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Around the State
The Florida Department of Citrus in Lakeland named the Richards Group of Dallas as national advertising agency for Florida orange juice, a $28 million account from a total department advertising budget of $34 million.
A study by NCCI (National Council on Compensation Insurance) reports that Florida ranks nationally at or near the top as a destination for business relocations, expansions and incorporations. Based in Boca Raton, NCCI is the nation's largest information company serving the workers' compensation and healthcare market places.
The board of the Joint Underwriting Association, the state-run insurer of last resort, endorsed a proposal to raise the deductible on homeowners' policies from $500 to $1,000. The Department of Insurance will decide on this and other proposals in a JUA rate-change filing expected this month.
In the first half of 1996, Florida led the U.S. in the number of residential housing permits issued. For the 12 months ending in June, condominium construction made Naples the nation's hottest housing market based on permits per population, according to Hanley-Wood, the Canton, Mich.-based publisher of Builder magazine.
Northwest
Starter Corp., a Connecticut-based sportswear manufacturer, will close its Pensacola plant by year-end, eliminate 157 jobs paying $5 to $7 an hour and move operations to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A Starter plant in Century with about 150 workers will not be affected.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected a Department of Environmental Protection bid to force Coastal Petroleum Co. to post a $1.9 billion bond as environmental insurance before receiving a permit allowing offshore oil drilling south of Apalachicola. Coastal is a majority-held subsidiary of Bermuda-based Coastal Caribbean Oils & Minerals [FT, June 1996].
The Florida Medical Association moved its headquarters to Tallahassee, taking 36 jobs away from Jacksonville.
The Santa Rosa County Commission approved a percentage point increase in the sales tax on hotel room rentals in Gulf Breeze and mainland Navarre. Proceeds are designated for park improvements.
Northeast
AccuStaff agreed to acquire Woodbury, N.Y.-based temporary personnel provider Career Horizons in a $1 billion stock transaction that will create the fourth largest staffing company in the U.S. The combined company will generate projected annual revenues of $1.3 billion. Since its initial public offering in August 1994, Jacksonville's AccuStaff has made 33 acquisitions complementing its staffing, consulting and outsourcing services. Pending shareholder and regulatory approvals, the Career Horizons acquisition is expected close in the fourth quarter of 1996.
The newly formed Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, created by Mayor John Delaney and operated from within the mayor's office, was looking for an executive director in August. The commission hopes to coordinate the actions and decision-making duties of various economic development agencies in Duval County.
Merrill Lynch & Co., the New York-based financial services company, expects to add 800 employees to its work force of 1,600 at its expanding south Jacksonville campus, where a fourth building is under construction and scheduled to open in January 1998. In Jacksonville's LaVilla redevelopment district, a new minority-owned business, Precision Wire Industries, plans to build a 55-job plant to produce paper clips, staples and construction nails starting next summer.
Ocala/Marion County received foreign trade zone designation for an area that includes Ocala Regional Airport, Ocala Commerce Center, International Commerce Park, Dunnellon/Marion County Airport and part of Silver Springs Shores Industrial Park.
Jacksonville-based Xomed Surgical Products announced an initial public offering of 2.5 million shares of common stock scheduled to be sold this month through underwriters led by Alex. Brown & Sons and UBS Securities.
Central
AT&T Wireless Services plans to hire up to 100 workers in Central Florida and transfer another 50 to 100 from its office in West Palm Beach next summer to staff a $20 million, 175,000-square-foot call center which is being built in east Orange County.
A new sales support center in Melbourne for Harris Corp.'s Atlanta-based business equipment subsidiary, Lanier Worldwide, will create about 100 local jobs by year-end.
At Poinciana Office & Industrial Park just south of Kissimmee, Continental PET Technologies broke ground on a 66,250-square-foot plant that will employ 36 and make plastic bottles.
A proposed public offering of three million shares of Commercial Net Lease Realty common stock is scheduled this month through an underwriting co-managed by Smith Barney, Raymond James & Associates and others. The company may use the proceeds to repay debt or acquire properties.
This month, the one million-square-foot West Oaks Mall opens in Ocoee, nine miles west of downtown Orlando.
Tampa Bay
Anchor Glass Container Corp. was put up for sale by its Mexican parent company, Vitro, S.A. The Tampa-based glass manufacturer, which lost more than $160 million in 1994 and 1995 and another $96 million during the first half of this year, proved to be too much of a cash drain on Vitro, Mexico's largest glass manufacturer. Vitro bought Anchor in 1989 only to see demand for glass packaging in the U.S. shrink as soda companies switched to plastic bottles. Anchor employs 300 people at its corporate office in Tampa and another 350 people at a plant in Jacksonville.
Two St. Petersburg-based companies, office equipment distributor Danka Industries Inc. and Jabil Circuit Co., a manufacturer of computer circuit boards, expect to double the size of their headquarters. Danka announced the construction of three new office buildings totaling 115,000 square feet; Jabil plans a 120,000-square-foot expansion that could create 500 jobs over the next few years.
Silver King Communications plans to acquire Home Shopping Network in a $1.2 billion stock swap that reunites the television broadcaster with the electronic retailer following a 1992 split that turned them into separate companies. Merger of the two St. Petersburg-based companies is subject to shareholder approvals.
A distributor of computer hardware and software, Tech Data Corp. will hire more than 300, mostly in sales and marketing, by year's end. It also will break ground this fall on a 240,000-square-foot addition to its Clearwater campus.
In Tampa, Walt Disney Attractions' new telephone reservations center will open next month with 120 employees.
New York investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. acquired a majority stake in privately held, Tampa-based Spalding & Evenflo Cos., manufacturer of sporting goods and baby-care products with annual revenues of roughly $1 billion.
Special Data Processing Corp., a magazine subscription management and direct marketing company in Clearwater, is adding 100 more consumer relations jobs.
Operating out of Fort Lauderdale under H. Wayne Huizenga, AutoNation USA bought land in Plant City for a reconditioning facility where autos can be repaired and then sent to used car lots across Central Florida. The plant could employ as many as 100.
Voters in Hillsborough County approved a half percentage point sales tax increase to pay for public safety and infrastructure, school construction and a new football stadium for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The measure will raise the county sales tax from 6.5% to 7% and generate $2.7 billion over its 30-year life.
Treasure Coast
Seald-Sweet Growers Inc., a citrus packaging and marketing cooperative based in Vero Beach, accepted into membership Turner Foods Corp. of Punta Gorda, one of Florida largest growers. Seald-Sweet is Florida's biggest shipper of fresh citrus to U.S. markets, as well as Canada, Europe and Japan. Turner is a subsidiary of FPL Group, the parent company of Florida Power & Light.
ZOM Development Inc. of Winter Park has submitted plans to the city of Boca Raton for a $70 million, mixed-use project to include retail, office and residential components. Completion of the project at the 62-acre Knight Commerce Center is expected by mid-1998.
Computer Products Inc., a Boca Raton-based manufacturer of power supplies, acquired Jeta Power Systems of Huntington Beach, Calif., for $11.7 million.
Southwest
Starting Dec. 18, Carnival Air Lines will begin daily nonstop service between Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers and New York's JFK.
Frank S. Knautz & Co., an advertising and public relations firm founded in Sarasota in 1981, was bought by Tampa-based Pearson, Thomas/Hallmark Advertising, which will keep an office in Sarasota.
Southeast
A federal grand jury in Miami indicted 36 individuals associated with Premium Sales Corp. on charges of massive fraud and money laundering. Premium was established as a food-trading concern, buying grocery-store products at a discounted price in one part of the country and selling them at a higher price elsewhere. Investigators say most of Premium's transactions were fabricated and that investors lost about $265 million. Premium collapsed in 1993 following charges by the Security & Exchange Commission.
Two distributors of computers and software, Miami-based CHS Electronics and Merisel, based in El Segundo, Calif., signed an agreement for CHS to buy Merisel's operations in Europe, Latin America and Mexico for approx. $160 million. CHS, with net sales of $615.5 million for the first half of 1996, would acquire ongoing businesses employing 1,000 and generating $1.5 billion in revenues.
Fastbolt Florida Corp., a distributor of fasteners and electronic components, moved its headquarters and 26 jobs from Delray Beach to Coral Springs.
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
