Dan Gosling’s failure to nail a position with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra may have been a blessing in disguise; for if he had, he would not have had time to create his ChopSaver lip balm he’s marketing to musicians. “It was disappointing to say the least,” Gosling said of his tryout in May in which he advanced all the way to the final round.
Rob Puma’s idea of a romantic date is not making dog treats in his kitchen. Yet that’s exactly what he found himself doing with his girlfriend over Valentine’s Day weekend in 2004. The unusual celebration of a lover’s holiday was part of what began as a semesterlong MBA project at Butler University four years ago and became, as trite as it sounds, a labor of love for Puma, the inventor of Medi-Crunch, a snack designed to help people medicate their…
It’s been a challenging five years for Eli Lilly and Co., which has launched nine new drugs yet seen the price of its stock fall by half, wiping out more than $60 billion in market value. However, company officials say the drugmaker has rallied from the jarring setback it received Aug. 9, 2000-when a federal appeals court invalidated Prozac’s patent protection-and are optimistic better times lie ahead. They say the company is positioned to increase profit and revenue, thanks to…
The atmosphere is lighthearted at the westside headquarters of Fundex Games Inc., where ideas sketched on cocktail napkins become award-winning games like What’s in Ned’s Head? and Alfredo’s Food Fight. And why not be happy at a company whose more tasteful games, such as Gnip Gnop and Phase 10, have helped grow revenue from $4.6 million to $20 million in the last decade? If there’s any nail-biting at Fundex it’s because this is the most important time of the year….
The 156-year-old Terre Haute company that quietly churned out nothing but its trademark baking powder for more than a century is now serving notice to General Mills’ Bisquick and other well-known brands that the status quo is dead.
The northern Indiana city of Warsaw is best known as home to three of the largest prosthetic makers in the world. But the smaller Little Crow Foods might be just as influential. Now in its fourth generation of family ownership, the company is responsible for bringing the American public the iconic CoCo Wheats cereal and a handful of other food products that followed. “When we have companies that have been as successful and around as long as Little Crow, I…
An Evansville-based maker of plastic cups has absorbed another plastics company to form what might be the continent’s largest plastic packaging firm. Berry Plastics Group Inc. announced yesterday it had merged with Covalence Specialty Materials Holding Corp. of Bedminster, N.J., in a stock swap arranged by the owner of both companies, the New York private […]
Commentary A plea for bio-focused policies On April 2, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act and can be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. While the ruling acknowledges the obvious, it offers a compelling rationale for Indiana elected officials to create an economic development strategy that leverages Hoosier intellectual capital and one of the state’s greatest assets, our farmland. With the scope of the twin challenges…
I just read the words “worm poop” in The Wall Street Journal. This is disturbing on a number of levels, some that have to do with journalistic integrity and others that have to do with general business practices. But mainly because it’s raised my interest in a classic underdog story. Tom Szaky, the 25-year-old CEO of TerraCycle, has gotten some good press over the last few years. He’s part of a growing green movement that is looking to offer improved…
My wife, Cheri, and I live in one of those newfangled, don’tstray-from-the-mainstream neighborhoods. It’s governed by wellmeaning “covenants and restrictions.” It has “architectural control guidelines.” These documents were formulated by a “development control committee” to “enhance the value and appearance of the community.” (We’re especially concerned with the “value” part, until our property-tax bills arrive, at which point we protest the assessed value.) Included among the controls in our neighborhood is a color palette. I imagine some designer back in…
Since mid-2005, Brugge Brasserie’s beer tanks have been operating at full capacity–pouring out 400 barrels of its signature
Belgian brew each year. Now the Broad Ripple gastro-pub is aiming higher. Brugge owner Ted Miller is set to start producing
a line of 10 bottled beers–plus seasonal specialties.
On a bookshelf in my office, I display a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, three packs of Benson & Hedges cigarettes and the program from my late wife’s memorial service. I display the pasta because, until the company was spun off earlier this year, Kraft Foods was part of Altria Group. I display the Benson & Hedges because that brand is part of Phillip Morris USA, which is also part of Altria Group. I display the memorial-service program because…
The new SMC Corp. of America facility in Noblesville will encompass 825,000 square feet, more than three times the space that the maker of pneumatic automation equipment occupies now at 3011 N. Franklin Road on the east side of Indianapolis. Mike Jones, who directs national distribution for the company, said today that all details of […]
In 2000, gasoline cost 99 cents a gallon, you could barely give recyclable plastic away and the idea of manufacturers “going green” was a pioneering thought. Allegiant Global started that same year as Heritage Interactive Services, with one client and little market awareness of what industrial recycling and reuse initiatives meant. Heritage Interactive was started by principals of locally based Heritage Environmental Services, which was-and still is-involved in more traditional waste-disposal services. When one of Heritage Environmental’s clients, Michigan-based Lear…
AmeriQual Group LLC, an Evansville company that makes ready-to-eat meals for the military and vending machines, plans to hire 400 temporary workers due to rising demand from hurricane-stricken areas. The positions are available in general production, warehousing and packaging, according to the Evansville Courier & Press.
A local candy maker has found the sweet spot in an industry where startup efforts often go sour. Founded in 2006, Carmel-based
Candy Dynamics is making a name for itself with its unusual "double-action" sour recipe, eye-catching packaging
and unforgettable names like Toxic Waste Hazardously Sour Candy, Nuclear Sludge and Hi-Voltage Bubble Gum.
Evansville’s redevelopment commission has rebuffed an offer from Berry Plastics Group Inc. that valued a Boys & Girls Club baseball field at less than a penny on the dollar of its appraised value. Evansville-based Berry offered $1 for the field, which is appraised at $237,750, according to the Evansville Courier & Press. The company wants […]
To survive in an uncertain future, Eli Lilly and Co. needs drugs that develop faster and cheaper and that perform better. Biotech drugs, Lilly executives insist, fit that bill. That’s why Lilly shelled out $6.5 billion to buy the biotech fi rm ImClone Systems Inc. in November, six months after it opened its own $1 […]
Lilly executives want to make biotech their top focus.
Thousands of Bagel-fuls roll off Harlan Bakeries LLC’s production lines these days as the Avon company races to keep up with demand for the cream-cheese-filled bagels. The frozen product shaped like a corn dog has been a big hit for Harlan and its partner, Kraft Foods Inc., since the packaged-food behemoth launched it a year […]
