LOCAL BUSINESS
Natural gas price goes down
The monthly natural gas price for residential customers who have chosen Dominion’s Standard Choice Offer (SCO), or those who don’t choose their own supplier, will go down for August.
Effective Tuesday, the identical Standard Choice Offer (SCO) and Standard Service Offer (SSO) rate will be $4.06 per thousand cubic feet (mcf).
That’s 24 cents/mcf, or 5.8 percent lower than July’s price of $4.30/mcf. Dominion in early July inadvertently announced the SCO would be $4.18/mcf and later corrected that it was $4.30/mcf. It’s 45 cents or 12.4 percent higher than the August 2012 price of $3.61/mcf.
Under the new filing, the average SCO/SSO residential customer’s bill for the month of August 2013 would be $32.34, up 23 cents, or 0.7 percent, from $32.11 in August 2012.
Residential customers pay the same usage-based charges to deliver gas to a residence and $22.01 monthly service fee whether they choose a supplier or stay with Dominion.
New Cleveland bus services
Megabus.com is starting new services out of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority center near Cleveland State University.
The low-cost bus company no longer offers service to and from Akron.
The Cleveland service will have new express rides to and from Cincinnati, Columbus, Erie, Pa., and Buffalo. Riders can get connections to Atlanta, Lexington, Ky., and Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tenn. Rides will be provided by Lakefront Lines.
The Megabus Cleveland hub also goes to other locations.
For more information, go online to www.megabus.com.
SS&G expands offices
Akron-based accounting and financial services firm SS&G in November will open a new office in downtown Cleveland. The company said it wanted to be part of that city’s revitalization and because younger staff want to live and work in an urban environment. The location is also close to clients and referrals.
The new offices will be on the 15th floor of the Hanna Building on Euclid Avenue, near the PlayhouseSquare district. About 15 tax and assurance professionals will relocate from other SS&G offices. Tina Salminen and Floyd Trouten will be co-office managing directors.
The 5,600-square-feet of space includes room for future growth. The firm is retaining its Solon and Akron offices.
Rubbermaid unit sold
Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid Inc. said it expects to clear about $175 million, after taxes, once it completes the sale of its hardware business to U.K. private equity firm Nova Capital.
The hardware business, which includes the Amerock, Ashland, Bulldog and Shur-Line brands, was expected to have 2013 sales of about $255 million. The sale is expected to close in the current third quarter.
“The successful sale of our hardware business will leave us with a focused, cohesive portfolio of brands in five core business segments,” said Michael Polk, Newell Rubbermaid president and chief executive officer, in a statement. Newell Rubbermaid has a food container manufacturing operation based in Mogadore.
Diebold delays SEC filing
Green-based Diebold Inc. will delay filing its required quarterly report, called a 10-Q, for the period ending June 30 with the Securities and Exchange Commission because of issues related to a $133 million tax assessment in 2012 involving its Brazilian subsidiary. The Brazil assessment dates back to 2008. Diebold announced the delay in a filing with the SEC after 5 p.m. Friday.
Diebold said in its filing that it “continues to work to remediate a previously disclosed material weakness pertaining to manufacturing and supply chain processes related to indirect tax incentives for this Brazilian subsidiary.”
“As part of the remediation, during the second quarter of 2013, the company identified an adjustment related to 2008 to 2012 prior-year periods for Brazil federal indirect tax incentives in the amount of approximately $23 million, which will reduce prior-period earnings and be reported prospectively as a revision to prior-period financial statements,” the filing said.
The maker of ATMs and security systems said it is possible that it may need to revise or restate financial results “for certain prior-year periods.”
TIRE & RUBBER
Goodyear contract votes
United Steelworkers locals at Goodyear’s U.S. tire factories start voting Sunday on a new master contract. Steelworkers in Akron vote Sunday. Certification votes also will take place Tuesday in Buffalo and Topeka; Thursday in Danville, Va.; Friday in Fayetteville, N.C.; and Aug. 22 in Gadsden, Ala. A tentative agreement was reached July 27.
Compiled from staff and wire reports.