Virginia Businesses in the News


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For the Record is compiled from company releases, business journals and newspaper reports from around the state. If you have an item for these listings: • Mail it to: For the Record Virginia Business Magazine P.O. Box 85333 Richmond, VA 23293 • E-mail it to ForTheRecord@va-business.com • Fax it to (804) 649-6311

Virginia received a $58.9 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration to begin engineering work for the first phase of an extension of Metrorail service from West Falls Church to Reston. The grant also includes funds to complete an environmental impact statement for the entire 23-mile long project. (7/22/04, Press release)

Norfolk Southern Corp., a Norfolk-based railroad, pledged $3 million to become a sponsor of Jamestown 2007, the celebration of the 400^th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. The celebratory activities open in May 2006 and run through February 2008. (7/21/04, Press release)

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 accepted a contract with Dan River Inc. in a three-to-one vote. The two-year contract extension includes a freeze on a 3 percent pay raise, increases in co-payments and deductibles in insurance coverage and an agreement that COBRA insurance benefits will no longer be offered in layoffs. Dan River is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (7/19/04, Danville Register & Bee)

Massey Energy Co., a coal company headquartered in Richmond, entered into a joint venture with Penn Virginia Resource Partners of Radnor, Pa., to own and operate coal facilities. Penn Virginia paid $28.5 million in cash for a 50 percent interest in an enterprise to stockpile and manage coal for three coal consumers. (7/14/04, PRNewswire)

Montgomery County struck a deal with local car dealers to lower its merchant's capital tax from 90 cents to 61 cents per $100 of inventory. For several years dealers have moved much of their inventory out of the county on Jan. 1, the day the valuation for the tax is taken. Several lawsuits brought by Shelor Motor Mile testing the fairness of the tax remain unresolved. (7/14/04, The Roanoke Times)

Performance Food Group Co., a distributor of food products headquartered in Richmond, signed a distribution deal with Compass Group PLC of Great Britain. Under the agreement Performance Food will supply food and related products to Compass Group's contracted locations in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Midwest. Performance Food already services Compass Group locations in the Northeast. (7/1/04, Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Vastera Inc., a Dulles-based provider of global trade management services, announced Visteon Corp., a Dearborn, Mich., supplier of automotive parts, decided not to renew its agreement for services. Vastera has provided services to Visteon since 2000. The two companies will work through a transition period that may extend into 2005. (7/14/04, Business Wire)

Input, a Reston provider of government market intelligence, and Carroll Publishing of Bethesda, Md., a publisher of government contact data, entered into an alliance to make more than 250,000 federal, state, and local contract records available to subscribers of Input's profiles services. Under the new arrangement, clients will have access to the most current contact information for government decision makers.  (7/14/04, Business Wire)

Hambright, Calcagno & Downing Advertising and Public Relations, a Virginia Beach-based ad agency, is agency of record for Carl Zeiss Sports Optics North America, a business unit of The Carl Zeiss Group in Oberkochen, Germany. The firm plans to develop advertising and promotions for the Zeiss line of sports optics, including riflescopes and binoculars. (7/13/04, Press release)

Community Bancshares, a Bluefield-based financial services company, terminated an agreement to sell its Richmond subsidiary United First Mortgage to members of United First's management. The company continues to evaluate options regarding United First. (7/8/04, Business Wire)

The Bank of McKenney, Bank of Southside Virginia, Citizens Bank and Trust, Bank of Charlotte County, Citizen's Community Bank and American National Bank joined the Southside Capital Access Program, a project of the Virginia Tobacco Commission to provide financing to businesses in Southside Virginia that do not qualify for conventional financing. The program is financed by the commission and administered by the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority. (7/9/04, Press release)

University of Virginia researchers led by Robin Felder, Ph.D., received a $10.2 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The grant allows further study into the genetic basis of hypertension and salt sensitivity. (6/30/2004, Press release)

Xybernaut Corp. of Fairfax, a provider of mobile computing solutions, entered into an agreement with Beijing Hualixing Sci-Tech Development Co. to market its TC-Scan Cargo Inspection System which can scan the contents of both stationary and moving cargo containers. The system will be marketed in Japan and Europe initially. (6/24/2004, Press release)