Briefcase – October 2017

CLOSING

The Village Vidiot, the last remaining video store in Fort Collins, closed its 1220 W. Elizabeth St. store in September. The privately run video store outlasted its corporate competitors; the last Blockbuster in the city closed in 2013.

Starr’s Clothing, 1630 Pearl St. in Boulder, closed after 103 years in business.

CONTRACTS

Boulder-based TeamSnap, a platform for sports team and club management, now is integrated with U.S. Lacrosse’s national registration system. All lacrosse clubs and leagues in the United States can now use TeamSnap’s Clubs and Leagues organizational software in full compliance with U.S. Lacrosse’s national registration protocol.

Banner Network Colorado will join Centura Health’s Colorado Health Neighborhoods. The provider-network agreement will become effective Jan. 1. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. BNC’s 60 primary-care providers, 246 specialists and three Banner Health hospitals in Northern Colorado — North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, McKee Medical Center in Loveland and Banner Fort Collins Medical Center in Fort Collins —  will join Colorado Health Neighborhoods, the region’s largest physician-led network. It has more than 1,400 primary-care providers and more than 2,800 specialists who are coordinating care for more than 220,000 patients.

PowerKeep, a maker of solar technology founded in 2015, partnered with Energizer to produce a line of ultra-rugged solar panels to power anything from mobile devices to the lights in a home. The Longmont-based company is starting with four products available now, with more expected to come in the first quarter of 2018.

EARNINGS

Hain Celestial Group Inc., parent company to brands such as Boulder-based Celestial Seasonings, Alba Botanica and Rudi’s Organic Bakery, grew its income from 46 cents per share in 2016 to 65 cents per share in 2017, according to an annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Lake Success, N.Y.-based company, which has operations in Boulder, had a net income of $67 million, up from $47 million the year prior. Net sales, however, fell slightly by $32 million from $2.89 billion in 2016 to $2.85 billion in 2017. Gross profit in the fiscal year 2017 was $541 million, a decrease of nearly 12 percent from last year’s gross profit of $614 million.

KUDOS

Boulder is the No. 1 metropolitan area in the United States for female entrepreneurs, and Denver is ranked third, according to a report from public relations and digital communications firm Version 2.0 Communications in Boston and New York. Colorado has the highest percentage of women with a bachelor’s or higher degree in the United States at 23.9 percent and is ranked fifth in the nation for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) jobs at 6.1 percent, above the national average of 4.6 percent. About 9.9 percent of women are self-employed in Colorado, compared to 7.2 percent in the United States as a whole. But the news isn’t all positive for Colorado women. The state is ranked No. 19 for its gender wage gap, as of 2013, when women aged 16 or older made 80 cents on the dollar compared to male peers. If women in the state earned the same as comparable men, Colorado’s economy would grow by an additional 9.2 percent, or 3 percent of the state’s 2014 GDP. Still, there are new female businesses cropping up throughout the Front Range, including Bobo’s Oat Bars, PurelyElizabeth and EarthVisionz LLC in Boulder. Version 2.0, a female-led agency that works to foster growth for women in business, especially in technology.

The Boulder Chamber honored its 2017 class of Women Who Light the Community, awards that recognize women who have made significant contributions through innovation and have made efforts to address needs on the community, regional, national or global level. The honorees this year were: Allison Barto, Ball Aerospace’s program manager for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope; Pam Malzbender, past president of Zonta Foothills Club of Boulder County and co-chair of Zonta’s educateZ project; Janet Martin, board member for Boulder Community Health; Elvira Ramos, vice president for programs and inclusive leadership for the Boulder County Community Foundation; Kathy Valentine, executive director for Collie’s Closet; and Naomi Graff, high school senior and 2017 Emerging Leader.

Bill Hammerich, chief executive of the Colorado Livestock Association, has been named the 2017 Livestock Leader, an award given each year by Colorado State University’s Department of Animal Sciences.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

UQM Technologies Inc. in Longmont, a designer and manufacturer of electric motors for vehicles, closed the first stage of its stock-purchase agreement with China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Co. Ltd., its second attempt to find a partner in China. China National Heavy Duty Truck Group through its subsidiary Sinotruk Ltd. purchased a 9.9 percent ownership in UQM for approximately $5.1 million by acquiring 5,347,300 newly issued common shares of UQM. The purchase price was 95 cents per share, a 15 percent premium over the 30-day closing price average for the period ending on the last trading day before the signing of the agreement Aug. 25. Closing of the second stage of the deal will require approval by UQM’s shareholders and clearance by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The second stage will increase China National’s ownership in UQM to 34 percent for approximately $23.2 million, for a total of $28.3 million over the two stages.

Jordan Hamilton of Broomfield and Tyler Richardson of Greeley acquired Choice House in Boulder, a company that provides care for people recovering from substance abuse. They formed Choice Health Co. LLC to acquire the business from Mara Lehnert, who founded the company in 2012. The purchase price was not disclosed. Choice House operates Choice the Lookout in Boulder, Choice for Women in Lafayette and Choice for Men in Louisville.

Boulder-based 10-4 Systems, a privately held company that uses technology to help businesses have a more efficient supply chain, was acquired by Trimble (Nasdaq: TRMB), a technology and data analytics company based in Sunnyvale, Calif. The acquisition expands Trimble’s Transportation Management Systems portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed. 10-4 Systems offers a comprehensive platform to provide visibility to shippers where their cargo is at any given time, improving communication and collaboration between shippers and carriers.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq: PPC) acquired poultry and food supplier Moy Park, which has operations in the United Kingdom and Europe. Greeley-based Pilgrim’s acquired the company from JBS S.A. for about $1 billion. The enterprise value is expected to be about $1.3 billion. The deal was approved unanimously by a special committee of Pilgrim’s board of directors.

TDS Broadband Service LLC will acquire K2 Communications LLC, another broadband company, later this year. TDS already services Berthoud and Johnstown, and the acquisition of Mead-based K2 adds about 1,200 addresses to their coverage. The deal is expected to close this month. TDS Broadband Service is a subsidiary of Chicago-based Telephone and Data Systems Inc. and is operated by TDS Telecom. K2 was started in 2002 and provides broadband, video and voice products to residents in Northern Colorado.

MOVES

Namasté Solar, an employee-owned solar-energy firm with offices in Denver and Boulder, has signed a lease for space at 6707 Winchester Circle in Boulder that will serve as the solar company’s residential headquarters. Namasté will occupy 15,132 square feet, after moving its operations in Boulder from 4571 Broadway.

OPENING

Calgary, Alberta-based Agrium Inc. officially opened its new facility in Loveland’s Centerra office park on Oct. 2. The recently completed Rangeview V project, developed by McWhinney, is a four-story, 120,000-square-foot office building that will serve several hundred of the company’s U.S. Corporate and Wholesale office employees.

The National Credit Union Administration granted a federal charter to a new credit union based in Boulder called Clean Energy Credit Union that will serve members of the American Solar Energy Society, also based in Boulder. CECU is the first new credit union in Colorado to receive a federal charter in 31 years.

The Nephrology Clinic is expanding into Greeley, leasing a 4,000-square-foot build-to-suit medical office building in the Mountain Vista Office Park. The clinic will be near the northeast corner of 83rd Avenue and West 20th Street and is expected to open in late 2017 or early 2018. The Nephrology Clinic PC, an independently owned medical practice, provides care for chronic kidney disease, high blood pressure or hypertension, metabolic bone disease and kidney stones. Its main office is in Fort Collins with clinics in Loveland, Sterling and Laramie, Wyo.

A solar array in the town of Kersey now generates power used by members of the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association. The PVREA and Silicon Ranch Corp. said the 3.5-megawatt, 30-acre solar facility in Kersey is now operational. More than 40,000 solar panels at the facility track the sun from east to west and provide enough power to power more than 600 households annually. The Platte Valley Solar Farm is on the northwest corner of Weld County Road 55 and Latham Street in Kersey, near Platte Valley High School.

Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, a chain that brings together traditional pharmacy services with natural health solutions, acquired two new locations. The Boulder company acquired Roxbury Pharmacy at 9101 W. Olympic Blvd. in Beverly Hills, Calif., and signed a purchase agreement with Aaron’s Apothecary, 2338 N. Clark St. in Chicago. Pharmaca has two other California locations in Los Angeles. This is the first store it’s opened in Chicago. The company has three locations in Boulder. The Beverly Hills Pharmaca will have its grand opening on Oct. 7. The Chicago Pharmaca will open on Nov. 4.

Banner Health Center doubled the size of its Harmony Road campus in Fort Collins and expanded pediatric, OB-GYN and family medicine services at the facility. Located on the Banner Fort Collins Medical Center campus at Harmony Road and Lady Moon Drive, the center now houses 24 primary-care and specialty doctors, 12 clinic support staff, nurses and technicians as well as office staff. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Lucky’s Market will open in the former Sports Authority store at 425 S. College Ave. in downtown Fort Collins. The Niwot-based natural grocer is continuing negotiations related to the opening. Loveland-based McWhinney purchased the property in 2016 from Wells Fargo Bank for $3.25 million and submitted preliminary plans to the city indicating the space would become a niche grocery store. Lucky’s Market has two stores in Boulder, one in Longmont and locations in 10 other states.

PRODUCT UPDATE

After a year of multiple expansions, Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha’s scaling up has paid off, with distribution into 50 King Soopers stores and a tasting room at Rayback Collective.

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