QAD profits skyrocket
Two years after making deep staff cuts to combat the global manufacturing collapse, Santa Barbara-based QAD profits rebounded 300 percent to $10.7 million in fiscal 2012, the company said March 8. QAD makes software that manufacturing firms use to track materials, labor and other costs. The company counts Hewlett-Packard and other Fortune 500 firms as Read More →
Marian offers sneak peek of new hospital
Santa Maria’s Marian Regional Medical Center opened the doors of its brand-new facility for a public viewing and dedication on March 7, a month before the building is set to start taking patients. The grand opening comes 15 years after hospital officials began planning to rebuild Marian, a nonprofit hospital founded in 1940 by the Read More →
Semtech breaks profit record, buys French wireless firm
Chipmaker Semtech beat analysts expectations by two cents a share and set a profit record while continuing its streak of acquisitions on March 7. Semtech broke its year-end records with profits up 23 percent to $89 million on net sales of $480 million, a 5 percent increase that was also a new high for the Read More →
Calavo Q1 earnings up 16%
Avocado marketer Calavo Growers reported March 5 that first-quarter profits were up 16 percent to $2.7 million as revenues climbed almost a third to $117.4 million. The Santa Paula-based company said the first-quarter results set the stage for a potentially record-breaking year for the firm, which last year made a major acquisition of Renaissance Food Read More →
Dole buys natural snack company
Dole Food Co. has bought Mrs. May’s Naturals, a family-run company that makes natural snacks such as fruit-and-nut bars and freeze-dried fruit. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Westlake Village-based Dole said Mrs. May’s had 2011 revenues of about $16 million. Mrs. Mays was founded in 2002 by brothers Augustine and Michael Kim, Read More →
Gates: ‘Compromise has become a dirty word’
[EDITOR’s NOTE: This story was updated at 1:50 p.m. on March 2, 2012] Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered a ringing endorsement to California’s citizen-led redistricting effort, saying in a March 2 speech in Santa Barbara that extreme forces on the political left and right must learn to compromise if America is going to get Read More →
Santa Barbara County winemakers are doing well by doing good
North Santa Barbara County vintners are a savvy lot.
