Alcoa broke ground on a $22 million project at its Can Reclamation facility, which will
include a new crusher and delacquering furnace and supporting buildings. This project should
increase used beverage can molten output by nearly 50%. In other news, Alcoa introduced the first of
two new, fuel-efficient locomotives that will be used to transport aluminum ingots.
Knoxville
Baptist Health System was officially rolled into fellow local hospital system, St.
Mary's, in January. The two faith-based organizations will operate under an 18-member board with
a new name that reflects both systems' missions. The conglomerate will net $600 million in revenue
and employ more than 6,000 staff and 800 physicians.
IdleAire Technologies' initial public offering has stalled again when the firm was late in
filing a quarterly report to the SEC as of Sept. 30, 2007. The delay could be related to its IPO or
its consideration of a reverse split sale. IdleAire previously reported it was $253 million in debt
and unsure whether the firm would turn a profit. IdleAire first filed with the SEC in September 2007
to raise up to $100 million in a common stock IPO underwritten by J.P. Morgan Securities and
Jefferies & Co.
Nielsen Online ranked FoodNetwork.com as the number one recipe site in the Food & Cooking
category during the Thanksgiving holiday last year, topping 5.2 million unique users. Site owner
Scripps Networks Interactive had purchased another high-ranking recipe site, Recipezaar.com, in July
2007.
Grainger County
U.K.-based billion-dollar defense and aerospace company BAE Systems used its previously
awarded $112 million U.S. Army grant to open a 33,000-square-foot facility to make and assemble the
Improved Outer Tactical Vest. The new plant created 185 new jobs and is expected to produce 400
vests daily. BAE has more than 1,000 employees in Grainger Co., Jefferson City and Kingsport.
Greeneville
Forward Air Corp. has acquired privately held transportation services provider Black Hawk
Freight Services—a deal that closed in December. The Illinois-based company generated about $30
million in revenue in 2006. Forward Air officials said there is little redundancy in meshing the two
firm's operations.
Johnson City
The slump in housing starts has forced General Shale Brick to lay off 65 Knoxville employees
and close its Riverside Drive facility. Of the North American company's output of 1.6 billion bricks
annually, 85 million come from the Knoxville operation.
Pigeon Forge
Entertainment superstar Dolly Parton launched her Imagination Library program in the United
Kingdom and created The Dollywood Foundation of the U.K. to manage it. Parton presented the first
book to a newborn in Rotherham, which is three hours north of London. 15,000 Rotherham residents are
eligible for the program.
Email to a Friend
Print-Friendly Format