By Jeff Keeling A new company started by industry veterans will manufacture healthy snack foods in Kingsport, bringing an estimated 273 jobs to the area, officials announced today. Pure Foods will operate out of a building near the intersection of Interstates 26 and 81 in the Gateway Commerce Park, and invest $22 million in the operation’s initial phase. Sullivan County’s economic development agency, NETWOR ...

  By Jeff Keeling The Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) supports increased access to medical care for Tennesseans, its president, Kingsport gastroenterologist Dr. Doug Springer, told the Business Journal Jan. 23. That fact, though, didn’t keep the state’s largest professional organization for physicians from initially balking at endorsing Gov. Bill Haslam’s now-dead plan to extend Medicaid (TennCare) ...

  It has been short and very sharp, so crude oil’s plummeting price has had little time to impact industries that rely indirectly on the stuff. But surprised as they may have been by the pace and duration of the decline, many analysts now predict a protracted period of cheap oil. The World Bank’s latest forecast predicts years of prices well below the $100-plus per barrel levels that persisted for more ...

By Scott Robertson  When Microsoft announced it would end support for its Windows XP operating system effective April 8, 2014, it caused a flurry of upgrading in the consumer market. Now Microsoft has announced it will end support for its Windows Server 2003 software effective July 14, 2015. The Server 2003 software includes some code that was written as early as 1999. At the time the software was introduce ...

Success could mean up to 200 local production jobs Story and photos by Jeff Keeling Their blue-clad components in various states of exposure, Michael Garrabrant's “babies” receive some last-minute testing and adjustment in a Johnson City shop. A handful of engineers and technicians tweak and monitor the four gas heat pumps connected to 80-gallon water heaters before their big debut in Pacific Northwest test ...

By Scott Robertson Two engineering firms that have taken part in several major projects in the Tri-Cities over the last few years are merging. S&ME, which has a Tri-Cities office on Eastern Star Road in Kingsport, is acquiring Littlejohn Engineering, which has an office on Sunset Drive in Johnson City, as a wholly owned subsidiary. S&ME is headquartered in Raleigh. Littlejohn is headquartered in Nas ...

By Scott Robertson Before the Tennessee General Assembly gets down to regular business this year, it will already have debated what is likely to be one of the most contentious issues it will face. Governor Bill Haslam has called a special session during which no other issues may be discussed in order to vote his Insure Tennessee plan up or down. That session is slated to begin at 4 p.m., Feb.2. “If you had ...

Credit union CEO serving on CFPB advisory council By Jeff Keeling ‘From the conservative side, I’m not wild about the big government piece. But seeing the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau from the inside, I’m very impressed with how conscientiously they’re proceeding with their mission.’ Ron Scott A credit union executive based in the Tri-Cities is now serving on the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau adv ...

The Business Journal Q&A: Stewart Taylor By Scott Robertson In all the sound and fury created by the dueling retail developments in Bristol, it’s been easy to forget the development that made them both possible. The original tax incentive plan that was used by Bristol, Tenn., and inspired the plan used by Bristol, Va., was written to help develop what was then called Heritage Point in Kingsport. Develop ...

In the last issue of The Business Journal, we reported on the circulation of at least two different sets of plans for the Cabela’s retail location at The Falls development in Bristol, Va. You may recall that we shared our editorial deadline for that issue with Bristol city leaders but they declined to meet with us on four separate occasions. The questions we wished to ask were germane to the issue of whethe ...