Thursday, July 29, 1999
TRISTATE BUSINESS SUMMARY
Kroger picks new bank for credit card offer
The Kroger Co. has teamed with U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis to introduce a co-branded credit card that will offer benefits to customers.
The card was introduced Wednesday in Cincinnati and in Dallas and Houston. It comes after Kroger and Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank this month mutually agreed not to renew a six-year contract whereby they co-branded a MasterCard.
Customers who use the new Kroger Visa earn “rewards” by earning points with each charge.
The rewards, subject to change, include free Kroger groceries, hotel accommodations, plane tickets and free movie rentals.
Gibson Greetings launches ad campaign
Gibson Greetings Inc. has hired a firm to launch a print and direct mail advertising campaign to promote its year-old Relativity merchandising system.
The campaign is being handled by Cincinnati firm Freedman, Gibson & White, which is placing ads in retail trade magazines. The agency has taken a competitive tack in the ads, comparing Gibson's benefits to retailers with those of rival Hallmark.
Relativity, introduced in spring 1998, packages Gibson's top alternative lines with brands from several other vendors on a single display unit.
Cheddar bacon burger pushes Wendy's profits
New products such as a cheddar bacon cheeseburger and iced cappuccino helped drive profits higher in the second quarter at Wendy's International Inc.
The nation's third-largest hamburger chain said Wednesday that profits totaled $49.5 million in the quarter ended June 30, a 10 percent increase from profits of $45.6 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Sales at Wendy's open at least a year increased 8.3 percent and same-store sales for Wendy's coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Horton's were up 10.9 percent in Canada and strongly in the United States.
Newspaper publisher ends search for buyer
Amos Press Inc., a publishing company that operates daily and weekly newspapers and a group of hobby publications, said Wednesday it is ending its search for a buyer.
The 123-year-old family owned business had begun the search in October. The board plans to take the next few months to review the situation and determine its next step.
It operates three daily newspapers in Ohio — the Sidney Daily News, the Fairborn Daily Herald and the Beavercreek News-Current.
Witness: Blade didn't know of severance plan
The E.W. Scripps Co. didn't reveal a severance plan for non-union employees of the Pittsburgh Press — or the threat of a lawsuit by those workers — when it sold the Press to Blade Communications Inc., a Blade lawyer testified Wednesday.
Blade would have insisted that Scripps pay those costs had officials known of the plan and the possible suit, lawyer Fritz Byers said. The executive committee of Scripps' board of directors approved the severance plan on Dec. 4, 1992, and the sale was completed Dec. 31 that year.
Mr. Byers testified in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court as a Blade defense witness against Scripps' lawsuit demanding reimbursement for more than $6 million in severance benefits Scripps was ordered to pay to former Press employees. The employees won the benefits after suing Scripps.
Speedway scores key sponsor
Starkist's rock-'n'-roll CEO resigns
Local firm ranks high in billings
TRISTATE MARKET SPOTLIGHT
INDUSTRY NOTES: REAL ESTATE
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Greenspan repeats interest-rates warning
TRISTATE BUSINESS SUMMARY
