Salt River Project is cutting back on incentives planned for home solar installations in the wake of increased demand, and will begin instituting those changes after Friday.
SRP will lower its incentives from $2.70 per installed watt of solar power to $2.15 per installed watt.
The state’s second largest utility had been scheduled to lower the amount to $2.55 May 1 but, has been inundated with applications, said Lori Singleton, manager of environmental initiatives for SRP. “Due to the overwhelming response of the program, we’ve decided to lower the rates more this year,” he said.
SRP officials made the decision to lower the incentives Thursday afternoon and were contacting installers to inform them that applications had to be in by 5 p.m. Friday in order to qualify for the current incentive rate.
SRP was hit with 211 applications for incentives in March, more than double any previous month since last June, right before the utility dropped the amount for the first time.
Electrical Components International Inc., a manufacturer of wire harnesses for appliances, sought bankruptcy protection with a plan to reduce debt by about 50 percent.
The Creve Coeur-based company listed assets of about $363.6 million and debt of about $435.7 million in Chapter 11 documents filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The company is owned by San Francisco-based private-equity firm Francisco Partners LP.
Electrical Components makes wire harnesses, bundles of wires or cables fitted with connectors or plugs that deliver electricity throughout appliances.
David J. Webster, chief executive of Electrical Components, said in court filings that the company had had financial difficulties since late 2007 because of the downturn in the housing market.
The company had taken cost-cutting measures including plant shutdowns and consolidations and layoffs, but "the downturn continued to reduce sales at unprecedented levels and consequently reduce earnings," Webster said.
Under a proposal the company worked out with creditors before bankruptcy, lenders with the highest level of repayment — owed a principal of about $261.4 million — would get 54.7 percent of the new common stock in the reorganized company and a $145 million term loan. Some of the lenders elected to receive $10.4 million in cash rather than stock.
Investors have agreed to buy the remaining 45.3 percent of the new stock.
Lenders with a secondary priority of repayment, owed a principal of $60 million, would share $10 million. Unsecured creditors wouldn’t be affected, and would be paid what they’re owed as it is due.
The company said it was the largest supplier of wire harnesses to the North American white goods market, a term used for large home appliances. The company generated $460 million in sales for the year ended Dec. 31.
Electrical Components International was formed in 2006 when Clayton-based Viasystems Group Inc. sold its wire harness business to Francisco Partners for about $320 million.
The Viasystems wire harness business was renamed Electrical Components International and operated as a stand-alone company under Electrical Components International Holdings, a subsidiary of Francisco Partners.
Robert Kelly of the Post-Dispatch contributed.
A Phoenix restaurant is making waves with its menu in Manhattan. St. Francis, 111 E. Camelback Road, was among a handful of new restaurants nationwide to garner the attention of the James Beard Foundation.
The national nonprofit annually nominates chefs, restaurants and entrepreneurs across a variety of categories as part of its efforts to support and promote the culinary arts around the country. St. Francis was selected among a group of 31 restaurants nationwide as a “Best New Restaurant” nominee for an annual James Beard Award. It was the only restaurant in the state to be nominated in that category, but among a number of Valley properties to be recognized by the organization.
Although the restaurant didn’t make a second round of cuts in the competition — nor did any other Arizona eatery — St. Francis chef and owner Aaron Chamberlin said he’s thrilled that his restaurant has received the accolade.
“It’s really the Oscar award for the restaurant industry. We feel very lucky to be recognized, and it reassures us that we are doing the right thing,” Chamberlin said.
Chamberlin opened the restaurant in partnership with his brother, David, a principal Chamberlin Associates, a property development company, last fall.
After buying the former office of a well-known Valley architect, investing almost $1 million in renovations and creating an indoor-outdoor facility with an authentic wood-fired oven, the pair set out to serve the central Phoenix area. Despite the economy, the restaurant has managed to create a buzz and develop a following all while keeping its neighborhood feel near Brophy College Preparatory and St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, restaurant’s namesake.
“We are front and center on Camelback and when you drive by you see us. That helps, but it’s important that we deliver and serve our customers every day,” Chamberlin said.
The restaurant specializes in a range of food and spirits, from an on-tap beer and a sandwich to a glass of red or white wine and dinner entrees including wood-fired pork chops, pot roast and roasted salmon salad. The restaurant also recently added a business lunch, with three courses of the chef’s choice, for $18 with a 30-minute in and out guarantee.
Chamberlin said that since the James Beard nomination was announced in February, it’s been hard to gauge how much business has been driven by the attention pay day loan lenders.
But Chamberlin, whose led food operations at establishments including La Grande Orange, Chelsea’s Kitchen in Phoenix and the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, said it’s important not to be swayed by glitz and glitter.
“My business can win all kinds of awards, but if it’s not making money, I am not in business anymore,” he said.
In addition to St. Francis, a number of other restaurants and culinary personalities initially were selected by the James Beard Foundation, but none were tapped to continue on in the competition.
They include: Kevin Binkley of Binkley’s Restaurant in Cave Creek, Beau MacMillan of elements at Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort and Spa in Paradise Valley, and Silvano Salcido Esparza of Phoenix’s Barrio Cafe for Southwest’s Best Chef; Vincent’s on Camelback, Outstanding Restaurant; Tarbell’s, Outstanding Wine Service; Janos Wilder of Tucson’s Janos, Outstanding Chef category; Sam Fox, president and CEO of Scottsdale-based Fox Restaurant Concepts, Outstanding Restaurateur.
Steve Chucri, president and CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association, said it’s a tribute to the state’s food culture that so many businesses have garnered attention from New York.
“This is really something that we are especially proud of in the food industry here and to have this kind of critical success given the economy,” Chucri said.
“Restaurants are a very competitive group, but we are also family when it comes to seeing each of us succeed,” Chucri said.
Arizona’s reputation continues to grow. Two Valley chefs have been invited to create meals at the prestigious organization for a hand-picked roster of guests.
On July 7, chef-owner Gregory LaPrad of Quiessence Restaurant at The Farm at South Mountain, will take his interpretation of modern American cooking to New York.
Peter Deruvo, chef at Sassi Restaurant, has been invited to cook at The James Beard House on July 21.
A list of final nominees can be viewed at: www.jamesbeard.org/awards under the “2010 Award Nominees.” Arizona’s nominations during the competition’s first-round can be viewed at “2010 JBF Restaurant and Chef Award Semifinalists.”
SHANGHAI — It’s not quite as foldable as the vehicle that cartoon figure George Jetson pops into his briefcase as he bops into the office.
But the EN-V concept car, GM’s "automobile solution" for the future, just might fit into an apartment foyer.
General Motors and its Chinese partner SAIC are showcasing the "Electric Networked-Vehicle" launched Wednesday in their joint pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, which opens May 1 and runs for six months.
The EN-V, pronounced "envy," is GM’s latest effort to burnish its credentials as a future-focused, environmentally friendly company and shed its image as the bastion of the gas guzzling Hummer. The automaker is in the process of winding down Hummer after a deal collapsed to sell it.
The two-wheel, two-seater EN-V, which looks like an oversized vacuum cleaner, is not just about making vehicles small, lightweight and emission-free, the company says.
With the trunk-less EN-V, GM has jettisoned the traditional "three box" system and gasoline-fueled engine in place of a pure-electric minivehicle meant for city driving faxless cash advances.
Five fit in the parking space needed for one conventional vehicle, says Kevin Wale, president and managing director for GM China Group.
"GM’s vision with SAIC is petroleum-free, emission-free, accident-free and congestion-free," said Wale. "We think we can do that by combining the benefits of electricity and connectivity."
The approximately 5 foot by 5 foot EN-V appears to build on GM’s earlier work with Segway Inc. in developing the PUMA, or Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, vehicle. It will use the same types of battery cells as the Segway and the same battery supplier, Valence Technology Inc., said Christopher Borroni-Bird, GM’s director of advanced technology vehicle concepts.
The EN-V’s maximum speed of only 24 mph and other high-tech features reduce the need for heavy, high-stress steel, bumpers, air bags and crumple zones, Albano says.
Mexico’s Carlos Slim, 70, the son of an immigrant shopkeeper who amassed a $53.5 billion fortune and bought a major stake in the New York Times, became the first person from a developing nation to be named the world’s richest person instant credit report.
The U.K. government should aim to balance its budget two years earlier than currently planned to calm investor concerns the country could lose its top-notch credit rating, the Confederation for British Industry said.
The budget deficit should be eradicated by March 2016, the London-based employers’ group said in proposals submitted to Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling before his budget this month. This should be achieved through spending cuts and reforms to public services rather than tax increases, it said.
“There is a need to restore macro-economic stability and that depends on getting current levels of government borrowing down,” CBI Director General Richard Lambert told a press conference in London on March 4. “The government is not ambitious enough on that front. It hasn’t set out its spending plans in enough detail. The 2017 date is too far away.”
With an election due by June, the debate over how to tame a deficit equal to Greece’s has taken center stage as some investors and the opposition Conservatives warn Britain’s credit rating is at risk.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to halve the gap, set to exceed 12 percent of economic output this year, by March 2014 and says Conservative plans to begin spending cuts this year risk plunging the economy into a “double-dip recession.”
“The economy is still in a very fragile shape,” Lambert said. While the CBI is not proposing “any silver bullets in the short-term,” the process of cutting the deficit “should get under way seriously in 2011.”
Poll Outlook
Polls suggest Britain may be heading for its first minority government since 1974, sparking concern that efforts to cut the deficit may be compromised.
“The scale of our budget deficit and the likely tightening we are going to need does look a lot more serious than in any other G-7 country,” Lambert says. “We are confident that the U.K.’s credit rating is sustainable. The big picture is to get credibility.”
A survey showed that 86 percent of U.K. business leaders said that current levels of public spending needed to be reduced, while 72 percent said cuts should start this year, the Institute of Directors said in a separate e-mailed report today. The lobby group, which questioned 1,500 people between Feb. 26 and March 4, also found that 71 percent said the deficit was a top priority of a new government in its first 100 days.
India’s credit rating may be raised from junk if Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee provides a comprehensive plan to roll back fiscal stimulus and cut the budget deficit this week, Moody’s Investors Service said.
“If we think the exit path is well articulated and well executed, the local currency rating could be upgraded,” Aninda Mitra, a Singapore-based sovereign analyst at Moody’s, said in a telephone interview on Feb. 19. India’s long-term local currency debt is placed at Ba2 by Moody’s, two levels below the investment grade and at par with Armenia and Turkey.
Mukherjee has an opportunity to narrow the budget shortfall as accelerating economic growth boosts tax revenue and a stronger political mandate after last year’s elections paves the way to resume asset sales. Rating changes have less impact on India than other countries like Greece, which borrow more from abroad. India’s foreign borrowings make up only about 4 percent of government debt compared with 83 percent for Greece, according to Citigroup Inc.
Stocks, Bonds Gain
“India has lived with a budget deficit for so long, and with a high growth rate you can run a deficit,” said Andrew Michael Spence, a Nobel prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. “You don’t want the credit rating to go too low. It’s more signaling rather than anything else.”
India’s budget deficit may narrow to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product in the financial year starting April 1 from 6.8 percent of GDP in the previous year, Chakravarthy Rangarajan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s top economic adviser, said on Feb. 19. Mukherjee is scheduled to unveil the budget in parliament in New Delhi on Feb. 26 at 11 a.m.
Stocks snapped a two-day decline while the yield on India’s benchmark 10-year note fell the most in more than four weeks after Moody’s comment. The rupee gained the most since Feb. 15.
India’s Sensitive Index rose 1.1 percent to 16,369 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the rupee appreciated 0.3 percent to 46.14 per dollar. Bond yields fell four basis points to 7.84 percent as of 1:24 p.m. in Mumbai.
Indian government debt accounts for about 80 percent of the gross domestic product. Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings have a BBB-, the lowest investment grade rating, on Indian local currency debt.
Positive Outlook
“Although the debt level is high relative to other emerging markets, the fact remains that it’s not increasing sharply,” Mitra said. “It’s hovering around 80 percent of the GDP. So, that’s a reasonably good outcome and which is why we shifted towards the positive outlook,” in December 2009.
Mukherjee, who allowed the budget deficit to widen to provide fiscal stimulus to the economy amid a global recession, is relying on asset sales and faster growth to spur tax collections in next year’s budget.
India’s $1.2 trillion economy may grow 7.2 percent in the current fiscal year through March, accelerating for the first time since 2007, the statistics office said Feb. 8.
Singh’s government plans to reduce stakes in 68 companies including NMDC Ltd., the nation’s largest iron-ore producer, and NTPC Ltd., the biggest electricity provider, after he returned to power in May without the help of communist parties, who as part of the previous coalition had opposed the policy.
Inflation Risk
The government may borrow a net 3.8 trillion rupees in the year starting April 1, compared with 3.97 trillion rupees this year, said Abheek Barua, an economist at the Mumbai-based HDFC Bank Ltd.
Central bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao last month urged the finance ministry to cut borrowings to support the monetary policy’s goal to contain inflation. Subbarao raised the proportion of deposits lenders need to maintain as cash reserves to 5.75 percent from 5 percent and said monetary policy alone won’t be effective in curbing price-gains unless Mukherjee rolls back fiscal stimulus.
“The growth has rebounded and at the same time there is a risk of inflation,” Mitra said. “Inflation expectations need to be anchored better, either through higher policy rates or if that process could be helped by lower government borrowing and spending.”
India’s inflation accelerated to 8.56 percent in January, the most in 15 months.
“India in on the cusp of a new tryst, which is fiscal destiny, and I hope they will take it,” Mitra said.
Hot or iced, with whipped topping or not — Seattle’s Best Coffee fans can soon have it their way.
Burger King (BKC) will start serving up the Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500)-owned brand at 7,250 of its restaurants across the United States by September, for $1 to $2.79 a cup, the company announced today.
"The addition of Seattle’s Best Coffee expands on our ‘Have it Your Way’ brand promise by offering our guests even more beverage options and strengthens our ability to remain competitive in a continuously changing industry," the restaurant chain’s senior marketing VP, John Schaufelberger, said in a statement.
The news comes amid a weak economy in which consumers seem to be pinching pennies and avoiding burgers, soda and beer.
Last week McDonald’s posted same-store sales were down 0.7% in January in its U.S. restaurants. Burger King competes with McDonalds’ McCafe to attract morning customers. Burger King doesn’t post monthly figures, but showed same-store sales in the U.S. and Canada were down 3.3% in the second quarter of 2010.
Seattle’s Best Coffee will replace Burger King’s BK Joe coffee menu, launched in 2005.
The sandwich chain Subway also signed a deal with Seattle’s Best back in November and now sells its coffee in 8,500 stores.
The St. Louis area, which has a soft spot for mostaccioli and ravioli, has been one of the top-performing markets for Fazoli’s, the Italian quick-service restaurant chain based in Lexington, Ky.
That’s why Carl Howard, Fazoli’s chief executive, picked this region for the chain’s first new store in more than 3 years.
The new outlet, which opened this week in Edwardsville, is also the first to debut the chain’s new prototype. The new design is smaller than the old model, located in strip centers instead of a stand-alone building, and has a brighter, more modern decor.
"This is a fresh look for us," Howard said in an interview during a visit to the new store. "Our old facility is a little bit stale. We wanted to juice it up and have some fun."
Fazoli’s has undergone more than just a face-lift. In the last year, it has also overhauled about 80 percent of its menu, adding new items such as baked pasta dishes. It has also started using fresher ingredients and revamped everything, from the submarino sandwiches to the marinara sauce.
Fazoli’s had become quiet over the years, Howard acknowledged. Its menu hadn’t kept up with the growing sophistication of the public’s palate. And the previous leaders of the chain let the brand grow stagnant as they sought a buyer for the company, he said.
In 2006, Fazoli’s was finally sold to Sun Capital Partners. Howard came in as CEO two years later. When he took over, the chain had been grappling with declining customer counts for several years at its 280-plus locations. One of his first major decisions was to shut down dozens of underperforming stores. Fazoli’s now has closer to 240 outlets and does $239 million in sales.
"You get rid of your dogs and stick with your stars and all of a sudden your numbers and performance begins to improve," said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a Chicago-based food consultant group.
Now customer visits have been consistently rising since January 2009, Howard said, though he declined to say by how much.
The new Edwardsville site will be followed by six to eight other new Fazoli’s in the next year or so in other strong markets for the company such as Kansas City, and Dayton and
Columbus, Ohio, Howard said.
"We have a Midwest appeal." Howard said. "We have real comfort food."
St. Louis, which now has nine Fazoli’s locations, is the chain’s third-largest market in terms of number of stores, behind only Indianapolis and Lexington.
Kim Tucci, president of St. Louis-based The Pasta House Co., isn’t sweating it as Fazoli’s angles for a larger local presence.
The Pasta House has a very similar logo to Fazoli’s — a fat, red tomato — and has about 20 locations in the metro area and another dozen outside the region. Tucci said his competitors are more along the lines of Macaroni Grill — and not Fazoli’s, which he equated to a fast-food chain like McDonald’s.
"This is like apples and watermelons," he said. "You can’t compare it to what we have — nothing against them."
Tucci added that it makes sense for Fazoli’s to be aggressive in this economy because of their lower price points. The average bill per person at Fazoli’s is just under $6.
Like most other restaurants, Pasta House has been feeling the pinch of the recession as people eat out less. Tucci has responded by lowering his prices. In late December, Pasta House started a promotion offering six pastas for under $6.
"We’re hanging in there," Tucci said. "We’re hustling everyday, 24-7."
As a whole, fast food and fast-casual outlets have done well during the recession — better than the traditional, sit-down restaurants, Tristano said.
The prototype for the new Fazoli’s is about 2,100 square feet — roughly a quarter smaller than their older locations of between 2,700 and 3,100 square feet, Howard said.
"It’s a lot more efficient," Howard said.
By having these smaller stores in strip malls, Howard hopes this will be more attractive to franchises. The start-up costs associated with a new location will be closer to $500,000 compared with as much as $1.7 million for land and the building of the older standalone stores.
"It’s going to be easier to replicate," he said. "There’re a lot of shopping strips for us to go rather than fighting for the last great piece of real estate in a market."
Fazoli’s is also testing out some other innovations at the Edwardsville store — slightly lower prices on some items, a new line of pizzas and bringing back the "breadstick person" who goes table to table.
When it opens its new stores in Dayton in the next several weeks, Fazoli’s will try out other new ideas, such as having real tableware and silverware.
If the innovations do well in these new stores, Fazoli’s hopes to roll out the changes to its other company-owned stores. As for the franchises, Howard hopes that the new elements will be such a hit that they will be motivated to follow suit.
Tena Mayberry, the president of Brentwood-based Century II Inc., has been named as CEO of Century’s parent company, Indianapolis-based Fortune Industries Inc.
Mayberry, who was recently named one of Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence for 2010, will also continue to serve as president of Century II, and will remain in Brentwood.
She was named Fortune Industries’ president since last year, after the formerly diversified company decided to focus solely on providing professional employer organization services, such as payroll and human resources, to small and mid-sized businesses.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to lead the company through all the strategic plans we put in place,” she told Nashville Business Journal Monday.
She said she expects FFI to grow as the economy recovers, thanks in part to a continued emphasis on sales even while the company was cutting back on other costs.
“I think 2009 is the worst. We can’t have another 2009,” she said. “Everybody I speak with seems to be ready to start talking positively.”
Departing CEO John Fisbeck offered glowing words.
“Tena Mayberry is a proven top executive and one of the most knowledgeable senior managers in the PEO (professional employer organization) industry,” departing CEO John Fisbeck said in a statement. “Under her direction, FFI is one of the few PEO companies that has been profitable for the last year during this difficult economic environment. … She is an inspirational leader with boundless energy and will lead Fortune as it continues to expand in the U.S.”
Mayberry has more than 20 years of management experience, including time with Contract Sales Managers, Kroger Co., and Norrell Temporary Services. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and business management from Tennessee Technological University.
Fortune Industries (AMEX: FFI) is the nation’s fifth-largest publicly traded PEO, representing 14,000 employees in 47 states.
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