Mike’s Express Carwash makes money the old-fashioned way. The second-generation family affair, now celebrating its 60th
year, has invested its reserves in steady expansion, becoming a model for the $23.4 billion industry in
the process. And its owners still sweat the small stuff.
Moving coordinating company Relocation Strategies Inc. is used to dealing with companies in transition. Now the firm is undergoing one of its own-albeit of a different sort. Relocation Strategies founder David Bayse is relinquishing ownership to partner Melissa Lamb Brown in a purchase agreement set to be completed within the next four years. She already owns a majority of the business and will acquire the rest in stages. In the meantime, Bayse, 57, will continue to guide Brown, 39, who…
In recent days, as some of Wall Street’s most storied institutions teetered, the mood at Indiana’s largest and oldest investment firm was almost serene. City Securities Corp. managers tracked news tickers and consulted CEO Mike Bosway, who was on vacation in Ireland, via his BlackBerry. But their biggest concern wasn’t the financial underpinnings of their own company. It was tumbling stock prices, which depressed the value of the portfolios of their 15,000 clients. Bosway saw no need to rush home…
Izod rolled out a new line of Indy Racing League-themed jeans and shirts at a leading fashion show in Las Vegas last month.
This week Izod announced they will rev up a major marketing…
Dixie Chopper, a Coatesville company that makes what it claims are the fastest lawnmowers in the world, has hired a president who plans to triple production within three years. Gary A. Morgan, who stepped into the position yesterday, said he intends to boost the company’s share of the “zero-turn” mower market to 25 percent from […]
“Traditionally, it isn’t over until the fat lady sings. But it seems it will soon be over for the singing fat lady.”
So opens a piece in The London newspaper The Independent concerning the slimmer and fitter brand of opera…
Despite almost three months of attempted negotiations, officials for Lin TV Corp. and Bright House Networks have not been able to agree to extend their current deal to retransmit Lin’s three local channels on the cable system. Lin officials say Bright House has not responded to their proposals. However, Buz Nesbit, president of Florida-based Bright […]
MotoGP’s open approach to disclosing attendance figures finally gives us a clear view on the revenue generation of an Indianapolis Motor Speedway event. IMS President Tony George and his legion of lieutenants are…
As with everywhere else, in dance audiences there are two kinds of people. There are those who read the program notes beforehand to discern the choreographer’s intent and/or to get an anchor firmly attached to interpretation before the show begins. And there are those who prefer to experience a work on stage without any prior introduction. I’m one of the latter-although I do go back to the notes afterwards to see if the intention was communicated. In the case of…
The portfolios of local architectural firms are beginning to boast more ecofriendly projects. But it hasn’t been that way for long. The trend to seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification is a recent phenomenon that appeals not only to the tree-hugging crowd but corporations and government entities, too. “We’re definitely getting to the point where clients are asking us about the LEED process,” said Eric Anderson, a project architect at Axis Architecture + Interiors. “Whereas before, even [as…
Whoa. Those figures, based on national averages from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., don’t paint a pretty picture. People without bank accounts tend to keep cash at home or in their pockets, which increases the likelihood of crime. They create a market in which predatory lenders can thrive. They fail to reach their full potential, and so do the cities where they live. We have a problem. Now what can we do about it? We could take a cue from…
Rain is putting a damper on the economic forecast for the first MotoGP motorcycle race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday. The first motorcycle race at the Speedway in 99 years will…
The completion of $2 billion in city construction projects has left a gaping hole in contractor job schedules-as wide as when the roof opens at Lucas Oil Stadium. Even so, industry leaders remain optimistic about staying busy despite the combination of a tepid economy and the end of a local boom that stretched the limits of the labor pool. The $1.1 billion airport midfield terminal project, the $715 million stadium and $150 million Central Library expansion helped to create so…
Oh, how some of the mighty have fallen. A number of high-profile professional investors are struggling in this bear market. Perhaps surprisingly, many of these managers come from the “value investing” category, a style of investing that is supposed to outperform-or at least lose less – markets. In their heydays, when their mutual funds produced investment returns that soundly beat the market averages, these managers were often accorded star status in the financial press. Here are a few of the…
One of the city’s largest advertising agencies and a down-state software development firm have brokered a deal with Radio One Indianapolis to launch a Web site that matches minority job seekers with companies looking to diversify their work force. The site, Diversity-One.com, is the product of MZD Advertising and Batesville-based Employment Partners, a firm specializing in Web-based employee and job-search software. The partners in the project wanted a local niche site to compete with national job and employee search portals…
Fans walking into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the First MotoGP race there Sept. 14 likely won’t recognize the place. Sponsor ads will hang on the inside walls of the track. There will be a host of companies in the hospitality area–including Yamaha, Kawasaki, Ducati and Repsol–that have never set foot inside the Speedway’s grounds. The motorcycle-specific nature of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP will permeate every facet of the event and affects all elements of the host city’s planning.
An Indianapolis health care management business has acquired its third company since January and plans to grow to become the largest company in its industry. Financed by a Connecticut private equity firm, Health Systems International this week announced it had bought Bridgeway Medical LLC, a Montgomery, Ala., company that reviews and audits medical bills for […]
CMG Worldwide, an intellectual property licensing firm in Fishers, has lost a federal lawsuit relating to the iconic images of the late actress Marilyn Monroe. On Sept. 2, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan ruled that heirs of New York photographer Sam Shaw own rights to the […]
ArcelorMittal, the Luxembourg steelmaker that operates a mill on Lake Michigan, has sued a coal supplier, claiming the supplier is delivering less coal than their contract stipulates, the Post-Tribune of Merrillville reported. Not only is West Virginia-based Bluestone Coal Corp. shorting the Burns Harbor mill of coal, the suit alleges, but Bluestone is using ArcelorMittal […]
Re-entry key in city’s plot to fight crime Mayor makes push, hires director to help more ex-convicts find work Makeba Averitte spent more than seven years incarcerated in Indiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma prisons paying for the robbery he committed as a young man with few prospects. Since his release in 2004, the 32-year-old has obtained a driver’s license and insurance on his automobile, not to mention a bit more wisdom. But what eludes him most-even more so now as a…
