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$2.00/NOVEMBER 28 - DECEMBER 4, 2011
THE SCOOP ON PIERRE’S
Companies’ confidence in economy regresses
Ice cream maker to unveil new items, possibly boost output By KATHY AMES CARR kcarr@crain.com
Survey: Manufacturers skittish, but area firms optimistic on future
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ure, it may be its most popular flavor, but hardly anything Pierre’s has done in the ice cream market has been plain vanilla. The Cleveland-based company that was founded in 1932 has expanded several times within the city’s borders, and continues to innovate by adding products that satisfy the cravings of a diverse customer base. “Every flavor we come out with has to be, ‘Wow, amazing,’” said Shelley Roth, president and CEO of Pierre’s Ice Cream Co. “You’d think it were simple, but it’s not. It’s really a mix of art and culinary skills.”
By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com
See PIERRE’S Page 9
JASON MILLER/PROVIDED ART
ABOVE: Pierre’s CEO Shelley Roth chills out in the company’s freezer, which is set to a cool minus 25 degrees and holds the equivalent of 36 million scoops of ice cream. The Cleveland company in June unveiled its new 35,000-square-foot ice cream factory, which enables Pierre’s to at least double its production capacity. LEFT: Ice cream containers move through the production process.
In what may be the first chinks in the armor of an anemic recovery, confidence is waning and order expectations are declining among U.S. companies that machine, bend, stamp and fabricate things from metal, according to a survey by the Precision Metalforming Association in Independence. PMA surveys its members across the country each month. This month, it found that more of them were pessimistic about the economy, as well as their nearterm business prospects, INSIDE: A month-bythan at any time since 2009. month look at the decline Only 11% of 132 comin confidence among PMA panies surveyed said they survey participants on expected general business projected order volume conditions to improve over and general business the next three months. conditions. Page 16 The last time optimism was that tough to find among the survey’s respondents was in February 2009, when only 9% predicted the economy was about to improve. At that time, the nation lost nearly 700,000 jobs in a month and the stock market was dipping to a 12year low that was only half of its peak value. To be sure, businesses today are not as concerned as they were in early 2009 — and the PMA survey only asks if they think business and the economy will improve from their present conditions, not if they will plunge into another recession. What’s more, only 28% of November’s See SURVEY Page 16
Bioinnovation progress seen in invention uptick Akron institute, hospitals also confident in potential By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
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Doctors at the three major hospital systems in Akron have submitted 88 ideas for new inventions over the past year. That’s up from 25 last year. And zero the year before.
Many more are on the way, given that most of the increase was from Summa Health System, said Thom Olmstead, director of technology assessment and business development for the Medical Device and Development Center at the Austen BioInnovation Institute of Akron. Akron General Health System and Akron Children’s Hospital are just starting to ramp up their innovation efforts, Mr. Olmstead said. “We’re not even beginning to scratch the surface there,” he said.
The huge increase in invention disclosures is one of the early achievements of the Austen BioInnovation Institute, which was founded three years ago by the three hospital systems, the University of Akron and the Northeast Ohio Medical University, or NEOMED. The institute — an effort designed to get the institutions to work together to create technologies and improve patient care — also will spend $12.8 million to transform three floors of a 32,000-square-foot building
INSIDE Browns after more certainty The team is offering club seat customers a three-year price freeze if they commit to five more years. But with those ticket prices rising only slightly over the past four seasons, is the commitment worth it? ALSO INSIDE: ■ Tallmadge tech outfit helping banks better identify customers’ habits. PAGE 5 ■ Mystery buyer nabs mortgage on office portion of downtown Cleveland’s Chase Tower. PAGE 9
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SPECIAL SECTION
EVENT PLANNING Businesses incorporate nontraditional elements of entertainment into their gatherings ■ Page 13 PLUS: SOCIAL MEDIA OUTREACH ■ ADVISER ■ & MORE
Entire contents © 2011 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 32, No. 48