Bright idea: Marvin Dufner makes millions recycling bulbs - Memphis Business Journal:

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After building his fluorescent light bulbrecyclinvg company, H.T.R. Inc., into a nationak player with customers thatinclude , Walgreens, and Lowe’s, Dufner sold the business in March to Houston-based an estimaterd $12 million. H.T.R.’s revenue reached $6 million last year, 17 times more than the $350,0000 the company made when Dufner bought it in December 1999. A decade ago, the businesxs recycled about 30,000 fluorescent bulbes a month to keep hazardouws mercury out of landfills andwater supplies.
That numberd reached about 18 million bulbs a year by the time of the Dufner andRaymond Kohout, his minorituy partner and chief operating officer, decided they neededc to either invest a largd amount of capital to open additional recycling facilitied or find a strategic partner or buyer for theird business. Dufner turned to lifelong friend James Stuart ofin Clayton. Stuarg reached out to contacts atWaste Management, and afterf about a year of talks, he helped broker H.T.R.’s sale. Dufner estimated fluorescent bulb recycling isa $100 millio to $150 million industry.
Analyst Michael Hoffman of in Baltimorwe noted that garbage disposal isa $52 billionj industry and medical waste disposal accounts for another $3 billioh to $4 billion. Add-on services such as recycling can help a companhy win additionalmarket share. “One of Waste Management’s core goals is to grow its medical waste business toabout $300 million in revenue in the next 24 months,” Hoffman “Now they can walk into health-care facilities and hospitals and offer to dispose of theirt medical waste, regular trash and also theire fluorescent bulbs, which for a hospitalp is no small thing.
” Waste Management, Nortyh America’s largest waste disposal company, postedr net income of $1.09 billionh on revenue of $13.4 billion last year and employs about 46,000. Dufner, 54, grew up in Granite City and St. attending and at Carbondale. In 1991, he bought one of the firsg franchises ofEarth City-based Dent Wizard, a compangy that provides paintless dent removal for Dufner moved to Atlanta to run his territory of Georgia and But in 1998, Atlanta-based acquired Dent Wizared and proceeded to buy out its Dufner sold his business for about $5 million, and at age 45 founcd himself looking for a new In 1999, while at the Lake of the Dufner struck up a conversation with an employee of a three-year-old company then based in the small town of Goldenb City in southwest Missouri.
A new federal law regulating the management of waste containing hazardous materialss such as mercury had just gone into but H.T.R.’s 14 investors were short on funde to take advantage of potentialk growth. Dufner bought them out “for a very low price” and took over the businesas as president. Dufner recruited Kohout, a friend who owneed a gun storein St. Louia and was familiar with dealing with government to help run the business and expand its servicdarea nationwide. They invested in some tractor-trailers and startecd picking up burned-out fluorescent bulbs from all over the countrh and hauling them back to Missourijfor processing.
Over the next few years, they relocatesd the plant to its current locationin Mo., near Lake Ozark. As Dufner improvec customer service and the speed of waste pickupousing third-party freight companies, businesss boomed. Beginning in 2003, H.T.R. secured contracts with Wal-Mart to pick up and recycl e used bulbs. Other large retailers, severao colleges and universities, and states such as Iowa and Missouri also signeed upwith H.T.R. All of the materiapl in the bulbs H.T.R. picked up — metal and glass — was recycled.
None went to But with the boom, Dufner and Kohout also founf themselves facing a Expand to keep up withincreasing volume, or find someoner who could do so for them. “Thre right way to do it would be to buile two morerecycling plants, one on the West Coast and one on the East to cut transportation distances and freight Dufner said. “Ray and I can’t be in thre places at one time. It was goint to require a lot more capital to open two new facilitiews and managethem properly.” So who has children ages 3 and 5 with his Renee, decided to look for a buyer last year and eventually struck the deal with Waste Management.
“We thought would make a good fitfor us,” said Rick Cochrane, seniore business director for Waste Management’s WM Lamptracker “Over 70 percent of fluorescent lighting in the country stillk isn’t recycled properly, and that’xs where we think the upside is.” The and many states are targetint a fluorescent recycling goal of abouyt 75 percent, Kohout said. Some 800 million fluorescentt lamps burn outeach year, and now millionas of residential light sockets are also switching from incandescen t to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
Althougjh Missouri does not require residential recycling of manystates do, he “The timing was said Kohout, who continues to run the former H.T.R. operationa within WM Lamptracker. “We are now the larges lamp recycler inthe country, and Wastde Management is really pushing the sustainability and recyclingf front. We’ve had nine years of double-digit and we’ve just gotten started.” As for he is building a home in Ladue and has notdecidec what, if anything, he will do next. “Am I lookingy for something? Possibly, but not necessarily,” Dufnedr said. “That’s how H.T.R.
I wasn’t really looking and then it fell inmy

OpenTable to test investors' IPO appetite - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The San Francisco online restaurant reservationj company plans to raise upto $42 millioh with the sale of 3 millionm shares. At the middle of its expected price rangeof $12 to $14 a the company would be valuesd at $281 million. Saled at the company rose 36 percentfto $55.8 million in 2008, a year in whicgh it lost $1.02 million. The company plans to trade on Nasdaq under thesymbol “OPEN" and use the moneyg from the IPO for general corporate purposes and possiblde acquisitions. OpenTable's CEO Jeffrey Jordan was previouslg presidentof , 's (NASDAQ:EBAY) onlinse payment subsidiary. Its venturre backers include Menlo Park-based firms and . The otheer U.S.
company going publicd this weekis , an Austin, Texas, network managementr software maker. It plans to raise up to $139.3 million on the sale of 12.1 million It plans to trade on the New York Stockj Exchange under the symbol SolarWinds competeswith . (NYSE:HPQ) and (NASDAQ:CSCO) by offeringy lower prices tha the valle ysoftware giants. Its sales rose 51 percentf to $93.1 million last year, with net income up 64 percent to $22.3 million. Only three other U.S. companies have gone publi so farin 2009, followinfg a fourth quarter last year in which there were no domesti c IPOs.

Oradell to review pesticide use on public grounds - NorthJersey.com

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Oradell to review pesticide use on public grounds NorthJersey.com BY REBECCA D. O'BRIEN ORADELL â€" The Borough Council on Tuesday night pledged to review the use of pesticides and herbicides on public grounds, after the recent treatment of Memorial Field sparked a public outcry. Mayor Dianne Didio followed up on ... and more »

Economic, natural forces buffet Hawaii glider business - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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Today, President Steve “Woody” Wood hopes forces beyond his control won’t ground his businesx instead. “It’s not the economic climate, but God’s he said. “It’s been a royal pain in the Reduced visibility from volcanic haze and soft windsa out of the southwest have forced Wood to shut down operationsw for several daysthis year. Then there was all the rain — glidersz don’t fly in heavy rain — that causedx flooding and turned nearby Wailu a into adisaster area. The road to Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia goesthrough Wailua.
Wood can’t controlp the weather, but he can deal with the forces of man that also have buffeterdhis business. Like most Hawaik attractions, traffic at Original Glider Rides is down about 50 percent in 2008 comparedwith 2007. But Wood thinksd his established business can ride out the Original Glider Rides was founded in 1970 as Honoluli Soaring by Bill Star and Sam then new to the Dillingham Field had just been deactivatedf bythe . The stat e entered into a 30-year-lease with the Army, whic h still uses the base forevening training. 44, a native of England, visitee in 1997 and was stunnede to finda 9,000-foot runway sandwicheed between the Waianae Mountains and the ocean.
“If was the most beautiful glider port I had ever he said. The area is blessed with trads winds out of the northeast that give the sailplanesa aconsistent “ridge lift” (excepft when those Kona winds Rising air called thermals help the gliderd ascend to altitudes well past 2,0009 feet above sea level. Aftere taking over from Bleadon, who retired in Wood cut fixed costasof $5,000 a month that went to prinrt advertising. His customers come mainly via contracta between Original Glider Ridesand Expedia, Travelocity and concierges at and some Waikiku hotels, and repeat business.
(Some come because they thinl they can drive their rental cars around Kaena discoverthey can’t, and then noticre all the gliders buzzing Farrington Wood also has pushed programs to attract local residents, such as an all-femalse flying team that practices once a Glider tours are intimate with no more than two passengers at a Wood hires pilots who have strong communications skills to ease customer anxiety and point out all the sited through the gliders’ bubble tops the coral tidal pools, whales from January through April, cattle on mountain the Satellite Tracking Station above “It was awesome,” said Madeline Clouse of Texas, who hearfd about the tour from the owneer of her parents’ vacation rental in Haleiwa.
“I was scaredd at first, but the pilo did a good job.” Longer tourse take passengers to Pearl Harbor andDiamonr Head. It’s a peaceful without the noise of helicopter andplanee tours.

NJ has burning issues, but few real races - NorthJersey.com

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NJ has burning issues, but few real races NorthJersey.com New Jersey lawmakers have for decades been unable to find a fix for the issue voters routinely identify as their biggest concern â€" property tax bills that now average $7576 statewide. Legislators have also failed ... and more »

Banking on Volcker: Big Crisis, Big Rule - Reuters Blogs (blog)

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Banking on Volcker: Big Crisis, Big Rule Reuters Blogs (blog) Moreover, a number of the rule's measures provide for rebuttable presumptions of non-compliance for certain types of trading activity. The Volcker Rule carves out significant exemptions in the following areas: underwriting and market-making related ... and more »

Snyder signs law ending retiree benefits for future lawmakers - Detroit Free Press

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The Saginaw News - MLive.com

Snyder signs law ending retiree benefits for future lawmakers Detroit Free Press Rick Snyder signed legislation today ending retiree health benefits for some current and  »

Gaming industry not immune to economic woes - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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At the of Ojibwe’s two casinos, Grand Casino Hinkley and Grand CasinMille Lacs, the number of visitorsx is running about 4 percenr below average, and casino revenue is down roughly 6 percent. “Thes gaming industry, as it turns out, is not recession-proof, and it’ s feeling the effects of the economic downturn just likeothe businesses,” said Tad Johnson, special counsel to the Milld Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Mystic Lake Casino Hote could not be reached for comment and Casino declined to discuss itsgamintg performance.
, which operates the Canterbury Park racetrack and card roomin Shakopee, also has been hit hard by the Revenue at the publicly held companh declined 20 percent in the firsrt quarter of 2009. “Rising the credit crisis and financial-market volatility all contributer to reduced consumer confidence and a decliner in discretionary spending on gaminfg and horse racing at Canterbury as well as throughout the rest of the CEO Randy Sampson said ina statement. Gaming revenue declined 4.7 percent nationwide in according tothe . That’s the first decline sincee the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group startes releasing the figuresin 1999.
Las Vegas-based Harrah’s Entertainmenf Inc., the world’s largest casino operator, reported that its revenue declinee 13.3 percent in the first quarterof 2009. Revenu fell 20.5 percent at the company’d Vegas properties, which include Caesars Paris, Rio, Bally’s, Flamingo, Harrah’s and Imperial Palace. Casinoz in Atlantic City, N.J. the nation’s second-largest casino market — also have struggledc mightily inrecent months, as they battle the recession and the growthu of gaming in Pennsylvania. Revenue at Atlantif City’s 11 casinos fell 14.2 percentt in April, following a 19.
4 percent drop in March — the largest monthly decline sincr gambling was legalized there 31years ago.

Study: Carrying big bills curb spending - South Florida Business Journal:

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The study finds that shopperxs are more wary of spendinbg when carrying one big denominationof cash, insteard of multiple denominations equivalent to the same Doing so curbs spending becausd is it is consciously harder to break a big bill,= and doing so heightens the chance consumers will lose traci of spending, according to researchers. When those studied knew they had tosave $100 or practices self-control in spending, they were more likelh to choose a single $100 bill than five $20 “If you want to cut back on your spending in this tigh economy, keep your cash in a few big billzs verus a number of smaller ones,” said Joydeep associate professor of marketing at the Robert H.
Smitjh School of Business, co-author of the “In the face of the temptatiojnto spend, you’ll be more reluctant to break that hundred-dollar bill so you’lp end up saving it.” The researchy will be published in an upcoming editiojn of the Journal of Consumer Researchu . It follows previous research by Srivastavsand co-researcher Priya Raghubir, of , that founcd consumers spend more when using credit cardw or gift cards instead of

Research groups join Open Cirrus - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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Palo Alto-based HP Santa Clara-based Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Sunnyvale-base d Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) said the Open Cirruas cloud computingtest bed, which was launched in July 2008, was createds as a joint effort by the companies to promoted open collaboration among industry, academia and governmentds "by removing the financial and logisticalo barriers to research in data-intensive, Internet-scale computing." The test bed, which has more than 50 researcb projects currently underway, simulates a global, Internet-scale environment and lets researchers test applicationd and measure the performance of infrastructurew and services built to run on large-scale cloud systems.
The new sitews will contribute tools andbest practices, and will help furtheer benchmark and compare alternativre approaches to service managementg at datacenter scale. They are the Russiamn Academy of Sciences, the first Eastern European institution to join Open the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute of Soutg Korea and MIMOSof

Nationwide settles claims - San Francisco Business Times:

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Claims must be submitted by Aug. 26. The class-actioh lawsuit alleged that Nationwide underpaid policu holders when it paid certain claims involving damage to buildings or other structure sbetween Jan. 1, 1996, and Marchb 20 of this year. Nationwide agree to a settlement, which will be reviewed by an Arkansas court onJuly 27. The insurer maintains that it actecd properly, and that it is settlinh the suit to avoid costly and prolonged The settlement governs 15Nationwide companies, including Nationwidre Mutual Insurance Co., Allied Propertg and Casualty Insurance Co, and Scottsdale Indemnity Co.
A full list of the insurancee companies affected is online ata court-approved Web site: The site also includes claim eligibility information and answers to commonly asked

Wall St. fears cause local frustrations: Tortoise seeks new avenues for funding - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The turmoil makes many investorsmore cautious, causing the bond marketr to behave wildly. Historically, a five-year corporate rate bond woulxd trade about one percentage point above the yield fora five-yead note. However, today's market has corporate bonds tradinvabout 2.25 percentage points higher. "Th e problem hasn't been supply on the corporate side butrisk aversion," said Gary a fixed-income specialist with "The consumefr is the weak link in the chaib in this instance. Corporate America is in good butit hasn't stopped their bond yields from widening out compared to Treasurh yields.
It's a sign of risk aversion when investor demand higher rates from what is generally considerera high-quality instrument backed by corporate is one Kansas City-area company that has been caughrt in the middle of the bond marke turmoil. The Overland Park-based which manages (NYSE: TYG) and (NYSE: TYY), experiencedc failed auctions for some of its preferred shareds and senior notes in Terry Matlack, managing director of Tortoise Capital said the auction-rate instruments had rate caps tied to the Londonm Interbank Offered Rate As the benchmark rate dropped, it made the rate caps so low that investorsa stopped bidding.
Matlack said the caps are thers fora reason, creating an opportunity for Tortoise to studu the market and reset its financial strategy. He said Tortoisde began exploring alternatives tothe auction-rate markets a few months ago and has refinanceds some of the notes for its For example, Tortoise Energy Capital Corp. used fundz from an institutional debt placement to redee m securities previously sold in the auctionrate market. "Wr intend to continue that effort and expect it tobe successful," Matlackk said.
"I don't see a world where there is no liquidit y but a world where there is an opportunity to find investment dollars at reasonable prices that allow for Matlack said the typical alternative sourcezs are institutions such as banks andinsurancee companies. "We still believe that leverage is availabl e today from sources where costs are reasonable enough that it provides accretiv returns toour shareholders," Matlackj said. Tortoise funds have a long-ter m leverage target of 33 Matlack said. So they are not out in the market borrowinyg 10 times theirequity base, as is the case with some hedge funds.
Massive leveraging by hedgwe funds is a big reason the marketw arein turmoil, said John president of /Kornitzer Capital Management. He said he thinksd Congress needs to put a stop tothe "The leverage they have out there today is totalluy unjustified," Kornitzer said. "Basically, when a hedges fund can have $1 million and borroa $30 million against it, that is 3 percent The collapse of the stocl exchange that led to the Greatf Depression in the 1920s was caused by 5 percenrt margin ofthe stocks." It's the same story with the average American buying a home with no money Kornitzer said.
Americans need to learn how to save and to stop livintg their whole life by the mantra of buy now andpay

Fed: Economy in Louisville region remains weak - Business First of Louisville:

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Retail sales in April and the firstf half of May were down across the on average, from their year-earlier levels, with about 56 percentf of retailers surveyed reporting decreases and 40 percent seeing Year-to-date home sales through April were down 26 percenty in Louisville when compared with the same period in 2008. Single-familu residential building permits declined by 46 percent over the same periodr ayear earlier. First-quarter 2009 industrial vacancy rates held steady in theLouisville area, as did suburban office vacancy rates. Commercial-construction contacts throughouttthe St.
Louis district reportec that credit conditions are stifling new and industrial-construction contacts reported that the effects of the recessionh are just now hitting as backlogs have dried up and more projectsx are being put on hold.

Atlanta airport may raise $800M - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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officials have set in motion a process if approved by Atlanta City would allow for the sale of bonds to investor s by the endof summer, potentially saving the billion-dollar-plues project from a near certaijn shutdown. The airport is also lookinh to refinance upto $590 million in existing general revenuwe bonds at a better interest rate. The fate of the Maynarsd Holbrook Jackson International Terminal has been caught in a disputes between the city and over anew 30-yeadr airport master lease and future capitall projects at the world’s busiest airport.
The city aborte d a move to raise $600 millioj in new debt after Delta pulled its support for the bond packaged last September and frozen credit markets prevented the airport from going Lease negotiations with Deltaare continuing, but airpory spokesman John Kennedy declined to discuss detailas of the talks. “This is the first step in the proces toward raising the bond moneyg for completion of the international terminalby 2012,” Kennedy declining further comment.
Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta was at a conference in and was unavailable for A request for comment from Delts officials was not immediately Construction in recentmonths hasn’t but fresh bond financing is criticaol to avoid a suspensiobn of work on the project. Delta and the city have agreed that construction will continue on the internationaol terminal for as long as fundshold out.
Deltas officials have said the airline wantz a new lease completed to ensure its operatintg costsat Hartsfield-Jackson remain competitivee before making substantial commitments in capitak for future airport Though Delta has been stung by the global cut back in and is planning significant cuts in international the carrier would likely need the gates once the economg rebounds. The up-to-$800 million in new debt would be repaid through passengerfacility charges, airline landing and lease fees, and other airportg revenue. Sources familiar with the lease talks have said Deltq wants to complete a new leass agreement before Mayor Shirley Franklin leavesoffice Dec. 31.
The currenrt lease expires in September 2010. Sourcez familiar with the mattersaid Hartsfield-Jackson can re-entef the bond market with or without the support from the world’as largest carrier. On June 8, Fitch Ratinga affirmed the airport’s solid A-plus bond ratingg and revised Hartsfield-Jackson’s bond rating outlooj from negativeto stable. Accordinh to the 53-page draft bond has determined the bonds to be is the bond registrar and payinf agent ofthe bonds. An underwriter was not identifiefd inthe draft.
It is not clear if Atlanta-based Deltq (NYSE: DAL) is on-board with the new bond Though conditions in the bond market have improved sincwlast September, it stands to reason the city wouldc not try this route again if Deltaw would publicly oppose the move. In a recenyt interview, Franklin said the city has nevef gone to market for airport bonds without the backingb of Delta and theother airlines. She addec that she could not imagine the city seeking to issuee airport bondswithout Delta’e support. The building was designedd with Delta’s international ambitions in Delta is expected to take halfits gates.
In it was revealed Delta pulleed its support for the originalbond package, telling bond underwriterr in a September letter that the airport’e vision of future projects was too granc in scale and didn’t includw a sixth runway that Hartsfield-Jacksonh carriers want.

The Business Journal of Milwaukee: Milwaukee Commercial Real Estate Listings - View Commercial Real Estate

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