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Business Briefs
Star-Bulletin staff
and wire services
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FAST FACTS HAWAII
HAWAII
Hawaiian Building Maintenance to sell
A local management group is expected to buy out Massachusetts-based
UNICCO Service Co.'s Hawaii operation, which does business as Hawaiian Building Maintenance.
The deal is expected to close on Oct. 23. The identity of the buyer and the purchase price were not disclosed.
Hawaiian Building Maintenance, with headquarters in downtown Honolulu, has about 742 employees that provide cleaning and maintenance services to corporate clients. All employees are expected to keep their jobs under the new ownership, according to Hawaiian Building Maintenance's president, Jim Walters.
Hawaiian Building Maintenance has been in Hawaii more than 50 years, under various owners, the last decade under UNICCO.
Scheme targets CPB on mainland
Central Pacific Bank is one of several financial institutions nationwide that has been targeted in a counterfeit cashier's check scheme.
The bank reported to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that cashier's checks bearing the bank's name are being circulated on the mainland. The counterfeit items display the routing number 122042205, which refers to Preferred Bank in Los Angeles. Central Pacific issues cashier's checks through an account at Preferred Bank.
Kenneth Fujita, vice president and security officer of Central Pacific, said yesterday that Central Pacific has not incurred any losses and that the scheme has not made its way to Hawaii. He said any losses that occur would be absorbed by Preferred Bank, which would be the institution deciding whether to cash the check.
Fujita referred to the incident as the "so-called Nigerian lottery scam" in which victims receive cashier's checks in the mail telling them they won a lottery and to wire back money to cover taxes and fees. When the victim goes to cash the check at the bank, the person finds out the check is no good and he or she is out the money that was sent for taxes or fees.
Flight connects Kapalua, Kahului
Island Air announced yesterday it plans to start daily flights connecting two of Maui's airports, Kapalua and Kahului.
The 15-minute flights, slated to begin Sept. 5, will operate only from Kapalua to Kahului, not in the reverse direction.
Cory Kohler, director of central reservation control for Island Air, said the flights are mainly aimed at sparing passengers departing from Kahului the traffic congestion of the Honoapiilani Highway and the security lines at Kahului Airport. The flights will arrive in Kahului at 11:30 a.m., timed to help passengers connecting to a United Airlines flight to Los Angeles, she said.
Fares vary on the route, but can be as low as $25 when booked over the airline's Web site, she said.
NATION
Ben & Jerry's drops egg supplier
WASHINGTON »
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. said yesterday it will drop an egg supplier accused of mistreating chickens, responding to pressure from the Humane Society of the United States.
The ice cream maker's CEO, Walt Freese, said in a telephone interview that dropping Michael Foods Inc., of Minnetonka, Minn., "seemed like the right thing to do." He said the change would be effective next week.
The Humane Society said an investigation of a Michael Foods egg farm in June found hens dying of starvation, live hens living among dead ones and sick or injured birds caught in cage wires.
Dell stops selling DJ Ditty music players
DALLAS »
Dell Inc. has quietly pulled the plug on its DJ Ditty music players, less than a year after the world's largest computer maker launched the device to compete with
Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod Shuffle.
The company stopped selling the Ditty on Aug. 17, Dell spokesman Venancio Figueroa said yesterday.
He declined to characterize the decision as Dell bowing out in the face of competition from market leader Apple. Dell is trying to focus on its core areas of PCs, printers and flat-panel televisions, he said.
Dell unveiled the Ditty last September as a better value than the Shuffle. Both devices store music on flash memory chips.
The Ditty, like the Shuffle, cost $99 at the time and included 512 megabytes of memory.
BUSINESS PULSE
