Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, June 29, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 161 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
First Coast Success
Angelini focuses on J&J’s vision
Photo by Bobby King
By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor
A sheriff’ s last ride
By Marilyn Young Editor
As Sheriff John Rutherford sat in his parked SUV, he recalled details of a crash scene there from four decades ago as though it had happened yesterday. He was a rookie cop barely out of the academy. So new to the job, he was still working with a training officer. A hit-and-run accident had left a woman lying in the northbound lanes at the base of the Buckman Bridge. She had been ejected from her Karmann Ghia while heading southbound. She had no external injuries. It looked as though she was asleep. When Rutherford looked at the woman, he saw himself. Young, just get-
John Rutherford spent most of his 41 years looking at police work as a ministry
ting started in life. The books strewn around the road were signs she was in college. He had graduated from Florida State University less than a year before. He’d never thought about life ending so quickly for someone their age. “When she put on those slacks that morning, she had no idea she was going to die in them,” Rutherford said. It led him to question what happens after a person dies. Is there anything more? Rutherford said he wasn’t saved when he became a police officer. That accident was among the cases that helped lead him to the Lord and helped him look at law enforcement as a ministry. It’s one of the cases the outgoing sher-
iff talked about recently as he drove for hours through Jacksonville, going from scene to scene of some of the many incidents that had an impact on him. A day that detailed a snapshot in the career of a boy from the Westside who became sheriff. Some cases brought painful memories of loss. Others had given him hope. But the young woman killed in the accident and a father who took his life about a year later were catalysts in Rutherford becoming right with God. For using his badge as something more than a way to arrest people. That suicide bookends Rutherford’s 41-year law enforcement career that ends Tuesday. Rutherford
continued on
Page A-6
Laura Angelini is the North American president of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, which Jacksonville area residents historically have known as Vistakon. It’s a role she began in September 2013, moving to Northeast Florida 10 months ago. A native of Italy, Angelini joined Johnson & Johnson there, becoming responsible for introducing 1-Day Acuvue brand disposable contact lenses to the Italian market in 1994-95. Her 24-year career with Johnson & Johnson has taken her throughout Europe and Eastern Europe, working in Italy, then Hamburg, Germany, and Russia. She moved to the United States in 2012 when she relocated to New Jersey. Angelini, 51, focuses on leadership and teamwork. Her passion is serving customer needs, creating a culture of competitiveness Angelini and meeting market demand. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care is one of Jacksonville’s largest employers, with about 2,000 jobs at its Deerwood Park manufacturing plant in Southside. It now is working on its Phase 7 expansion there with the help of city and state incentives. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care also operates a plant in Limerick, Ireland. You’ve been in Jacksonville for 10 months. How do you find the business culture in Northeast Florida? Being a native of Italy, very honestly, I didn’t know much about Jacksonville. Our idea of Florida is usually about Miami. I came here very curious, very open-minded and really not knowing what to expect, and found the business environment very vibrant and very diverse and really very welcoming. I’m having a lot of fun. Success continued on Page A-10
New strategy for Fidelity spinoff J. Alexander’s As Fidelity National Financial Inc. prepares its next spinoff — J. Alexander’s Holdings Inc. — the restaurant company revealed a major shift in strategy in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. Fidelity currently owns 87.44 percent of J. Alexander’s Holdings, which has been operating two upscale restaurant chains: J. Alexander’s and Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill. However, the SEC filing reveals the company created a third chain this year called Redlands Grill
Public
and is planning to convert nearly half of its J. Alexander’s restaurants into the new concept. Redlands Grill offers “contemporary American” cuisine “including made-from-scratch flatbreads, sushi, and a strong emphasis on farm-to-table seasonal vegetables,” the SEC filing said. Sushi may not fit your idea of “American” cuisine, but J. Alexander’s said it has been working on the concept for more than a year. The company hasn’t made any
legal notices begin on page
B-1
major announcements about the new concept, but it quietly converted J. Alexander’s restaurants in Nashville and Birmingham to Redlands Grill in the first quarter this year and plans to convert another 10 to 13 of J. Alexander’s 29 remaining restaurants by the end of this year, the filing said. It
does not say which locations will be converted. One of those J. Alexander’s restaurants is at the St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville. J. Alexander’s Chief Financial Officer Mark Parkey said the company is not ready to announce which other locations will be converted to Redlands Grill. He did say the company plans to continue operating all three restaurant concepts. The SEC filing said each of the three chains is expected to have “15 to 20 restaurants competing
Published
for
26,688
in the upscale casual dining segment of the restaurant industry.” In addition to the 31 J. Alexander’s and Redlands Grill restaurants, the company has 10 Stoney River locations. The company recorded sales of $56.2 million and earnings from continuing operations of $2.2 million in the first quarter this year, according to the SEC filing. The spinoff of J. Alexander’s as a separate public company is the latest move by Fidelity to monetize its investments in Basch continued on Page A-2
consecutive weekdays