Moise According to the most recent count, over 62 million women were employed in the U.S. in 2001, and 26% of them—or 16.5 million women—were self-employed and worked from home, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Interestingly 27% of these women had children under the age of 18.
RETAIL NEWS
NRF forecasts 4.5% growth in sales this holiday season
After strong growth in the first half of the year and more subdued growth in the third quarter, retailers are anticipating the arrival of the all-important holiday season, which accounts for nearly one-quarter (22.83%) of annual retail sales. According to the National Retail Federation, total holiday retail sales are projected to increase 4.5% over last holiday, bringing holiday spending to $219.9 billion. NRF defines “holiday retail sales…
Courtroom technology improves efficiency, presentation issues By Sarah G. McC. Moise The use of high tech video gadgetry in civil courtrooms is increasing at warp speed and producing some amazing results. Take for example Charleston law firm Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook and Brickman’s $10.1 billion class action ruling against Philip Morris, which stretched over 49 days of trial in Illinois.
TECH BRIEFS
Electronic touch screen voting machines launched
The South Carolina State Election Commission and county election officials have introduced new electronic touch screen voting machines and launched an intensive outreach effort to educate voters about the new voting system that will debut in November elections for voters in 15 counties.
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PEOPLE
MARKETING AND MEDIA
BookSurge LLC, an international print-on-demand publisher and distributor of paperback and hardback books, continues to expand into the Charleston region. Gracie Russell has been named vice president of sales. She formerly was general manager for Universal Solutions. BookSurge has added six new people to the BookSurge Publisher Services consulting team. Michael Streib previously owned a computer network integration company. David Galloway has 25 years of experience with Westinghouse, 3M, International Paper and BellSouth.…
‘Green’ buildings = good health, productive workers By Dennis Quick Offices in which the air is clean, the temperature consistently comfortable, the light easy on the eyes and the space open rather than tight tend to be productive.
TIME WELL SPENT: Heart health: a prescription for prevention By Honor Hawkins Sometimes making healthy choices seems like a drag. I mean, is it right that your co-workers are chomping on wings and swigging beers while you’re dragging yourself to the gym? That those same colleagues will hit snooze and pick up a fast food breakfast while you’re up at the crack of dawn taking a walk and eating oatmeal? Leading a healthy lifestyle puts a lot of stock in prevention. Is it worth it?
Fast food in poor and black neighborhoods may contribute to obesity epidemic By Ann Quigley If you are looking for fast food in low-income and black neighborhoods you needn’t travel far, and lots of fast-food outlets may play a role in the obesity epidemic among residents of these areas, suggest the results of a geographical survey.
National leaders expect health care costs to increase 40% by 2006 By Chris Reese Nearly 500 business leaders, health care executives and insurance brokers were given a harsh outlook on the future of health care costs recently at a conference in Bloomington, Minn. The group was told that the average annual employer-sponsored family premium could rise to $14,545 by 2006, a 40% increase from this year. At the same time, the number of uninsured Americans is expected to rise to more than 53 million by 2006, an increase of 12 million from 2001.
City tax incentives boosting small businesses By Dennis Quick What was once an abandoned, contaminated gasoline station on the corner of Spring Street and Ashley Avenue in downtown Charleston is now Tiger Lily, a flourishing flower shop.
THINKING GREEN: Harmony Warehouse offers new life to used products By Leanna Joyner This might be the most peaceful demolition site I’ve ever seen or imagined: no wrecking ball, no bulldozer, no a backhoe in sight. The only thing I heard was “crack, crack, pop”—as hardwood floors were pried up with a crowbar.
SALES MOVES: Salespeople have questions, too—here are the answers By Jeffrey Gitomer The purpose of this column is two-fold: First, to give you a sampling of the questions salespeople ask (followed by the answers, so you, too, can succeed) and second, to assure you that you’re not alone in experiencing the weirdness that everyday selling seems to breed.
Real Estate Convention and Seminar Calendar
Oct. 6: American Land Title Association Annual Convention
This year’s ALTA convention will be at the Westin Copley Place in Boston. Topics include:
– International real estate update
– Earning Realtor business
– Software contracts
– Identity theft
– Title data standards
A complete schedule of events, topics and speakers is available at www.alta.org.
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Nature causes sales frenzy on Seabrook Island By Sarah G. McC. Moise Seabrook Island is scoring record residential real estate sales, already passing the $125 million mark this year, $27 million more than 2003. “And there’s no reason to think that will stop,” says Joe Salvo, broker-in-charge of Seabrook Island Realty.
College of the Building Arts comes one step closer to owning McLeod Plantation By Matthew French Charlestonians and other residents of the Lowcountry are justifiably proud of their past, and the number of historic buildings, sites and plantations in the area certainly reflects that. And when the future of an historic site is in limbo, both sides involved often become very vocal.
New Mount Pleasant office park offering condos By Dennis Quick When Automated Trading Desk moved to its new 16-acre Mount Pleasant campus two years ago, the high tech stock-trading company realized it had more land than it wanted to develop.
REAL ESTATE NEWS
SCACDC celebrates its 10th anniversary
The South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations celebrated its 10th Anniversary Sept. 28 and 29 at the 2004 Housing & Community Economic Development Summit at the Francis Marion Hotel.
Summit 2004 is a joint event between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations, Fannie Mae and the Rural Development Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. …
GIVING BACK
RiverDogs auction raises money for eye institute
Dave Echols, Charleston RiverDogs general manager, recently presented a check for $36,850 to Dr. Ed Wilson, director of the Storm Eye Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina. This gift came from the proceeds from the fifth annual Charleston RiverDogs Silent Auction Aug. 9. Over the past five years, the Charleston RiverDogs has raised $115,000 to support research for treatments and cures for blinding eye diseases like Retinitis…
CALENDAR
OCT. 4: Captive Insurance Course. 6-8 p.m. for eight successive Monday evenings, Tate Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Charleston, 9 Liberty St. Learn about this emerging industry with sessions on the history of captive insurance in South Carolina as well as its future and the roles of participants. $195 per person. Information: Ron Krebs, 724-6668 or rkrebs@ycrlaw.com. …
ACCOLADES
Kirk Gillon, director of photography for Go To Team, received the 2004 STAR Award for Commercial of the Year. Gillon received the award for creative work on a TV advertising spot for Copper Penny that was produced for WCBD-TV. The award was announced during the annual State Television And Radio Awards on Aug. 28 in Columbia hosted and presented by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association. Gillon’s Copper Penny spot took first place in STAR’s Production-Commercial…
APPOINTMENTS
Dr. James D. Wilson has joined the Charleston Southern University board of visitors. Wilson is chief executive officer of Odessa Companies in Mount Pleasant. He will serve on the board until Dec. 31, 2007.
The Low Country Association of Health Underwriters recently inducted new officers for 2004-2005: Andy Anderson, awards chair; Billy Bryan, legislative co-chair; Bob Reinhold, media relations chair; Brian Bannon, legislative chair; Cathy Canson, education chair; Diane Palmer, awards co-chair; Jim Boyd, HUPAC…
