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Office furniture dealers experience sales rebound: Better economy, more moves give industry a boost

Indianapolis-area office furniture dealers are awash with business, following a robust national trend that has lifted the industry beyond its lows of a few years ago. As businesses have begun to move into bigger quarters since 2003, they’ve naturally ordered desks, chairs and filing cabinets to fill the bigger space, local dealers said. “The industry is closer to where it used to be, but I don’t think we’ll ever again see the kind of activity we had in the mid-…

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Cummins learned lessons after getting battered by recession

Little more than six months after Theodore M. “Tim” Solso took the CEO reins at Columbus, Ind.-based Cummins Inc. from James Henderson in January 2000, Cummins was slammed by “the deepest and longest recession in the history of the company.” Those days are ancient history.

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156-year-old Clabber Girl rolls out new products

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.

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Persistence pays for Interactive Intelligence

Interactive Intelligence Inc. has been on a wild ride since its initial public offering seven years ago. The communications software maker saw its shares shoot as high as $50 its first few months of trading, only to have them wallow below $5 for years after the tech bubble burst. But now the company is back in favor on Wall Street.

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Pepsi considering mammoth warehouse on west side: Sources say firm’s been scouting sites since spring

A firm representing PepsiCo Inc. has been scouting sites on Indianapolis’ west side for a mammoth warehouse and distribution facility, and sources said the beverage giant is leaning toward a site near its Gatorade bottling plant. Local real estate brokers said Chris Clayton, a broker with the Cleveland office of Dallas-based Staubach Co., visited sites and put out a request for proposals for the project in early April, calling for 1 million square feet of industrial space with the possibility…

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NOTIONS: Has our love for labor been lost?

Bruce Hetrick is on vacation this week. In his absence, this column, which appeared on Sept. 1, 2003, is being reprinted. The Labor Days of my memory are happy-sad affairs. The weather is muggy. The family’s gathered at some park or pond, river or lake. Burgers sizzle on the grill. Frisbees fly through the air. And after supper, there’s touch football with dads and brothers, kids and cousins, until dusk drops her shadowy curtain on yet another summer. In my…

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Indiana’s Red Gold has become a tomato-industry big boy

Twenty years ago, the only thing coming out of Red Gold Inc.’s small Orestes plant was diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato puree. The processor now makes products that sell in all 50 states and 16 countries under its brand or private labels.

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: State employment growth is weaker than you think

There’s a real buzz about job growth in Indiana these days. Announcements of job creation, big and small, are echoing through the business media, and many economic development officials tell us their phones are ringing with calls from new prospects at a rate they haven’t seen in years. Yet the data used by most of us to track job growth tell a slightly more sobering story. The 2.94 million workers on Indiana payrolls in July, as reported by the Department…

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Lean manufacturers take stock of accounting innovation: Fishers company optimistic movement will gain favor

The leanest aspect of lean manufacturing is moving from the shop floor to the accounting office, where a new recordkeeping system is gaining a following. Proponents of so-called lean accounting say it’s better than traditional accounting at measuring the cost savings and efficiencies of lean manufacturing, a business-improvement strategy that shortens the time between customer order and shipment. Instead of simply looking at inventory levels and sales numbers as traditional accounting does, lean accounting measures things such as worker productivity…

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Duty in Iraq inspires reservist’s invention: Mtek founder hoping face mask will save lives

Impressed with the design, which military personnel admitted was years ahead of what’s now in use, the Army’s Soldier Systems Center purchased 10 of the prototypes Aug. 1 for testing. Mahan, 23, of Martinsville, ultimately hopes to create manufacturing jobs in Indiana by mass-producing the face masks for the military and law-enforcement agencies. With the help of his father, cousin and close friend, he’s formed Mtek Weapon Systems to start the process. “It’s definitely a radical departure from anything that’s…

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BULLS & BEARS: Fuss over our trade deficit is much ado about nothing

I’ll preface this column by telling you I am not an economist, just an observer. How many times have you heard a sobering news report on the trade deficit? The gist of these reports is that the deficit will weaken the dollar, cause all kinds of job losses, and be the ruin of our economy. The typical deficit TV news report begins with a picture of some old, rusty U.S. factory. It closes with video clips of construction cranes building…

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Franklin manufacturer benefits from high petroleum costs

Increased oil and natural gas prices are hammering many manufacturers, but Franklin-based Grimmer Industries Inc. is flying high. Grimmer specializes in making Hurricane brand air compressors and compressor boosters used in oil and natural gas well drilling and aggregate mining.

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Jones’ ChaCha IT firm to have human touch

For the last eight months, Indiana’s resident high-tech guru has been quietly developing a new IT firm. Few details have been leaked to the public. But in September, a national media blitz will announce the launch of ChaCha Search Inc., Jones’ new human-assisted Internet search engine.

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Moving lessons from classrooms to boardrooms: MBA students get firsthand experience with startups

No matter how many bold and italicized words scholars cram into textbooks, nothing compares to students rolling up their sleeves and testing a theory themselves. For years, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business has offered its Bloomington MBA candidates real-world experience through so-called “academies” focused on specific industries. Now Kelley Indianapolis’ evening MBA program is set to launch a scaled-back version for its students. This fall, it will offer three such “enterprise” programs, including one with an entrepreneurial emphasis. The…

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VIEWPOINT: Indiana ripe for new breed of auto industry

Landing the Honda plant is a great coup for Indiana. Gov. Mitch Daniels deserves congratulations. Not only will Honda employ an estimated 2,000 Hoosiers, it appears the governor secured the facility at a bargain price for Indiana’s taxpayers. While the plant brings much-needed employment, future wealth created from Honda’s production accrues to its primarily Japanese shareholders. This is only fair, as Japanese automakers have innovated, invested and expanded over the past 30 years. They have earned their success and deserve…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Too much manufacturing is not Indiana’s problem

We know that, relative to the United States, Indiana is neither a rich state nor one growing with vigor. Two weeks ago in this space, I discussed our more recent employment experiences. A friend read the column and asked, “How much of our lack of job growth is due to the slump or collapse in manufacturing jobs?” Nationally, only three states (Nevada, and the Dakotas) had any gain in manufacturing jobs between May 2001 and May 2006. Alaska and Wyoming…

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MainSource grabs opportunities for growth: Greensburg-based bank not shy about acquisitions

Honda Motor Co.’s decision to build a massive auto manufacturing plant near Greensburg has the small Decatur County town abuzz with excitement. But a company already entrenched there is making some noise of its own. MainSource Financial Group Inc. has increased assets an impressive 50 percent during the past year largely due to four acquisitions made by the publicly traded bank holding company. “We’re a little opportunistic,” admitted MainSource President and CEO James Saner. “We really want to grow, give…

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New business incubator is made for minorities

Black business owner Bob Logan is one of four entrepreneurs chosen by the Indiana Business Diversity Council as inaugural tenants of its unusual new incubator, which caters solely to minority-owned businesses.

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Firm may hold key to earlier detection: Startup lands grants for breast cancer biomarker

Linda Malkas’ arrival at the Indiana University School of Medicine four years ago is beginning to look like a coup for the city’s life sciences initiative. Armed with promising cancer research, Malkas helped found CS-Keys Inc., which last month received a $285,000 infusion from BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund and is poised to net a similar investment July 17 from Triathlon Medical Ventures in Cincinnati. The additional capital is critical to the startup’s continuing development of a biomarker that detects breast…

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