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Forensic engineering firm seeks defense work: New initiative hopes to help other local firms follow in Wolf Technical’s footsteps

After 30 years in the forensic-engineering business, Wolf Technical Services Inc. has analyzed everything from deadly car crashes to patent infringement. Now, Indianapolis-based Wolf is hoping to diversify into a new area: federal defense contracting. It’s a field local corporate leaders hope Indiana will tap much more frequently in the years to come. “We don’t quite know at the moment where this could lead,” said Wolf Director of Client Relations Joseph Ward. “And that’s the fun part.” The 30-employee Wolf’s…

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Expanded recycling catches on in manufacturing sector

In manufacturing and industrial-heavy central Indiana, companies are beginning to realize that “going green” can translate
into another kind of green–money. Reaching beyond the standard glass, paper and metal, markets are developing for a variety
of materials, from tiny bits of processed rubber to leftover cornstarch.

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University Loft finds growing niche in hospitality industry: Indianapolis-based furniture manufacturer known for college products sees big potential in hotel segment

The University Loft Co.’s graduation from dormitory to hotel-furniture maker is beginning to show promise. While the Indianapolis-based manufacturer’s bread and butter remains campus furnishings, its decision to enter the hospitality market in 2003 has CEO James Jannetides thinking big-as in presidentialsuite big. In four years, the ULC Hospitality division has grown to account for nearly 10 percent of the company’s $100 million annual revenue. Jannetides, though, envisions the branch’s eventually contributing half in his quest to someday make ULC…

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Lawrence turns down rezoning for vacant drive-in: Developer and city working on a compromise

A developer wanting to breathe new life into a long-vacant drive-in theater along Pendleton Pike is working to change the minds of Lawrence leaders who already have said no thanks. New York-based Norry Management Corp. is leading an effort to redevelop the 93-acre property for retail, office and industrial uses. But its plans faced a setback last month when a rezoning petition got a negative response from officials concerned about what might end up there. Lawrence City Council members voted…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Where are the best-paying jobs?

Where is the best place to work if all you consider is money? Where are the wages and salaries plus benefits paid by employers the highest? We have data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis that help us answer the question. The data refer to 2005, the latest year available, and do not include self-employment; thus, only jobs working for someone else are counted. And remember, these data are by place of work, not place of residence. Where are…

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Tech firm Powerway seeking rebound

Powerway Inc., the Indianapolis-based maker of manufacturing quality-control software that grew like gangbusters in the 1990s
and aimed for an initial public offering, has endured a dog of a half-decade. But that soon could change. Powerway just hired
an IT industry turnaround expert as CEO.

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Generator-maker finding new ways to get energy

I Power Energy Systems, which makes natural-gas-powered electric generators that are the primary power source of corporate
and college campuses, is a novelty in Indiana. After all, coal is still a cheaper source of electricity than is natural gas.
But I Power is developing applications for electric generators that burn biogas from sources ranging from garbage to ground-up
corn.

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Chocolatier maintains steady routine between busy seasons

Each week at David Alan Chocolatier in Lebanon, three employees make a different variety of chocolate truffles, nut clusters
and other chocolate-laden delights. Alan uses 7,000 pounds of chocolate a year to make his products out of the renovated gas
station he has operated at since 1984.

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Giant Ford plant could join warehouse conversion trend: Observers say size, age may be obstacles

City officials haven’t given up hope on keeping 1,400 lucrative manufacturing jobs at an Indianapolis steering parts plant, but Ford Motor Co. has. The company this month said it will close the facility by the end of 2008. A closure will leave the 1.8-millionsquare-foot building empty, but real estate observers say it could be redeveloped as leaseable industrial space-as shuttered Chrysler, Maytag and Western Electric factories nearby have been. Some of the premier projects in the area are leasing well,…

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Corporate shopping spree: Massive Guidant deal helps make 2006 a record-setting year for local M&A activity

Last year was a record-shattering period for the Indianapolis-area merger and acquisition market, thanks in large part to the loss of one public corporation. Guidant Corp.’s acquisition by Boston Scientific Corp. for $28.4 billion last year and the related sale of its vascular business to Abbott Laboratories for $4.1 billion made the 2006 Big Deals list bigger than ever. That’s because the two deals made up about 85 percent of the $38.5 billion of M&A activity tracked down by the…

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BULLS & BEARS: Are ingredients in place for a market ‘melt-up’?

A couple of years ago, I quoted legendary market analyst John Mendelson, who predicted the “mother of all short squeezes,” causing a market “melt-up.” So far, nobody would say we’ve experienced anything resembling a melt-up. In the two years since Mendelson’s report, I haven’t seen the words “melt-up” used. That is, until the last couple of weeks, when I saw it twice. In early January, Barron’s columnist Michael Santoli was describing the state of the market. He said valuations by…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: We need less of ‘cool’ and more of ‘can do’

I’ve been accused of being both technology-besotted and technology-averse. I’m neither one. I’m just interested in using technology in appropriate ways. I’m fond of reminding people that a pair of scissors is perfect for a job that a pair of scissors can do. Scissors don’t need Tim Allen-style enhancements. An example popped up from reading “The Soul of a Chef,” by Michael Ruhlman, where I ran across the statement by a young chef that a computer system made the difference…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Our love-hate relationship with globalization boom

Our generation didn’t invent globalization, but we’ve certainly moved it to a new level. Even here in the isolated Midwest, it’s hard to find a product, a job or a community that hasn’t been affected by the high degree of connectivity among customers, businesses, and buyers and sellers of all kinds around the globe. We’ve enjoyed a cornucopia of incredible new products-from cell phones to flat-screen televisions to microprocessor-laden automobiles-that have had many or all of their principal parts made…

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Temp agency jumping into training, construction: Latino-owned Aztec Group’s first foray is three-year project to fix up warehouse complex on near-east side

When Rod Webb moved to the United States from Mexico in 1982, his plan was to make a career as a salesman for an Indianapolis industrial chain manufacturer. But a short stint volunteering for a group that aided migrant workers planted another seed that’s now bearing fruit. After eight years running a temporary employment firm that specializes in offering Hispanic employees alternatives to field work, Webb is embarking on an ambitious plan to transform a dilapidated east-side warehouse complex into…

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College targets dropouts with new program: Ivy Tech offers high school failures chance to get degree, pursue higher education

Ivy Tech Community College this month launched a pilot program that allows high school dropouts to earn their diplomas while simultaneously working toward a certificate or associate’s degree in college. Intended to improve the state’s labor pool, and as a lifeline to dropouts facing a dismal life in the earnings underclass, it will first be rolled out in Bloomington, Lafayette and Terre Haute. The Indianapolis campus also will offer the program aimed at those 19 or older, although a date…

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Fortville firm’s helmet pads protect U.S. troops

Fortville-based Genesis Manufacturing makes helmet pads for U.S. troops through Colorado-based Skydex Technologies, which
won a contract this fall with the U.S. Air Force for 120,000 helmet pad kits. Most of the helmets have wound up in Iraq, where
the military has discovered soldiers need something more than Kevlar-lined helmets to survive roadside mines and exploding
Toyotas.

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Labor sector diversification could spur local economy: $200,000 study targets finance, retail and construction

Sexier industry sectors like life sciences or motorsports get all the press. But to remain robust, the Indianapolis Private Industry Council believes, the area economy needs diversification. The 23-year-old work-force-training not-for-profit believes the nine-county area also should target three tried-and-true industries: finance and insurance; retail, hospitality and restaurants; and construction. IPIC, whose $9 million annual budget comes from public and private grants, plans to spend $200,000 during the first quarter studying the three sectors, which collectively employ 270,000 people in…

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CICP’s chief launches raft of initiatives:

In January, Mark Miles returned to Indianapolis after more than a decade at the helm of the Association of Tennis Professionals to become CEO of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. Twelve months later, the CICP looks much different than it did under his predecessor David Goodrich. And it could soon change even more. A former Eli Lilly and Co. executive and aide to Dan Quayle, Miles, 53, has been one of the key players in the potential consolidation of the…

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Carmel company helps clients determine next big thing

The employees of production-innovation consultant Insight2 interview customers, but they also watch and videotape them using
various products. That footage then is dissected to see how consumers deal with problems they encounter. More times than not,
the result is a new product intended to satisfy needs consumers didn’t even know they had.

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‘Old fashioned’ values manufacture Motionwear’s growth: Acquisition should fuel leotard-maker’s expansion

It might seem as though the low cost of labor overseas has shifted the entire U.S. textile industry to Asia, never to return. Indianapolis-based leotard-maker Motionwear Inc. proves otherwise. The 120-employee company was acquired this month by the Italian sportswear firm FILA for an undisclosed sum and, as a result, it’s poised to expand locally. Tom Wilson started the company in his attic in 1988 because his daughter Erin, an aspiring dancer, couldn’t find performance apparel she liked in retail…

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