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Glen Raven Inc., an Alamance County maker of industrial fabrics, has closed deals to acquire two fabric distributors.

The local company, which is privately held, did not disclose financial details of its acquisitions of John Boyle & Co. and The Astrup Co. The distributors will operate as fully-owned subsidiaries of Glen Raven.

Cleveland-based Astrup was founded in 1876 and specializes in fabrics used in awnings, signs and outdoor furniture. John Boyle has corporate offices in Statesville and operates 10 branches.

Glen Raven has created a merger team that will focus on ideas for new products and services. The company, which employs more than 400 people locally, markets brands including Sunbrella and Dickson.

For locals, Texas Pete is the Triad's Tabasco -- it's just what we expect when we say "hot sauce." So a new flavor, much less two new flavors, is big news for the Winston-Salem company that makes the stuff.

T.W. Garner Food Co. is introducing Texas Pete Hotter Hot Sauce and also Texas Pete Garlic Hot Sauce.

The company, which has been family owned for five generations, said in a news release that the "hotter" sauce is three-times hotter than the original while maintaining the flavors of the original. The garlic sauce has an added kick while staying just as hot as the original, Garner said.

The company also makes other sauces, salsas, jams and jellies.

So that little inferiority complex Robert Bell mentioned on the front page of today's paper?

Yeah, well here's yet another case where Charlotte outranks Greensboro: Grilling.

No kidding. Blue Rhino just released a list of its top 100 cities for grilling, and the Winston-Salem company showed little loyalty to the Triad. Greensboro, lumped with High Point and Winston no less, ranks 73rd. We're outranked by Charlotte (50th) and Asheville (68th).

But the Triad's grilling faithful can take comfort in the fact that we beat Raleigh - which ranked 88th on the Blue Rhino lineup.

The list, compiled using information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, took into account the ideal grilling day, which Blue Rhino defines as a summer day with sun, temperatures lower than 90 degrees, and no rain. The cities with potential for the most such days ranked near the top of the list (Hence No. 1: Sacramento, Calif.), while those with less idyllic weather piled up at the bottom (No. 100: Anchorage, Alaska).

GREENSBORO -- Graduate students from China and Europe will be earning Master of Business Administration degrees beginning this fall at UNCG.
Two new agreements between the Bryan School of Business and Economics and the European Business School in Paris and the Shanghai Shenwei Management Consulting Company China in collaboration with the Management and Economy Center at Shanghai University will allow students to earn a master of business administration degree at the Bryan School.
"These agreements will expose students from the European Business School and Shanghai University to an American-style MBA program. International students bring to the table a level of preparation that enhances class discussion for all students," said Dr. Vidyaranya Gargeya, director of the MBA program and professor in the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management.
Students from both schools must meet all UNCG admissions requirements for the Bryan School MBA program.
The first students will begin attending classes at the Bryan School in the fall semester.
The Bryan School maintains study abroad partnerships with businesses schools in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Mexico, Scotland and Spain.
Founded in 1967, the European Business School is part of EBS International, a multinational business school with a network of schools in Madrid, Milan, Paris, Dublin, London, Munich, Dortmund, Kaliningrad, Riga and New York. In addition to its 10 schools, EBS has nearly 30 partner schools worldwide. EBS International has an enrollment of approximately 10,000 students.
Shanghai University is a public comprehensive university in south China housing schools of science, engineering, liberal arts, economics, management and law.

GREENSBORO - For the second consecutive year, the Piedmont Triad Partnership has been named among the top 10 economic development organizations in North America by Site Selection magazine. Site Selection, one of the nation's leading economic development publications, reaches 44,000 executives with each issue.
The criteria used by the magazine in evaluating economic development organizations include new jobs and investment, innovation, leadership, and customer service. According to the magazine, the regions and organizations earning top honors for 2006 shared common elements of market access, strong logistics support networks, qualified labor, competitive costs, and "good old-fashioned ingenuity."

A proposed bank that could open here before the year's end would focus on banking for small and mid-size businesses throughout the Triad.

Premier Commercial Bank would target manufacturing companies, real-estate developers, builders, entrepreneurs and professional service firms. The bank, which is subject to regulatory approval, would serve its business customers through a central location and on-site visits, instead of traditional retail branches.

The bank has not yet released details about its prospective board, but further announcements are expected within coming weeks. Premier's chief executive would be Frank Gavigan, an industry veteran who most recently acted as senior credit officer of 1st State Bank in Burlington.

If approved, Premier would locate its headquarters in Greensboro and plan for additional offices in High Point and Winston-Salem.

AT&T announced today that it has launched its combination TV and high-speed Internet service to customers in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas of Michigan.

The service, called AT&T U-verse, uses the company's new network to provide Internet Protocol television, including more than 300 television channels, HD programming, videos on demand, TV recording functions, parental controls and a Spanish-language package?

Sound familiar? It should. Here's further evidence of the blurring lines between phone and cable companies. Time Warner Cable already provides a digital phone, Internet and TV package in the Triad. And now AT&T, which has taken over customers of the former Bell South here, has expanded its IPTV package up north.

There's been no announcement about the potential for a similar product launch in North Carolina. But I'd hazard a guess that if this AT&T product succeeds in Michigan, it's only a matter of time. After all, the state did approve that Video Competition Act last year, paving an easier way for phone companies to jump into the television market.

And AT&T executives at the state level have publicly aired their desires to see phone company cable hit local markets.

Charlotte's City Council approved a rezoning yesterday for the much-anticipated IKEA store scheduled to open there in 2009.

Ready for the rundown?

The 345,000-square-foot store, on 25 acres off Interstate 85 in northeast Charlotte, could start construction in the spring. The store will have 1,700 parking spaces, feature three model homes, include 50 room settings and offer a 300-seat restaurant serving Swedish and American foods.

Lexington and Davidson County officials held a groundbreaking today for the Best Western Inn & Suites at the Vineyard, next to Childress Vineyards.

The $6.8-million hotel will comprise 86 rooms, an indoor pool, a business center and a fitness facility. It's scheduled to open in the spring.

Construction (by Greensboro's Samet Corp.) could start within 45 days.

GREENSBORO - Triad home sales got a slight boost last month, as statewide sales of existing homes continued to fall.

April home sales in the Triad were up 2 percent from March and also up 2 percent compared to a year before, the N.C. Association of Realtors said Wednesday. More than 1,460 existing homes sold here last month, at an average price of $176,763.

Statewide sales fell 3 percent from March to April and were down 3 percent last month when compared to April 2006. The realtors' group said the dip, much smaller than March's 7 percent sales decrease, could indicate a market correction.

Talk about huge.

The building comprises about 7.8 acres under its roof and could probably be a great site for a game of roller hockey. (Photos by the News & Record's H. Scott Hoffmann.)

The "green" warehouse, at Liberty Property Trust's new Bull Ridge Industrial Park, celebrates its grand opening today - with catered organic food, a display of hybrid Toyota vehicles, a western theme, live country music and speeches kicking off around 4 p.m.

Liberty hasn't named tenants yet for the building, the country's first speculative warehouse to seek LEED - or green building - certification for both its core and shell through the U.S. Green Building Council.

Ideally, the real-estate company says, a single tenant will snap up the 341,000-square-foot space. But the warehouse could be subdivided for smaller tenants.

At least one prospective tenant who has viewed the warehouse is large enough to fill the entire thing, said Liberty's Amy Amrich.

The beer industry contributes $1.88 billion annually to North Carolina, according to a new study commissioned by the National Beer Wholesalers Association and the Beer Institute.

More than 21,000 people in the state are involved in the production, distribution and sale of beer. These employers, according to the study, earn more than $522 million in wages each year.

North Carolina has about 70 beer distributors, who employ about 2,770 people. Brewers and beer importers in the state account for nearly 790 jobs, the study found.

Time Warner Cable's Triad office is trying to iron out deals with several programmers.

The cable provider's agreements with SportSouth, GAC on Demand, HGTV, Cine Latino, Fox Sports en Espanol, CNN on Espanol, MTV Spanish, Discovery en Espanol, CNN Showcase on Demand and Starz/Encore are set to expire. And these channels could be pulled off the air if big cable and its programmers can't reach an agreement about how much Time Warner and its customers should pay to watch them.

Local spokesman Buck Yarborough says the talks are no big deal.

"From time to time, our programming agreements with various programmers are up for renewal," he told me today. "As a matter of fact, it's happening all the time."

Time Warner is required to give at least 30 days notice to customers about any change.

"So far, we have not been forced to drop anything, and we're hopeful and confident that we will be able to come to programming agreements," Yarborough said.

He said it's just a coincidence that many of the channels in question carry Spanish-language programming. Time Warner offers a Spanish-language package with a number of other channels.

More channel-change news after the jump ...

RALEIGH - The Triad unemployment rate fell slightly in April - no thanks to Guilford County.

The jobless rate for the 12-county Triad fell from 4.6 percent in March to 4.5 percent last month. But Guilford County's unemployment held steady, at 4.4 percent, even as jobless rates fell in more than half the counties across the state.

Nearly 230,830 workers held jobs in Guilford last month, according to a Friday report from the state Employment Security Commission. About 10,830 people were unemployed here, according to figures that were not seasonally adjusted.

The statewide jobless rate was 4.5 percent for April.

After the jump, a county-by-county breakdown of jobless rates ...