Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Wednesday, August 2, 2000

Isle sales growth again leads nation

Hawaii regained its nationwide lead for year-over-year growth in retail sales last month, according to a monthly survey that charts purchases made by check.

Sales were up 5.4 percent last month from July 1999, according to Houston-based TeleCheck, a check-verification firm. Nationally, sales were up 3.5 percent in July with the greatest regional increase, 4.8 percent, showing in the Southwest states as residents flocked to air-conditioned malls to beat the heat, TeleCheck said. Hawaii's sales growth ranked No. 1 in the nation from Thanksgiving through May, but fell to second place in June behind Wisconsin, according to TeleCheck, which counts only purchases paid by check in stores open more than a year.

Workshop to focus on tech tax laws

A High Technology Advanced Tax Workshop reviewing new Hawaii tax legislation for high-tech companies and investors will be held Aug. 17, from 9 a.m.-to-12 p.m. at the Ala Moana Hotel. The workshop will highlight this year's high-tech tax incentives, the exported-services exemption, and relief from so-called pyramiding of the excise tax. Participants will receive individual counsel from state tax department staff focusing on whether businesses qualify for the technology tax incentives.

Attendance is limited to the first 100 registrants, costs $25 a person through Aug. 7, and $35 thereafter. The workshop is sponsored by the High Technology Development Corp., the state Department of Taxation, and the Hawaii Technology Trade Association. For more information, call Sandy Park of the HTDC at 539-3794 or email sandyp@ htdc.org.

Matson Intermodal buys Calif. company

Matson Intermodal System has acquired a California transportation services company that has been its agent for three years. The 20-employee Paragon Transportation Group has a strong market share in moving California wines, canned foods, dried fruits, nuts, scrap metal, clothing, chemicals and paper products, Matson said.

Headquartered in Dublin, inland from San Francisco, the renamed Matson Intermodal-Paragon also has offices in Nevada, Montana, Oklahoma and Michigan. Joseph Kelly, who founded Paragon in 1995, was named vice president and general manager. Matson Intermodal, founded in 1987, is a subsidiary of Matson Navigation Co., which is wholly owned by Alexander & Baldwin Inc. It arranges transportation services for U.S. and international customers, using any combination of truck and rail.