LOCAL BUSINESS
Twinsburg startup wins grant
A Twinsburg startup company called WiTuners, which offers software designed to plan and maintain businesses’ wireless local area networks, has won a $25,000 grant from the Innovation Fund.
The Innovation Fund — designed to help startups at the earliest stages of development — is supported by a network of Northeast Ohio university, government and economic development partners.
Each quarter, the fund grants money to technology startups in 21 counties in Northeast Ohio, including Summit, Stark, Portage, Medina and Wayne.
For more information on the Innovation Fund, visit www.innovationfundneohio.com.
Job seekers series offered
The Hudson Library & Historical Society will begin its fall Job Seekers series with the workshop Get Your Resume Noticed 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 18.
The event will feature Mike Perry, president of Szarka Financial in North Olmsted. He will talk about resume styles hiring managers prefer, common resume mistakes and content designed to make a resume stand out.
For more information, go to http:// resumenoticed.eventbrite.com.
Hearing on commercialization
Moving research from the lab into the commercial market and bringing university researchers and business leaders together to create jobs will be the focus of a public hearing from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Friday at the University of Akron’s Quaker Square Inn in downtown Akron.
Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro is scheduled to attend the event, as is Vinny Gupta, a member of the Board of Regents and chairman of the state’s new Technology Transfer and Commercialization Task Force.
They will discuss a new Regents report that focuses on improving commercialization efforts in the state. To see the report, go to www.ohiohighered.org/commercial ization.
Friday’s event — one in a series across the state — will be held in Ballroom B of the Quaker Square Inn, 135 S. Broadway.
Community breakfast
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is sponsoring a free community breakfast Sept. 25.
Featured guest speakers will be Brian Broadbent, president and chief executive of BVU: The Center for Nonprofit Excellence, and Elizabeth Winter, the organization’s regional vice president.
The organization received a $400,000 Knight Foundation grant to stem the so-called brain drain in Akron and match young professionals with nonprofits to serve as board members.
The breakfast will be 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Akron Urban League, Ballroom A, 440 Vernon Odom Blvd., Akron.
Reservations are required by Sept. 19. Contact Lisa Stayer at stayer@knight foundation.org
Ritz Camera plans liquidation
Ritz Camera & Image LLC, once the largest U.S. chain of specialty camera shops, won court permission Monday to liquidate after failing to find a buyer willing to keep the business and its remaining 137 stores open.
“We were disappointed that we couldn’t find a bidder to continue the business as a going concern,” Irving Walker, a company attorney, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Del.
The founding family failed for the second time in three years to turn around the 94-year-old retailer. Ritz was unable to adjust as consumers abandoned film that had to be dropped off at a store for processing, in favor of digital cameras that allowed home printing and online photo-sharing.
RETAIL
Penney’s to expand hair cuts
Children who missed the opportunity to get a free haircut at J.C. Penney last month will get plenty more chances.
After an overwhelming response to the chain’s free haircut program offer for children in August —1.6 million haircuts, to be exact — Penney will be making it a permanent offer every Sunday, starting Nov. 4.
The free haircut program — for children from kindergarten through the sixth grade — helped to bring in new customers and existing ones who didn’t know about the latest merchandise changes.
AUTOS
Ford to add 1,200 workers
Ford is adding 1,200 workers to a suburban Detroit factory to build the Fusion, a sign of confidence the revamped sedan will be a big seller.
Ford Americas President Mark Fields told workers at the Flat Rock plant Monday the Fusion’s market segment is growing two times faster than the rest of the U.S. auto industry. The new Fusion goes on sale this fall.
Ford has made Fusions only in Mexico, but new labor contracts lowered its U.S. costs, so the company decided to add U.S. production.
Ford will hire the 1,200 new workers starting next spring. It will also invest $555 million in new equipment at the plant.
Compiled from staff, wire reports