Projo Biz Blog

A liquidation sale is underway at Ski Market, the bankrupt seller of outdoor products and winter sports gear at seven locations, including Warwick.

The inventory is being sold by Boston liquidator Gordon Brothers Group. Boston-based Gordon won bankruptcy court approval to purchase the inventory for $1.2 million.

Ski Market, based in Wellesley, Mass., filed for bankruptcy in December. The company said it had been operating at a loss for several years and the recession weakened its finances.

The liquidation sale at the seven stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island will last until the inventory is gone.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) -- Pawtucket's Hasbro Inc., the nation's second biggest toymaker, said Monday that sales of action figures and other toys aimed at boys as well as strong entertainment and licensing revenue helped push its fourth-quarter profit sharply higher.

The owner of the Transformers, Tonka and Playskool brands also said it expects sales and earnings per share to grow this year although it didn't offer specific estimates.

The fourth quarter is key for toy makers since it contains the holiday period and can make up to half of the quarter's sales.

Hasbro said its profit surged 77 percent to $165.6 million, or $1.09 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 27, easily beating the 81 cents-per-share estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. These estimates normally exclude one-time items.

The company reported earnings of $93.6 million, or 62 cents per share, for the fourth quarter a year ago.

Sales climbed 12 percent to $1.38 billion from $1.23 billion, topping Wall Street's estimate of $1.34 billion. Taking out the impact of foreign currency translations, revenue increased a more modest 7 percent.

Last month Barbie-maker Mattel Inc., Hasbro's chief rival, said its fourth-quarter profit rose 86 percent, helped by cost cutting, while sales edged up 1 percent to $1.96 billion.

Hasbro said its North American results reflected stronger sales of toys for boys, while girls and preschool were weaker. Entertainment and licensing revenue climbed 44 percent to $155 million on growth in its lifestyle licensing and digital gaming.

For the year, Hasbro's earnings grew 22 percent to $374.9 million, or $2.48 per share, compared with $306.8 million, or $2 per share, in 2008.

Annual sales improved to $4.07 billion from $4.02 billion. Excluding positive foreign currency translations, revenue rose 3 percent.

The results extended the toy maker's streak to nine straight years of earnings per share growth and five straight years of revenue growth.

Toys tied to TV shows and movies have performed well for Hasbro. In 2010, the company will have toys linked to "Iron Man 2" and "Toy Story 3." The 2011 slate includes "Stretch Armstrong," ''Spider-Man 4," ''Transformers 3" and "Avenger Captain America."

The company is also moving forward on a sequel to "G.I. Joe" with Paramount.

Sales of 90-day supplies of medicines at drug stores helped push up fourth quarter profits at CVS Caremark Corp. by 11 percent, the Woonsocket-based company reported Monday.

CVS Caremark said it earned $1.05 billion, or 74 cents per share. That's up from $949 million, or 65 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Excluding one-time costs, CVS earned 79 cents per share.

Revenue grew 7 percent to $25.82 billion from $24.14 billion.

At the Caremark pharmacy benefits management unit, which handles drug benefits for health plan sponsors and members, revenue grew 14.5 percent to $13.49 billion. Some of those gains came from RxAmerica, formerly the PBM unit of Longs Drugs Stores. CVS acquired Longs and RxAmerica during the fourth quarter of 2008.

CVS' initial report did not include an update on how Caremark is doing at securing new contracts. In November, the company said Caremark had lost $4.8 billion in contracts for 2010, including about $2 billion over the previous three months. A management shake-up followed, with Per Lofberg of Generation Health becoming the president of the PBM in January.
Caremark processed 151.4 million claims during the quarter, a drop of 6 percent from a year earlier. It filled 16.7 million claims by mail, up 4 percent.

Revenue from CVS drugstores rose 4.5 percent, to $14.46 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year grew 4.9 percent.

The program to supply 90 days worth of medicine was previoulsy available only by mail.

EAST GREENWICH, R.I. -- East Greenwich reprises a popular investment program on Monday that gives residents priority in the sale of $33 million in bond-anticipation notes, town officials said.

On Feb. 8, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., town residents can go to Town Hall to place orders with representatives from the underwriter, Janney Mongtomery Scott. The program is much the same as one in 2009 that proved popular.

In April 2009, the town sold $9 million worth of bond-anticipation notes and just over $3.2 million in long-term bonds. For the first time, it gave local and state residents a direct chance to purchase the securities.

The town's bond adviser arranged for the local branch of Bank of America - and contacted area Sovereign and Webster bank branches as well - to offer the bond and bond-anticipation notes in denominations of $1,000 for the notes and $5,000 for the bonds.

Rhode Islanders placed so many phone orders for the bonds prior to the actual sale that they were oversold, representing more than $2 million in investments, a Janney Montgomery Scott representative said at the time.

This time, to help ensure that East Greenwich residents have the best chance of obtaining the notes, Janney Montgomery Scott will give them priority in the sale. Phone orders can be made until Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. by (401) 831-8250

The notes come with no fees for town residents. Rhode Island residents will not have to pay state or federal income tax on the interest earned.

The town's finances are highly rated and the Standard & Poor's ratings agency gave the notes its top short-term investment rating, SP-1+.

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- A fire in an electrical panel at the main fabrication building at Electric Boat's Quonset Point shipyard injured one person and sent 600 workers home for the day on Tuesday, an Electric Boat spokesman said Thursday afternoon.

The fire was reported at 7:28 a.m. in the shipyard's Building 2003, the large three-bay building that looms over Narragansett Bay and the Quonset Point/Davisville Industrial Park, according to spokesman Dan Barrett.

The shipbuilder outfits supermodules for Virginia-class nuclear fast-attack submarines in the building, sliding entire decks into hull cylinders that are about one-quarter of the finished submarine. The supermodules are barged to facilities in Groton, Conn., and Newport News, Va., where they are assembled.

One person was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, and damage was limited to the electrical panel, Barrett said. The fire was brought under control by the North Kingstown Fire Department, he said.

The shipyard sent home 400 people who work in the building during the first shift and told 200 second-shift workers not to come in, Barrett said. Work has since returned to normal, and no construction delays are anticipated as a result of the incident, Barrett said.

PROVIDENCE, RI -- The operators of the Twin River slot parlor have asked a federal judge for permission to allow three new kennels to race greyhounds at the Lincoln gambling venue.

Offering live greyhound racing on 125 days a year is required by the state as a condition of the license allowing gambling on video-lottery terminals at the Lincoln venue. The financiers controlling Twin River are lobbying state officials hard to drop the racing requirement because they lose money on the greyhound operation.

Breaking a contract with the Rhode Island Greyhound Owners Association was a key provision of a financial reorganization plan in the federal bankruptcy case of UTGR Inc., a holding company set up in 2005 by a business consortium to operate the Lincoln gambling venue. UTGR is a subsidiary of BLB Investors, a holding company made up of Kerzner International, Starwood Capital Group and Waterford Group LLC.

The contract required UTGR to pay the association a $9-million fee, on top of operational costs tied to the racing track. The financial institutions that have taken control of the slot parlor since the June 2009 bankruptcy filing estimate they would spend about $1.3 million annually to host races with a new provider, saving the venue between $7.5 million to $8.6 million a year.

In documents filed late Wednesday, they have requested permission to sign a deal with three kennels: Flyin Colors, Duggan Kennel and Go for Broke Kennel, to provide at least 90 greyhounds each for races that would begin April 10. In the meantime, the documents note, Twin River representatives continue their efforts to get the 125-day racing requirement dropped from their licensing agreement with the state.

Stop & Shop and its 43,000 unionized workers in Southern New England are at odds just weeks before a three-year labor contract expires.

Among the unresolved issues are "the big three," said Brian Petronella, president of Local 371 of the United Food & Commercial Workers.

The Quincy, Mass.-based supermarket wants workers: to pay more for health insurance, take one-time, lump-sum, bonuses rather than wage increases, and wants them to accept lower pension contributions from the chain.

Both sides appear to be posturing, with union leaders predicting a strike vote later this month and the grocery chain taking out ads seeking "temporary replacement workers."

"We are making contingency plans," wrote Stop & Shop spokeswoman Faith Weiner, in an e-mail to The Journal. "These plans include placing ads in local newspapers for temporary workers in order to continue business operations in the event there is a work stoppage."

Jim Riley, who represents Stop & Shop workers in Rhode Island, labeled the recruitment effort "bad theater."

"This thing blew up in their faces," Riley said.

Riley is secretary-treasurer of the UFCW's Local 328, which represents 11,500 Stop & Shop workers in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and two towns in eastern Connecticut. Four other locals are covered by the contract, which expires Feb. 20.

The locals include: Local 371 and Local 919, both in Connecticut; Local 1459, in western Massachusetts, and Local 1445, in Boston.

"They irritated our members by placing these ads; that was dumb and stupid," Petronella said.

The ads offer jobs paying hourly rates, $15 for full-time work, $12 for part-time, higher than what some union members make for the same jobs, Riley said.

"The company is in a renaissance right now," Riley said, referring to Stop & Shop's parent -- Netherlands-based Royal Ahold NV. "Their stock is up, their market share is up and they're building new stores."

The supermarket operator in January reported fourth-quarter revenues above the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

Stop & Shop hired "temporary" workers amid contract talks in 2007, Weiner said, though Riley didn't recall that happening.

"Usually these contingency plans happen only when there is a real snag in the negotiations," Riley said.

Riley indicated there is still time to reach a deal. The two sides plan to meet Monday.

The current pact, signed in March 2007, required workers for the first time to pay a portion of their health-care premiums.

This entry was first posted at 11:51 a.m.