Kiger's Notebook

Z-Wireless sings "Rochester Calling"

OK, that is a very strained and obscure reference to The Clash in the headline to this posting. Sorry. It's Monday.

Anyway, opportunity is not just knocking, it is dialing up and calling Z-Wireless.

The certified Verizon Wireless reseller that opened a Rochester office early last month in the new Broadway Corner Plaza at 2008 S. Broadway is already looking for more locations.

“We want to have at least three in Rochester,” says regional manager Jeremy Girgen.

“We’re looking to go on north end and on the very south end of Rochester. We’re pretty close to signing on one location.”

McNeilus Co.cuts jobs

Here's a quick piece by the astute Bob Freubd about a layoff at McNeilus Cos.:

Vehicle manufacturer McNeilus Cos. cut back its work force companywide by about 50 employees late last week due in part to a slowdown in sales of concrete mixers.

About 20 of the layoffs came from McNeilus headquarters factory in Dodge Center, said Ann Stawski, spokeswoman for parent company Oshkosh Corp.

The remainder came from other production and field operations, such as the company’s 20 branches across the United Sates and Canada.

The laid-off employees represent less than 10 percent of the McNeilus work force, Stawski said.

Current business conditions helped to trigger the reductions. “Our concrete mixer business is operating at sharply reduced levels due to the slowdown in residential construction,” as well as another factor affecting sales, Oshkosh announced in its quarterly report on Feb. 1, when the cutback took place.

McNeilus produces concrete mixers and refuse hauling bodies and mounts them on chassis for trucks.

McNeilus Wind Farm + Terrapass

I stumbled across a reference to the Garwin McNeilus Wind Turbine Farm in Dodge Center in a story in a University of California, Santa Barbara student publication.

Evidently, a student group has become emission free by working with a company called Terrapass.

Here's some from the story to explain Terrapass and the link to Dodge Center:

“Now that we are running a trip almost every weekend… sometimes two trips on the same weekend, we have to take greater steps to offset the emissions we are creating,” said Gus Tolley, an Excursion Club director and trip leader.

Companies like TerraPass have become popular recently due to increasing concern for global climate change. Tolley said the club purchases credits from the TerraPass website based on the miles members travel round trip by car on each expedition.

“[The TerraPass website has] an emissions calculator that estimates the amount of CO2 your car generates based on the mileage you drive and recommends different passes for different amounts of CO2 produced,” Tolley said.

Buying a TerraPass, the company suggests, is the indirect equivalent of offsetting carbon emitted and its consequences on the environment. According to the TerraPass website, the funds are used to purchase environmental credits from one of several earth-friendly projects. For example, the site said it has given the Garwin McNeilus wind turbine farm in Minnesota enough money to equal the amount of yearly emissions of about 400 mid-sized cars.

Here's some from the wind power section of the TerraPass Web site:

» Garwin McNeilus 1,792 tons CO2 saved

» Solano High Winds 100 tons CO2 saved

» Ainsworth Wind 2,352 tons CO2 saved

• 4,244 tons CO2 total

One of the largest sources for wind power purchases for TerraPass is the Garwin McNeilus Wind Farm in Dodge Center, Minnesota. This project delivers power to Mid-Continental Area Power Pool (MAPP), which in turn supplies electricity to people in Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and parts of Wisconsin, Montana, Iowa and South Dakota. In the last year TerraPass has purchased credits for nearly 1,800 tons of CO2 from the McNeilus Wind Farm alone. That's equivalent to the amount carbon emitted by about 400 mid-size cars in a year. We think that's definitely driving in the right direction.

Local earnings report sked

Today IBM kicked out its latest earnings report. Here a rough schedule of when other corporate reports with local connections will be coming out. Thanks to detailed-oriented Bob Freund for this list:

* Jan. 22:
HMN Financial, Q4, p.m. release

* Jan. 23
Rochester Medical Corp , Q1, a.m. release.

* Jan. 31
Dover Corp. (operates Crenlo L.L.C.), Q4, likely a.m. release

* Feb. 2
Oshkosh Truck Corp. (McNeilus Cos. Inc.), Q1, a.m. release

* Feb. 6
Benchmark Electronics (new owner of Pemstar Inc), Q4, either a.m.
release or prior day p.m. release.

*Feb. 7
Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. (five local hotels + laundry), Q4,
p.m. release

* Feb. 12
General Growth (owns Apache Mall), Q4, ? release.

* Feb. 13, 14, or 15
SPSS Corp. (homegrown ShowCase division is based here), Q4, p.m.
release

* Feb. 19
Hormel Foods Corp., Q1, a.m. release.

McNeilus cuts 50 jobs

Here's a timely piece by Bob Freund about McNeilus Cos. cutting 50 jobs, mostly in Minnesota:

Truck manufacturer McNeilus Cos. is cutting 50 employees from its payroll – most of which work in Minnesota – and reorganizing some jobs in advance of an anticipated slowdown in sales of its garbage trucks and concrete mixers.

“McNeilus is going through a downsizing of its work force,” a spokeswoman said. About 50 workers, mostly away from the factory floor, were laid off on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, this is being driven by the challenging market environments that we’re seeing in the US. commercial markets for refuse and concrete (trucks),” said Kirsten Skyba, spokeswoman for Oshkosh Truck Corp., McNeilus’ parent company, in a statement.

The layoffs affect about 3 percent of the 1,850 workers employed McNeilus at its home plant in Dodge Center, its satellite factories in Dexter and in Iowa, and its nationwide sales and distribution networks.
Skyba declined to detail where the affected workers are located. However, the majority are in Minnesota, she said. Most are not production employees.

“It was really a restructuring,” Skyba said. “McNeilus has struggled with profitability over the past three to four years.”

Piece on biz blogging

Here's a piece on "Why business blogs are important" from The Undersigned blog. I picked this up from Digg.com.

My question is what local businesses have blogs and how successful at connecting with people are they? I know CWS and Conxis have blogs, but how about Venture or even companies like McNeilus, Pemstar, PSI (the maker of Vanicream or Hormel?

If they don't have blogs, was it a concious decision?

Anway, here's some from the Undersigned's piece:

More and more companies are entering the world of blogging, but why do they do it - what are the benefits?

The Internet is evolving, and so is the blogging phenomenon. .................

Business blogs can be a good choice for both large and small companies - most companies already have a profile on the internet, but especially smaller companies are struggling to get visitors, and have serious problems reaching people interested in their field of business. Start a blog and use various ping services to reach out to millions of readers all over the world!

You know your field of business the best

To run a company you will have to know what you’re doing - you know your field of business, maybe even be a “guru” on the topic - why wouldn’t you share your knowledge? Why wouldn’t you also be known as the “guru”?

You might already have a news-section on your website, but who is reading it, besides your existing customers? With a blog it is easier to reach new readers!

Give each employee access to the blog, and let them blog about your companies business field too. While they compete on getting most comments, they write better and better content, in your companies best interest.
.........................
Use the blog as a tool of communication, not only to your existing customers, but also the rest of the world. Use the blog to give small hints about new products, create a hype, start rumours etc. Make the press interested! More and more blogs are being quoted in newspapers and magazines - blogs are being more accepted as a way of communicating, than they ever have before.

Hybrid trash trucks = truckloads of cash?

Here's an item from Forbes.com about McNeilus Cos. corporate parent Oshkosh Truck working on hybrid garbage trucks. The McNeilus plant in Dodge Center makes bodies for garbage trucks and assembles them with chasis made elsewhere. It is hard to say what kind of impact this experiment would have in Dodge Center or at the mixer drum plant in Dexter, but it could at least make Oshkosh truckloads of money.

Among the more agreeable types of government programs are the ones that help your company win new business and cozy up to important customers. Consider the case of Oshkosh Truck, Waste Management and the Department of Energy's Advanced Heavy Hybrid Propulsion Systems initiative.

The program, managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, began in 2002. Its goal: Bring industry and government researchers together to get cleaner, more fuel efficient trucks and buses on the road by the end of the decade. Notable corporate participants are Eaton, Caterpillar, General Motors and Rockwell Automation.

In February 2003, Oshkosh Truck, which makes big, tough, trucks for military, municipal and other customers, received a $9 million grant from the Advanced Heavy Hybrid program to develop hybrid power-control systems and electronics for its severe-duty trucks. A key component of Oshkosh's bid: its relationship with trash industry giant Waste Management .

Oshkosh also had a fair amount of experience on the technology side. It had been at work on hybrids since 1996, largely in response to demand from the U.S. military. By 2001, it had built a concept vehicle, a rig powered by a system the company calls ProPulse Hybrid Electric Drive.

ProPulse works differently than passenger vehicle hybrids such as Toyota Motor's Prius. While the Prius has a mechanical drivetrain running parallel with an electrical power system, ProPulse starts with a diesel engine that powers an electric generator. The generator then supplies power directly to electric motors driving the truck's wheels, eliminating the need for components like a transmission, torque converter, transfer case and drive shaft. Unlike a Prius, ProPulse foregoes batteries, instead storing electricity with ultracapacitors. According to Oshkosh, the system promises up to a 40% fuel savings over conventional propulsion systems.

Fancy stuff, for a garbage truck. Oshkosh execs won't go into specifics on how much the technology costs. Still, they stress that it has been developed with customers closely in mind. "The commerciality path is incredibly important," says Gary Schmiedel, Oshkosh's vice president in charge of advanced product engineering.

The proof? Waste Management's participation in the Advanced Heavy Hybrid program. Although its gets no payment from Oshkosh or the Department of Energy, Waste Management provides Oshkosh information, such as comparing operating costs between ProPulse and conventional trucks. It has also let Oshkosh send the hybrid trucks out on pick-up routes across the country, testing the system in different temperatures and altitudes. "They keep us between the lines," says Schmiedel.

If Oshkosh can stay between the lines, the business opportunity is significant. Waste Management, which buys equipment from Oshkosh's McNeilus division, has a fleet numbering 25,000 trucks, the largest in the U.S. And a viable hybrid fleet fits Waste Management's push to establish itself as a company with environmental bona fides.