New financing, products help Gen-Probe muscle ahead

San Diego’s Gen-Probe Inc. is reveling in a remarkable commodity among local biotechnology companies these days: more space than it knowns what to do with.

The company’s 120 employees are still settling into their handsome new $10 million Campus Point headquarters. Ultra high-tech laboratories seem uncluttered; wide hallways lead to airy offices and conference rooms as yet unoccupied. The whole place has that new-car smell of fresh carpet and plastic.

These appear promising times for Gen-Probe, which shipped its first product six months after incorporating in June 1984 and less than three years later has muscled its way to the forefront in the international diagnostic proble game.

Consider recent developments:

Author: Rick Dower

Cineman Syndicate Cineman Syndicate 01-01-1984 Movie Review: TERMINATOR Muscle man Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a computer-controlled zombie from a future century who arrives in Los Angeles to assas- sinate a young waitress. Grim-faced Arnold lumbers about blasting everything in sight with various weapons while his intended tar- get keeps a few steps ahead of him.

Author: Cineman Syndicate

DETROIT

AMERICA’S banks have long considered that Detroit’s carmakers were some of their best customers. For the past few years they have also had to think of those carmakers as competitors. Detroit’s Big Three have financial muscle and are throwing their weight about in the lending markets. A crumb of comfort for banks: carmakers do not have all the regulatory approvals they need if they are to sell financial services across their networks. But they are working on it.

Ford is the biggest threat. Last year, 18% of its $4.6 billion earnings came from financial services, compared with 13% ten years before. The $828m Ford earned from financial services is more than any bank, other than Citicorp, has ever earned from them.

K mart Launches Lifestyle Marketing Ventures

Friday, March 21

NASCAR Nationwide Series practice from Lebanon, Tenn., 2:30 p.m., ESPN2 (L)

American Muscle Car, 3 p.m., Speed

Chop Cut Rebuild, 4:30 p.m., Speed

Monster Jam, 5 p.m., Speed

NASCAR Now, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2 (L)

Byline: Bradford Wernle

Chrysler LLC will launch a corporate advertising campaign during the first two weeks of April, Deborah Meyer, Chrysler’s global chief marketing officer, said during an interview at the New York auto show.

The goal will be to position Chrysler as an independent American car company that listens to customers and responds quickly to what they want.

“There’s a lot of goodwill about having a strong and successful car company in America,” said Meyer, who declined to reveal specifics of the campaign.

Offering custom models of the Eleanor Mustang could bring legal action against the fledgling Tulsa manufacturer Brand New Muscle Car.

Last week the young offshoot of Trinity Restoration started work on its first two custom car orders, both remakes of the ‘67 Shelby GT 500 driven by Nicholas Cage in the 2000 Disney film Gone in 60 Seconds. Owner David Miller intends to show the cars off at the June 12-15 MidAmerica Ford and Team Shelby Nationals show in Tulsa, the first of several national shows where Brand New Muscle Car will tout its ability to build new classics like the ‘69 Camaro or ‘57 Bel Air, made to actual manufacturer specifications with authorized parts from Oxnard, Calif.-based DynaCorn.

The problem is, Yukon custom car fabricator Classic Recreations holds the official license to build the Eleanor, granted in February by Halicki Films Co., producer of the original 1974 motion picture and holder of the vehicle design copyrights and trademarks from the Disney remake.

Classic Recreations owner Jason Engel hopes to build 60 official Eleanors in his first year, ranging from the 535-horsepower, 172 mph FI Model at $139,900, to the 770-horsepower FIS Model at $189,900.

“We have seven in the assembly room, probably another six in building,” said Engel of his 28,000-square-foot downtown Yukon operations.

“We plan to release about six cars in the next 30 days.”

Since it took his firm more than four months to secure the exclusive license, it irritated Engel to read in Monday’s Journal Record that another Oklahoma firm intended to make new Eleanors. What made it worse, he said the Eleanor artwork at www.brandnewmusclecar.com was taken from Classic Recreations.

How do you reconcile making muscle cars in an era of sky-high fuel prices? Well, sometimes the car guys have to give in a little.

General Motors is now considering a four-cylinder engine for its new fire-breather, the Chevrolet Camaro. Most enthusiast attention has focused on the V-8 version, reputed to be a gut-busting 6.0-liter leviathan capable of about 400 hp.

Speaking on the sidelines of the New York auto show, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said the four-cylinder being considered is the same one used in the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters. It’s a 2.0-liter turbocharged, direct-injected four-cylinder rated at 260 hp. Lutz said that if fuel prices continue to climb, the four-cylinder Camaro could see production.

The state of Alabama has been on an economic development roll. German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp broke ground in November on a $3.7 billion plant north of Mobile that will employ 2,700 people at its scheduled 2010 opening. In July 2007, National Steel Car announced plans to build a rail car factory in Muscle Shoals that will hire 1,800. Hyundai in 2005 opened an assembly operation in Montgomery, the state’s third automobile plant. And in February, the U.S. Air Force awarded a contract to build a new tanker airplane to a consortium that plans to locate an assembly plant in Mobile. Neal Wade, director of the Alabama Development Office, the state’s economic development agency, is directly involved in the state’s quest for new corporate citizens.

EconSouth: In 1993 Alabama awarded Mercedes incentives totaling about $250 million, a huge number that raised the bar for such deals. Critics said it was too much for a relatively small Southern state to give to lure. a big corporation. Th, at deal happened before you joined the state, but did Alabama give up too much to get Mercedes?

Neal Wade: The incentive package was aggressive but responsible. The plant has tripled in size since then, and we now have Honda and Hyundai. Mercedes would say two things: The workforce and training package put together was the key to selecting Alabama. We’ve focused on that. We are going to make sure we have the workforce necessary to build the quality product they want built. Second–we’ve learned this throughout the economic development process–the partnership you establish between the state, the business community, and a particular company is critical. These companies want to believe that you’re not going to love them and leave them, that you’re going to stay with them, work with them, and help them grow. ThyssenKrupp made exactly that point in their announcement.

ES: What are other key elements in Alabama’s economic development strategy?

Wade: Partnerships, as we just discussed, is a big one. And Gov. [Bob] Riley is a key. We basically term him the chief economic developer for the state. Companies want to know the governor is going to be there to help them. His scheduler told me [recently] that he’s going to Mobile to see the president of ThyssenKrupp while he’s there. He does that all the time. I think that’s part of what we have figured out has to happen–that involvement at the top government level throughout the process.

ES: Just how significant are financial incentives in industry recruitment today?

Author: Charles Davidson

FANS of true automotive exotica are being given something special in the shape of a 220mph super car based on the Ford GT.

Avro Motor Cars, the Brook lands-based super car specialist has joined forces with Roush Technologies in the UK to create the Avro 720 Mirage.

It is no ordinary Ford GT but a 720bhp muscle machine capable of 220mph with a production run of just 10 handmade examples.

Finished in distinctive metallic orange with semimatt black details and wheels, the 720 Mirage incorporates a range of engine and mechanical upgrades over the standard Ford GT.

Central to the increased power is a larger polished supercharger, while the running gear has been upgraded to match the boost in power.

Avro managing director Andy McGrath, said: “When we created the Roush 600RE edition we recognised the potential in the car to go a step further.”

Prices are not being made public .