LOCAL BUSINESS
Burg Award winner revealed
Team NEO, the nonprofit that works to attract businesses to the region, has named retired Alcoa official Bill Christopher as the recipient of this year’s H. Peter Burg Regional Vision Award.
The award commemorates the late chairman of Akron’s FirstEnergy Corp.
Christopher, who is leading a business-philanthropic effort to create a regional economic competitiveness strategy, will receive the award at Team NEO’s Economic Development Plus Awards on July 11.
Prior to his retirement in April, 2011, Christopher was responsible for Alcoa’s global efforts in the aerospace, automotive, commercial transportation, building and construction, oil and gas, and fastening systems areas. Alcoa is based in Pittsburgh; Christopher worked for the company in Cleveland. Alcoa has a Wheel & Transportation Products campus in Barberton that employs about 400.
New stores at Summit Mall
New stores are coming to Summit Mall in Fairlawn.
American Commodore Tuxedo, a men’s and women’s formal-wear retailer, opened its permanent location across from Eddie Bauer in the Macy’s concourse on Saturday.
Torrid, a plus-size women’s clothing store, will be opening in late fall next to Sunglass Hut.
Finishing touches are being put on Victoria’s Secret Pink, a subsidiary of the women’s lingerie and clothing brand that offers casual wear, and Teavana, a specialty tea retailer, are set to open this summer. Brighton Collectibles, an accessory retailer, will be open this fall.
Foundation names chairman
Community leader Rob Briggs is taking on a new role.
Briggs, past president of the GAR Foundation, chairman emeritus and former CEO of Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs LLP, and current vice chair of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation board of trustees, is advisory board chairman for the Project-Love-Purple America/Values-in-Action Foundation.
Project Love is a Lyndhurst-based character-building education and training organization for middle school and high school students in eight Northeast Ohio counties, including Medina, Portage and Summit counties.
AUTO INDUSTRY
GM is No. 1 on quality survey
General Motors led one of the auto industry’s most closely watched quality measures for the first time since the survey began almost three decades ago, pacing U.S. carmakers producing their best cars in a generation.
All four of GM’s U.S. brands were ranked above average in J.D. Power & Associates’ Initial Quality Study, led by its GMC truck brand, which trailed only Volkswagen’s Porsche sports car line. Chevrolet, Detroit-based GM’s biggest-selling brand, ranked fifth in the market, leapfrogging Toyota’s namesake brand, which had the seventh-best score.
“If you were to ask me the question, what corporation has the best quality in the entire industry, the answer would be General Motors” for the first time, said David Sargent, J.D. Power vice president of global vehicle research. The gap in quality of domestic cars to imports is now “almost immaterial.”
The results are a shift in the 27-year history of a study long dominated by Toyota and other import brands. Consumers credited GM’s Chevrolet Silverado pickup, Ford’s Mustang sports car and Chrysler’s Town & Country minivan for leading quality, more evidence that U.S. automakers’ lineups are the most competitive in decades. The survey tracks the number of consumer complaints per 100 vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership.
electronics
Apple to add video services
Apple Inc. is adding streaming video applications from Time Warner Inc.’s HBO Go and Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN network to Apple TV. The HBO app will be accessible to subscribers of the cable channel, Apple said in a statement. Some ESPN content will require a pay-television subscription, while other video will be available to all iTunes users.
Adding HBO to the lineup of Apple TV services including Netflix Inc. and Hulu Plus may help the iPhone maker bolster sales of a set-top box that has faced stiff competition from similar video-delivery devices from Roku Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Apple TV would let Time Warner and Disney, which already offer apps for other formats such as Microsoft’s Xbox, give another option to consumers who are increasingly shunning broadcasts in favor of on-demand viewing and streaming video over the Internet. ITunes users have downloaded more than 1 billion television episodes and 380 million movies to since the service debuted, Apple said, and they’re purchasing more than 800,000 shows and 350,000 movies a day.
Compiled from staff and wire reports