Kiger's Notebook

New international/ hahal market + S.E. Roch.

Chatted with a pair of local entrepreneurs who are working on opening a new international market that will also offer halal prepared meats.

It will focus on offering products aimed at people originally from countries on the Indian Ocean.

Beside international food and other products, it will also offer U.S. items.

The plan is to open up the store in southeast Rochester in January.

I'll have more details in my column Thursday.

Kitchen Collection store coming to Roch.

Kitchen Collection, an Ohio-based, value-focused cooking supplies retailer, has a store simmering in Rochester.

I believe it will open the doors and start ladling out ladles this weekend in the Apache Mall.

The chain has more than 200 stores in the U.S. and it plans on doubling its number of Minnesota stores by opening three this November, including one in the Apache Mall, according to its Web site.

I should have more detail on this soon.

Retail chain returning to Roch.

The buzz is that a national retail chain that left Rochester this summer most likely is on its way back to the Med City.

If the tip is solid (and I believe it is), you'll probably this brand's name back up over a door in its old stomping ground before the start of 2010.

Stay tuned. I'll be checking this one out.

NeoChord's first human patient

Remember NeoChord?

That's the Minneapolis biotech company founded in 2007 that is working on bringing to market a Mayo Clinic-created non-invasive method for fixing a leaky heart valve AKA mitral-valve regurgitation.

Mayo Clinic does have an investment in an equity position in NeoChord. 

Well, it has installed its heart fix in a human patient in Europe now.

That sounds like a solid step toward getting a product to market, assuming the test goes well.

Here's some from a press release on the study:

NeoChord, Inc., a venture-backed, Minneapolis-based medical technology company, announced today that it has enrolled the first patient in its European clinical trial.

The trial is being conducted in Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic and Norway.

“We are very pleased with the early results of this first procedure,” said Per Wierup and Sten Lyager Nielsen, the cardiac surgeons who performed the surgery. “The patient is an otherwise healthy, very active 47-year-old male who preferred to not have a sternotomy or cardiopulmonary bypass to fix his severe mitral regurgitation. The NeoChord approach has successfully treated his mitral regurgitation and potentially offers him a quick return to his military career and favorite hobby, scuba diving.”

Intra-operative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) confirmed that the patient’s severe, eccentric mitral regurgitation was reduced to zero or trace mitral regurgitation. 

Giovanni Speziali, MD, the cardiac surgeon who is the primary inventor of the NeoChord device also attended the procedure.  “These results, although early, are equivalent to what we obtain in traditional open heart surgery for correction of mitral regurgitation,” said Dr. Speziali.

Is FAO Schwarz coming to Toys R Us in Roch.?

Here's something I'll have to check on in the a.m.

The NYT is reporting that the famous FAO Schwarz toy store concept (Think Tom Hanks dancing on a piano mat in "Big") will appear as "boutiques" inside 585 Toys R Us store across the U.S. It has more than 800 stores in the U.S.

So will Rochester get a FAO? Not sure yet, but I'll check. If it is getting one, the NYT story says the boutique will be open and selling toys by Sunday.

Here's a bit from the Times article:

 Toys 'R' Us, which bought the FAO Schwarz brand in May, plans to announce on Tuesday that it will be opening FAO Schwarz boutiques inside nearly 600 Toys “R” Us stores, beginning on Sunday.

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While there are only two FAO Schwarz stores in the nation — in Manhattan and Las Vegas — the brand has long been known for its hands-on displays and its classic and unique toys, some of which can seriously dent a wallet, even in a good economy.

The FAO shops opening in 585 Toys “R” Us stores, however, will sell some of those classic toys — like the FAO Schwarz holiday ornament, collectible bear, Jack-in-the-Box and the brand’s mascots, Patrick the Pup and Penelope the Pup — at prices from $2.99 to $64.99.

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Indeed, the most expensive item is a replica of what Toys “R” Us executives refer to as the FAO Schwarz “Big piano.” In the 1988 film “Big,” the actor Tom Hanks uses his feet to play “Chopsticks” and “Heart and Soul” on a giant keyboard in FAO Schwarz. The 70-inch-long keyboard to be sold in stores this holiday shopping season costs $64.99.

Nailing it - a new salon opening in Roch.

As I made my way through Friday's giant slushy of a night, I saw something glowing through the darkness.

• Was it a high-speed commuter train?

• Was a UFO?

•Was it the light of the Earendil star?

Nah. It was none of the above.

It was a sign for a new nail salon - Passionate Nails - set to open in the Rochester's Northgate Shopping Center in the city's northwest quadrant.

I should have more on this (without silly asides) soon.

Tanworld + T.J. Maxx Plaza in S.W. Roch.

Looks like things are warming up a bit at the TJ Maxx Plaza in southwest Rochester.

A Tanworld sign went up Thursday over the storefront last occupied by Creative Custom Floral.

It is also beside the space O&B Shoes is developing for its second Rochester store.

I should have more tanning details soon.

IBM's 2009 3Q earnings - income up 14%

I'll wade through this and see if there is any direct-Rochester issues.

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Third-quarter net income was $3.2 billion compared with $2.8 billion in the third quarter of 2008, an increase of 14 percent.  Total revenues for the third quarter of 2009 of $23.6 billion increased 1 percent from the second quarter of 2009, and decreased 7 percent (5 percent, adjusting for currency) from the third quarter of 2008.

 IBM REPORTS 2009 THIRD-QUARTER RESULTS

 ·  Diluted earnings of $2.40 per share, up 18 percent;

·   Full-year 2009 EPS expectations raised to at least $9.85 from at least $9.70;

·    Net income of $3.2 billion, up 14 percent; net margin of 13.6 percent, up 2.5 points;

·    Free cash flow of $3.4 billion, up $1.3 billion year-to-year;

·    Cash balance of $11.5 billion, while reducing debt $4 billion in third quarter;

·            Pre-tax income margin of 18.6 percent, up 3.2 points;

·            Gross profit margin of 45.1 percent, up 1.8 points; up 20 of last 21 quarters;

·            Revenue of $23.6 billion, up 1 percent quarter-to-quarter; down 7 percent, or 5 percent adjusting for currency year-to-year;

·            Software pre-tax margin of 32.1 percent, up 6.2 points; profit up 21 percent;

·            Services pre-tax margin of 14.9 percent, up 2.4 points; profit up 11 percent;

·            Services signings of $11.8 billion; 13 services deals greater than $100 million;

·            Services backlog of $134 billion, up $5 billion year-to-year;

·            Market share gains in hardware and software.

Kardia Health Systems launches new service

Rochester-based Kardia Health Systems, the imaging software firm based in the Minnesota BioBusiness Center, announced this afternoon that it is launching a new service.

Here's a little bit from the press release. I'll check for more details to see what this means for Rochester.

Kardia Health Systems, today announced the immediate availability of ConnectedCare, the first complete, online, fee-per-study cardiovascular information system. ConnectedCare combines Structured Reporting and picture archiving and communication systems in an online solution.  

ConnectedCare is a comprehensive image management system for cardiology, including remote archiving, viewing, analysis and intelligent structured reporting, in one solution. ConnectedCare includes Kardia’s new ConnectedArchive, a unique remote archiving system that lets physicians edit and complete reports remotely, while eliminating the administrative task of implementing and maintaining a local archive. T
 
“ConnectedCare will transform health care, by streamlining the way physicians manage, view and report cardiovascular information,” said Doug Marinaro, chief operating officer of Kardia Health Systems. “Increasing productivity ultimately leads to improved patient care.”
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ConnectedCare is priced on a fee-per-study basis….

An artsy BAH @ La Qunita - pics and tips

So I headed out to La Quinta Inn on South Broadway last night for the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce's latest Business After Hours.

Halloween, costumes and theatrics were a major theme of the night. Marann Faget and Karen Masbruch of Creative Costumes and Clothing arrived in dressed in costume. Look for stories including them in the Post-Bulletin on Friday and Saturday. I'm not writing them, so Marann's name should be spelled correctly. Heh.

If anyone out there took their own pics with the colorful duo, e-mail them to me and I'll post those.

Speaking of Halloween, I chatted with Lindsey Rippentrop of Olmsted National Bank about Fuel Rochester's upcoming bash on Oct. 30 called Poker Face.

Fuel Rochester, the Chamber 2.0 young professionals group, is hosting the poker-themed Halloween party from 8 p.m. to midnight on Oct. 30 at the Rochester Art Center.

Poker will be provided by the Sertoma 700 Club of Rochester and Mike Nassif of Entertainment to Go and 4th Dimension Graphics will handle the music. 

With Rochester's theater and artistic groups on display at the networking event Tuesday night, drama was in abundance. Lots of interesting chatter for me to follow up on.

Stay tuned.