The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.
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Contributors
Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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With 2009 more than half done, the Boeing Co. this week reported net commercial airplane orders through July 7 of just one aircraft.
The company recorded 65 sales during the first half, but that figure was offset by 64 order cancellations in the same period.
At that rate, the company will be only two aircraft on the positive side when the year is done.
That compares with last year's orders of 662 commercial aircraft and with 2007's net orders of 1,413 planes. In 2006, the company recorded 1,044 net orders. In 2005, Boeing reported 1,002 airliner orders.
The lowest order year in recent times was 2003 when the company garnered just 239 net orders. In 1983, net orders dropped below 200 to 195.
Issaquah's Costco Wholesale Corp., the nation's largest warehouse club retailer, is reporting sales for the five weeks ending July 5 were down six percent.
Subtracting the effects of lower gas prices this year compared with last and the impact of foreign exchange variations, the company reported same store sales were up one percent over the same period in 2008.
For the first 44 weeks beginning in September last year through July 5 this year, total sales worldwide were off 3 percent. Without the effects of gasoline sales and exchange variations, that 44-week period say a 3 percent positive change in sales, said the retailer.
Temporary labor provider TrueBlue Inc. will announce its second quarter results after the market closes July 22.
Tacoma-based TrueBlue, formerly Labor Ready, is expected to post a loss of 5 cents a share. That's the average of earnings predictions from Wall Street analysts who follow the company as reported by Zacks Investment Research.
Last year during the second quarter the company reported earnings of 35 cents a share. TrueBlue closed today a $7.87 a share, up 13 cents.
Members of Tacoma-based MilePost Credit Union – with branches at 1201 S. Union Ave. and 3633 Pacific Ave. – have approved a merger with Sound Credit Union.
Sound Credit Union, with 11 branches in the South Sound, is likewise based in Tacoma and with the merger will have assets of approximately $477 million, according to spokeswoman Robyn LaChance.
With the addition of 6,600 MilePost members, the combined institution will have a total of 44,000 members, she said.
The merger will likely be complete on Aug. 31. There will be no branch closures because of the deal, and no employees will be laid off, she said.
Sound President and CEO Richard Brandsma said today, “We have a strong branching network. Sound Credit Union is one of the strongest, and we fit with where they wanted their organization to go. It’s part of our strategic plan to put together a strong branching network and be financially strong.”
Before the merger, Brandsma said, Sound was the 17th largest credit union in the state in terms of assets. After the merger, he said he expects to be 14th or 15th.
As the the reason behind the merger, he said, “Unfortunately it does take size if you want to expand and grow. With the merger, it allows us to have more members, more deposits, more assets.”
Sound Credit Union is the product of mergers with some 13 different credit unions, Brandsma said.
For more information, visit the Web sites of either MilePost or Sound Credit Union.
