Business
Business Digest
01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 9, 2007
Sovereign Bancorp plans to close 11 Massachusetts branches this year as part of a $100-million cost-saving plan that the Philadelphia-based bank announced in December. The branches to close this spring and summer are in Quincy, Plymouth, Hanson, Brockton and Cohasset south of Boston, along with branches in Newton, Marblehead, Amesbury and Haverhill, according to The Patriot Ledger newspaper of Quincy. Sovereign also will close former Compass Bank branches in Harwich and Barnstable on Cape Cod. Sovereign spokeswoman Ellen Molle said most of the 50 people who work at the affected branches will be offered jobs at other branches. There are 241 Sovereign branches in Massachusetts. In December, Sovereign announced it would cut 800 jobs, or about 7 percent of its work force, as part of the cost-saving plan. The corporate office in Boston was scheduled to lose 77 positions. With the cuts, Sovereign would still employ about 3,300 people in Massachusetts. Sovereign has 12,000 employees overall. Sovereign Bancorp, the parent company of Sovereign Bank, is a $90-billion financial institution with nearly 800 banking offices.
BLB Investors will open the first Fadó Irish Pub and Restaurant in New England at Lincoln Park on Monday at an invitation-only charity greyhound racing event. Those expected to attend include: Joe Walsh, Ireland’s minister of agriculture and a member of parliament; Dick Sullivan, chairman of the Irish Greyhound Racing Board; Len Wolman, principal of BLB Investors; Fadó chief executive officer Kieran McGill; representatives of Crossroads Rhode Island; and many state and government officials. The opening event will feature a special tapping of a fresh keg of Guinness by a specially trained brewmaster flown in directly from the Guinness factory in Ireland. Proceeds from the racing will benefit Crossroads.
Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon Co., the world’s largest missile maker, is being sued by the widow of a U.S. Navy pilot who was killed after his plane was misidentified by one of the company’s systems in Iraq and shot down. The wrongful-death suit was filed by Akiko Ohata White in U.S. District Court in Boston. The suit alleges that Raytheon “knowingly disregarded” a technical malfunction of the Patriot missile system that resulted in the 2003 death of Lt. Nathan White, according to a statement distributed by Kreindler & Kreindler, the aviation law firm handling the case. “He was picked up by the Patriot systems group on the ground as being an enemy target,” said Brian Alexander, a partner at the law firm. “They went forward and engaged, and his aircraft was hit and obliterated.” Raytheon said it was aware of the suit. “We don’t comment on pending legal matters,” spokesman Mac Jeffrey said.
Studio 1011, a Providence-based design agency, said it has expanded into a full service trade-show exhibit solutions agency. The company’s capabilities now include logistics management, booth space and property procurement and exhibit production. The addition of the services will allow clients to work with a single vendor to meet their trade-show needs. “Setting yourself apart from the competition is the key to maximizing the results of trade-show marketing,” said Finn Yonkers, principal and lead designer of Studio 1011.
The Rhode Island Small Business Development Center at Johnson & Wales University has launched the “Primer Paso-Fast-Track” Spanish business training program at Progreso Latino in Central Falls. The program began on Feb. 1 and will run through April 26. The purpose of the program is to help the small-business planning process by providing an initial overview, assessment and mapping plan for the Latino business owners, entrepreneurs and/or small-business loan applicants. Primer Paso-Fast-Trac started in 2004 as part of the Progreso Latino Business Development Center services, as a partnership among Progreso Latino, Johnson & Wales University and Milenio Associations LLC to develop and offer the Spanish version of the nationally renowned Kaufman Foundation’s Fast Trac program in Rhode Island.
SafeData, LLC, a technology firm based in Warwick that focuses on helping companies protect their data, minimize downtime and recover and restore data quickly, has announced a partnership with Strategic Systems USA, a North Carolina-based systems integrator specializing in high availability and disaster recovery solutions. The partnership will extend SafeData’s market into the Southeast region of the United States. Peter Briggs, president of SafeData, said, “We have been focusing on the Northeastern U.S. over the past few years. Through Strategic Systems’ strong sales team and their expertise in business continuity and the System i5 platform, they are an excellent business partner to help us extend our reach into a new geographic area.” Using replication technology, SafeData creates and maintains a mirror of its clients’ systems in its data centers. During either planned or unplanned downtime, SafeData is a high-availability service that provides a switchable “mirror” of a company’s data and applications, guaranteeing continuity in two hours or less.
ISO New England Inc., the Holyoke, Mass.-based nonprofit organization responsible for the day-to-day operation of New England’s bulk power system and wholesale electricity markets, is reminding consumers to make energy efficiency resolutions for 2007 by visiting the Take Charge New England Web site, www.takecharge-ne.org, for energy saving tips. To help consumers in their efficiency efforts, ISO New England has created the “Test Your Energy IQ” quiz. The quiz, available at http://www.takecharge-ne.org/energy—quiz.html, tests consumer knowledge of home energy use and provides energy saving tips.
Vermont’s general obligation bond rating has been raised to Aaa by Moody’s Investors Service, making it one of nine U.S. states to carry the top investment grade from the credit-rating company. Moody’s lifted its assessment on Vermont’s credit Feb. 2 because of improved state finances, stable economic growth and a drop in its debt relative to its income, the company said. Vermont has $440 million in state-supported debt and is planning to sell $45 million in bonds in the next two months, including $30 million in a competitive bid offering on Tuesday. Vermont is rated AA-plus by Standard & Poor’s and AA-plus by Fitch Ratings. Moody’s rates eight other states Aaa: Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Utah. Vermont earned the upgrade by restoring its budget reserves in the last few years and reducing its debt burden in the last decade, said Moody’s analyst Nicole Johnson.
Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna Inc. has entered into a letter of intent with HR Policy Association to offer a retiree benefits program that will include a first-of-its-kind national program to help employers control their retiree medical costs and offer access to affordable retiree benefits. The plan will offer a fully-insured, pre- and post-65 arrangement that will allow retirees of HR Policy member companies to have access to group retiree health insurance plan options through Aetna, regardless of health status at the time of retirement. The offerings are being developed for the association’s Retiree Health Access program in response to growing concerns among large employers about the cost of health care for both pre-65 and post-65 retirees and the increasing challenges they face in offering these benefits to their retirees.
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