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Kailua aloha-wear
retailer wins Native
Hawaiian Business
of the Year

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DANENE and Pono Lunn's Manuhealii Inc. is the 2004 Native Hawaiian Business of the Year.

Constance Lau, president and chief executive officer of American Savings Bank, presented the Kailua retailer with the award at the third annual conference of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement at Hilton Hawaiian Village yesterday.

"We're thrilled to have won this award," Danene Lunn said in a statement. "We owe this honor to the hard work of our team of 12 employees.

Lunn began selling her creations at craft fairs in 1985, but demand for her fashions grew and Manuhealii opened a retail location in 1993.

Known for its brightly colored aloha wear inspired by traditional Hawaiian quilts and natural themes such as kalo and ulu, or breadfruit, the company is planning to expand with a location on Punahou Street next year.

The clothing and accessories can be viewed at several locations online including www.store.yahoo.com/manuhealii-store, or at 629 Kailua Road, Gallery 104A.

Shopping shift

The only remaining presence of JCPenney in Hawaii -- its catalog business -- has a new home.

JCPenney catalog customers in Hawaii are primarily female, so it makes more sense for the catalog business to be run out of the state's five Ben Franklin Craft Stores than the previous Ace Hardware stores, said Kelly Ann Nakamoto, marketing director for BFS Inc. The company operates Hawaii's Ben Franklin stores as well as Ace Hardware stores on the neighbor islands.

The one exception to the catalog business shift is in Kona, where the Ace Hardware store will continue to serve as the JCPenney catalog center in the absence of any Ben Franklin stores in the area.

The catalog service centers, which also sell gift cards and accept credit card payments, operate from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

Jacked up java

The giant world coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. is looking at raising prices across its beverage menu board, according to a report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

Hawaii's Starbucks stores raised its prices by 5 to 10 cents a beverage June 14, "to partially offset the rising cost of milk," said Sherri Rigg, marketing director of Starbucks licensee Coffee Partners Hawaii.

"We won't be doing another one," and there will be no change in the stores' pastry pricing, she said.

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