Business Briefs

Market Street Catering
opens Marysville production facility
Market Street Catering, a division of Haggen Food & Pharmacy stores, has opened a second production kitchen in Marysville to better serve Snohomish County customers, according to the company.

Llodia Guerra was appointed catering production manager in Marysville. Guerra previously worked at Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue. Roseline Coats was named assistant catering production manager.

For more information, visit the Market Street Catering kiosks inside the Haggen Food & Pharmacy stores in Marysville, Arlington, Lake Stevens and Stanwood or call toll free at 866-912-2233.

Comcast to open Lynnwood call center
A new Comcast call center in the Opus Northpointe business park in Lynnwood could eventually employ more than 500 people after it opens next year.

The new facility, a $20 million investment, will not replace the company’s call centers in nearby south Everett or Fife. Instead, Comcast said it needs all three to keep up with a growing number of customer service calls.

The company, which is Snohomish County’s primary cable television provider, signed a 10-year lease with Opus Northwest LLC, which will construct a new 87,000-square-foot building at its business park north of 164th Street SW. After making interior improvements and setting up equipment and furnishings inside, Comcast hopes to have the new center in operation a year from now.

Initially, about 325 people will work there, Comcast said. That will include about 70 people now working at Comcast’s regional headquarters in Bothell, which will be moved. Some employees also will be shifted from the Everett call center.

Zipfizz expands retail reach
with recent deals
Zipfizz Corp., the maker of a powdered energy drink mix, said it has reached agreements with Walgreens, QFC and Bed Bath & Beyond to carry the company’s product in their Northwest stores.

The Mill Creek-based company’s drink mix, sold in compact plastic tubes, already is carried by Costco, 7-Eleven, Bi-Mart and some GNC stores.

In addition to its unique packaging, Zipfizz has gained a following by promoting itself as a healthier alternative to the average energy drink. When added into a bottle of water, its flavors have only five to 10 calories, a couple of carbohydrates and no artificial sugars. The mix is also loaded with vitamins B12, B6 and C, along with potassium and magnesium.

Bank catering to Asian-American
customers in the works
Organizers of UniBank, a new bank catering to Asian-American customers, hope to open an office along Highway 99 in Lynnwood by the fall.

Organizers submitted their charter application with the state Department of Financial Institutions in May, said Andrew Ghim, UniBank’s president and chief executive officer. “We’re waiting to hear from the regulators.”

Assuming the bank’s charter is approved by the state, UniBank hopes to raise up to $20 million in capital by the fall.

“Our target client is the Asian-American sector, which is one of the fastest growing sectors in Western Washington,” said Ghim, who has more than 25 years of experience in banking.

Wesmar to relocate to Lynnwood
Snohomish County is gaining a new manufacturing business, Wesmar Co. Inc. of Ballard.

The 38-year-old company, a manufacturer of cleaning and sanitizing chemicals for the food processing industry, has a factory near the Ballard bridge but plans to close it by next spring, moving to a small industrial park in Lynnwood.

Executive Vice President Daryl Funston said the formerly industrial area in Seattle was rapidly becoming filled with apartments and retail stores, changing the character of the manufacturing area.

Funston said he thought the move also would lower his operating costs, particularly in city taxes. The firm had revenues of around $10 million last year, a level Funston expects to increase by around 10 percent this year.

Sound Transit breaks ground
on freeway station
Sound Transit and its partners broke ground for a new transit freeway station at I-405’s Bothell-Everett Highway interchange in August. The project is expected to improve transit speed and reliability in the I-405 corridor, cutting an estimated five minutes off average commuting times, according to the transit agency.

The new freeway station and pedestrian bridge, along with upgrades to the southbound on-ramp to Interstate 405 from northbound SR 527, will improve transit access and minimize delays for buses normally traveling through congested local intersections.

Everett-based Garlic Jim’s
to expand into Texas
Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza said in August that a Texas franchise group plans to open at least 45 of the chain’s stores in Texas within the next seven years.

The Everett-based pizza chain, which began the year with 19 locations, is on track to end 2006 with more than double that number.

“We’ll have 40 stores open for sure by the end of this year,” said Dwayne Northrop, Garlic Jim’s president and chief executive officer. “That’s right on with our projections.”

That includes stores in Monroe, Mukilteo, Mill Creek and Bothell. Stores for south Marysville and Lake Stevens are scheduled to open next year.

The expansion into Texas will be overseen by franchisee QSR Ventures Inc., based in the Dallas area.

Port of Everett honored
for communications programs
The Port of Everett was among 27 seaports recently selected by the American Association of Port Authorities for exemplary projects, programs and initiatives.

The port received a Direct Mail Award of Merit for its Marine Terminals Master Planning Brochure and an Honorable Mention in the Newsletter category for Port Gardener Wharf Construction.

The awards will be presented at a Sept. 13 luncheon in conjunction with AAPA’s 2006 annual convention in New Orleans.

Scuttlebutt brews earn top honors
Scuttlebutt Brewing Co.’s amber ale and barley wine recently were recognized by the North American Brewer’s Association during the organization’s 12th annual North American Beer Awards Competition.

The Everett-based brewery’s Scuttlebutt Amber Ale received a gold medal, and its Barley wine won a bronze medal during the event, in which more than 550 beers were judged by a panel of brewers, certified judges and qualified professionals.

Port to approve dome lease
An agreement to lease a storage dome and loading equipment to Lehigh Northwest Cement Co. to store cement imported from China won endorsement in August from the Port of Everett commission.

Commission members said the 20-year deal should bring in a minimum of $1 million a year in operating revenue. The lease has four optional five-year extensions.

Workers will start renovating the former alumina ore storage dome right away. It’s expected to be ready for cement this coming spring. The cement shipments should ease a shortage in the Northwest that has occasionally required rationing.

Johnstone Supply opens
Johnstone Supply Inc., a cooperative wholesale distributor of HVAC/R parts and products, recently opened an Everett location, its 300th store nationwide.

Serving local contractors and HVAC/R supply needs throughout the Everett area, the store is owned by Greg Popma, who also owns and operates 11 Johnstone Supply stores on the West Coast, primarily in Oregon and Washington, and was one of the original founding members of the Johnstone Cooperative.

“Everett is a growing city with increasing opportunities for HVAC contractors, which makes it a great spot for a new Johnstone Supply location,” said Ron Kline, Everett store manager.

For more information, go online to www.JohnstoneSupply.com.

Everett environmental firm sold
Environmental testing firm CCI Analytical Laboratories could expand modestly after being acquired by a Utah-based company.

DataChem Laboratories of Salt Lake City paid $2.3 million in cash for CCI, which is located just east of Evergreen Way in south Everett.

Ken Olson, DataChem’s president and chief executive officer, said the Everett lab is a good addition to the privately held company. Among other things, CCI’s location in the Puget Sound market adds a new region to DataChem’s business.

Olson said DataChem is looking to slightly expand CCI’s capabilities, but otherwise will let it run mostly independently.

Education panel votes
for 4-year independent university
A panel of community leaders chosen to recommend a proposal for the higher-education needs of the region voted in August to make its top priority a four-year independent university.

The university would have a focus on science and technology, similar to California’s polytechnic state universities in Pomona and San Luis Obispo. It also would offer liberal arts and other programs.

The panel’s work was part of a $500,000 study ordered by the state Legislature last year to address the long-term higher education needs of north Snohomish County and Island and Skagit counties.

The recommendation approved in August will go before the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board for a vote in October. The state board’s vote will be sent to the Legislature for possible action.

Two county companies
win HomeStreet awards
Two Snohomish County companies were named winners of HomeStreet Bank’s Small Business Spotlight Awards, which were offered in conjunction with KOMO News Radio. The program recognized five small businesses with 100 or fewer employees located in the Puget Sound region.

The local winners were Everett-based Terra Resource Group, which was honored for its innovative efforts to make itself a great company to work for, and Lynnwood-based Compendium Inc., which was honored for its employee- and family-oriented culture.

The three other winners were Redmond-based Westhill Inc. Design/Build and Seattle-based Giant Campus Inc. and Concord Technologies.

County’s unemployment rate
drops to 4.2 percent
Snohomish County pushed further toward full employment in July, adding 900 jobs and knocking back the unemployment rate to 4.2 percent.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Donna Thompson, a labor economist with the state Employment Security Department.

Thompson said she and a co-worker have been keeping a list of businesses that will be moving here or expanding “because we can’t keep it in our heads anymore.”

The list includes job fairs under way with Kohl’s, Target and Costco, which are all getting ready to open new stores. She also mentioned the $70 million Berlex prescription drug factory that will open next year in Lynnwood, a new Jaguar-Land Rover dealership, three aerospace companies, four restaurants, several hotels, a Comcast call center, developments on the riverfront and on Port Gardner Bay and all the freeway construction.

The county jobless rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point from June, when it was 4.5 percent. The state’s rate moved up to 4.9 percent, or 5.3 percent when adjusted for seasonal factors.

B/E Aerospace buys 787 supplier
A German company that was looking for an Everett-area site to assemble 787 components has been bought by another aerospace firm with local ties, B/E Aerospace.

It’s too soon to tell what that means for Draeger Aerospace’s plans for a new plant here, a spokesman said.

B/E is the parent company of Flight Structures Inc. of Marysville, which does engineering and some assembly work for the company’s other divisions.

Florida-based B/E said in late July that it paid $80 million cash for Draeger, which was a subsidiary of Cobham PLC of the United Kingdom.

Draeger is a leading supplier of oxygen supply systems for both civil and military aircraft. Combining it with B/E’s existing oxygen business will allow the company to offer the broadest line of oxygen supply systems in the industry, B/E executives said.

B/E now supplies Boeing oxygen systems from a plant in Kansas.

VOA receives $300,000 grant
Volunteers of America has received a 10-year, $300,000 grant from the Washington Families Fund to help recently homeless families with job hunting, family budgeting and other skills aimed at preventing them from becoming homeless again.

The money will be used to continue job and family services for people living in 15 units of the Lincoln Way Apartments at 2721 Lincoln Way in Lynnwood.