businessMuskegon ChroniClePage a12 Sunday, March 7, 2010

In BrIeF detroit

exec says gM won’t reopen factories

General Motors Co. will not reopen any factories, even though it has shortages of several models, the company’s top sales executive said last week. Vice President of Sales Susan Docherty said GM must use its current factories to the maximum rather than take the expensive step of reopening a plant. Dealers have reported shortages of some new models, such as the Chevrolet Equinox, Camaro and GMC Terrain crossover vehicle, and some GM executives have been pushing to reopen a factory to boost production while the models are still hot. But Docherty said GM is seeing the benefits of adding third shifts at factories in Ontario and Kansas City, Kan.

area MeetiNGS

‘Business Briefing’Start Today 2010 will hold a “Business Briefing” from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., Tuesday at MAREC, 200 Viridian Drive, Muskegon. An expert panel will discuss how technology is part of everyday business. It is a free event, but registration is required. Call (231) 722-3751.

Foundry Society meetsThe Western Michigan Chapter of American Foundry Society will meet Tuesday at the House of Chan, 375 Gin Chan Avenue. Social hour begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m. followed by the program. Greg Mierzejewski of Morgan Melting Systems will discuss “melting.” There will be RSVP prizes and a 50/50 raffle. Cost is $25 and students are free. Management from area foundries and foundry suppliers are encouraged to attend. RSVP by noon Tuesday to Brendon Bolhuis at bmb@beaconrecycling.com or call 727-0722.

Wdcc meets WednesdayThe Women’s Division Chamber of Commerce (WDCC) will meet noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Muskegon Country Club. Speakers from Lakeshore Athena Foundation will present information about two of their programs — the Athena Award (Women in Business and Leadership) and their scholarship program. For more information, contact Connie Bull at memberswdcc@cs.com or call 798-2069.

award

grant givenThe Consumers Energy Foundation has awarded a $900 grant to a Muskegon County organization to recognize outstanding volunterism by a utility employee. William G. Eckert III, a senior human resources consultant-lead at the B.C. Cobb plant, performed 900 hours of volunteer service over the past 12 months with Boy Scout Troop 1008 in North Muskegon. Eckert served as a Scoutmaster. The volunteer Investment Program grant will be used toward funding a summer camp and supplies.

New & CHaNGiNG

Second book storeOwners of the book store “Booked for the Season” have opened a second store at 8 N. Seventh, in Grand Haven. They sell nearly-new books on consignment at prices ranging for 50 percent to 80 percent off the list price. Each location is independently owned and operated. The new store is owned by Joshua Sheerin of Grand Haven. Booked for the Season has a store in Muskegon, 1929 Lakeshore.

Weekly Market recap

BY daVe aLeXaNder

THE MUSKEGON CHRONICLE

K evin Kyser was comfortable working in an office with

cubicles, surrounded by colleagues.

As a graphic artist, he collaborated with other artists and writers, wheth-er at a Grand Rapids-area advertising agency, The Muskegon Chronicle or Gospel Communications.

When the economic upheaval cost Kyser his job as art director at the former Muskegon-based Gospel Com-munications International, he struck out on his own. Like many profession-als facing unemployment in this eco-nomic climate, Kyser created Kyser DesignWerks in 2008 from his Spring Lake Township home.

“I miss being in a building with people,” Kyser said. “I always will.”

What Kyser discovered was that he was not the only one in West Michigan creating work on his own. As he began networking with other professionals, Kyser saw a need to gather with like-minded, stand-alone consultants.

He started Netcasters — an informal group that meets each month in the community room of the Spring Lake District Library. The gathering is part social, part problem-solving and part networking as each member searches for new clients and projects.

“I realized I need feedback and need to share ideas,” Kyser said. “Being on your own can be a lonely business.”

Netcasters brings together sever-al West Michigan-area consultants who already have worked together. Kevin Newton of Covenant Consult-ing Group LLC in Muskegon said he can partner with various Netcasters members to better serve clients.

“We are people with things in common,” said Newton, the former advertising manager of The Chron-icle. Covenant Consulting provides marketing, advertising and strategic planning services to groups such as Alive on the Lakeshore, the Muskegon Rescue Mission and Muskegon Com-munity Radio.

Kyser DesignWerks provides graph-ic arts, marketing, branding and new media assistance.

“In this economy, people want good

help, but they don’t want to hire per-manent employees,” Kyser said. “They want just a piece of high-caliber talent. We can bring a level of competency and talent without long-term costs.”

Newton said companies can hire a big advertising agency to get a job done, or he and a few Netcasters part-ners can come together on a project at a much more cost-effective rate.

“There is work out there if you mar-ket yourself properly,” Newton said.

On the insideAs consultants such as Newton and

Kyser look for outside contacts, Mark Hatfield looks for “inside” connec-tions. The human resources specialist owns Trademark Consulting Inc. and provides talent recruiting services

for large companies throughout the Unit-ed States from his home office for such companies as Staples Inc. of Framingham, Mass., Fidelity Invest-ment in Boston, and Oracle Corp. of Red-wood City, Calif.

“I’m in Fruitport and am a bit like a

fish out of water,” he said of his large corporate clients on the East and West coasts. “I need to network with other professionals right here in West Michigan.”

When Hatfield discusses moving from corporate jobs in the energy and investment banking sectors to being unemployed, the Netcasters group can relate. Hundreds of professionals in West Michigan have had to recreate their careers outside of a traditional company.

“If you can’t find a job, you have to create one,” Hatfield said. “I guess I’m an entrepreneur at heart. I am trying to keep as many balls in the air until something lands.”

Surprise career pathKyser wouldn’t have guessed that

this would be his career path when he graduated in 1987 from Grand Val-ley State University. With a degree in graphic design, he began working for a series of ad agencies in Grand Rap-ids and a hospital in Toledo, Ohio.

He started working for The Chron-icle in 1994 and eventually became its art director. He left in 2007 for Gospel Communications International — a local nonprofit company that has gone out of business. At the time, his wife

was home raising their four children and Kyser had to get creative to sup-port his family.

He began doing freelance work and eventually launched Kyser Design-Werks. He wrapped a Volkswagen Beetle with the graphic logo of his new company in effect creating a mo-bile billboard.

“My meeting room has become the local coffee house,” he said of meeting clients and collaborators. “I am there with a lot of other people doing the same.”

Recently, Kyser’s networking land-ed him a job through a friend for a new charter school in Denver. He is providing logo and branding materials for the school’s academic and athletic programs. For another client — a ma-jor pet supply retailer — he is putting together a social media strategy us-ing Facebook, Twitter and an e-mail campaign.

“Netcasters is in its infancy,” he said of the small, intimate support group. “It helps all of us who are out on our own to feel that we are not really alone.”

E-mail: dalexander@muskegonchronicle.

chronicle photo/ken stevens

Mobile billboard: In his new life as an entrepreneur, Kevin Kyser knows it’s all about being seen and heard, so he wrapped his car in his Kyser DesignWerks logo. Kyser also knows that ideas are meant to be shared, so he started the networking group Netcasters, a group of entrepreneurial consultants and other professionals.

In ThIS receSSIOn,

WHY IS THIS MAN SMILING?

cOnSulTanTS FInd cOnSulTIng each OTher IS gOOd BuSIneSSThe PlayerS

casting their netsNetcasters is an informal group of professionals who meet to share ideas and network:

Kevin Kyser, Kyser DesignWerks: �www.kyserdesignwerks.com Mark hatfield, trademark �consulting inc.: www.recruittmc.com Bryan David Snuffer, American �Artist & painter: www.bryansnuffer.com Kevin newton, covenant �consulting Group llc: kevin@covenantconsultingllc.com Vance G. Meyer, the �entrepreneur’s Source (franchise consulting): www.theesource.com/VMeyer Jenna Kyser, Jenna Kyser �communications: jkyser217@gmail.com Kirk Schultz, commercial Digital �images: www.cd-images.com Bill Barton, B2 creative:| �www.b2creative.com Al Ashbaugh, Big picture �imaging: www.bigpicimaging.com

Kevin Newton

BY SHaNdra MartiNeZ

CHRONICLE NEWS SERVICE

NILES, Ill. — Walk into the Meijer store in this Chicago suburb, and small doesn’t come to mind. A car could drive down the aisles that crisscross a floor nearly the size of two football fields. But this 102,000-square-foot store is just half the size of a tradi-tional Meijer supercenter.

“People come to the store and say, ‘Your store is so huge,’” said store Director Shaun Bonner. “And I’m thinking, ‘You haven’t seen huge. You should see my old store.”’

The Walker-based retailer is gar-nering almost as much attention for its first “small-format” store as Fred Meijer generated more than a half-century ago when he opened arguably the nation’s first supercenter on 28th Street SE in Grand Rapids.

“This is small, by Meijer store standards, but it’s twice the size of the average supermarket,” said Mark Hamstra, retail editor for industry publication Supermarket News.

A more apt description might be “small-format supercenter,” he said.

Still, Meijer’s approach to small-format is generating a lot of buzz in the retail industry, where big-box re-tailers Walmart, Target and Kohl’s also are experimenting with shallower footprints.

Meijer has committed to only two of these smaller stores in urban set-tings. Both will be in the Chicago area. A second test store is slated to open in Orland Park, a Chicago suburb 35 miles southwest of Niles.

The small-format store — which could conceivably shrink more — gives the retailer a way to shoe-horn a location into compact urban neighborhoods.

“We circle the cities but, in the ur-ban areas, we haven’t been able to put a 200,000-square-foot box in an area where there are more rooftops,” Mei-jer spokesman Frank Guglielmi said.

“This is basically an opportunity for us to be able to do that. We are opening ourselves up to a whole new customer base.”

See Meijer, a13

shrinking thinking

Meijer recently opened a small-format store at 9000 West Golf Road in Niles, Ill.

What it has:Fresh produce �Wine, liquor �Bakery �pharmacy �coffee/pop station �Kiosk for online orders �

What it doesn’t have:Store greeter �Apparel and shoes �Starbucks �cafeteria �Special-cut meat and seafood �counterGarden center �

MeijerthinkssmallA fraction of the size,

new suburban Chicago stores could find foothold

in densely populated areas

it pops: The bright color scheme for Meijer’s new Chicago-area store in Niles, Ill., was selected by CEO Hank Meijer.

FacT SheeT

1-year stock performanceaccording to MSCI indexes, in U.S. dollar terms

Brazil 105.7% Russia 126.2 India 119.3 China 71.0

Stan Choe, Elizabeth Gramling • APSOURCES: International Monetary Fund; MSCI Barra Data through March 1.

TAKING THE ‘R’ OUT OF

Economic growth 2009 2010 est.

Brazil -0.4% 4.7%Russia -9.0 3.6India 5.6 7.7China 8.7 10.0

Take it outRussia’s economic output tanked in 2009, as the energy- heavy economy suffered from plummeting crude prices. More than half of the MSCI Russia index is in oil and gas, notoriously volatile industries. This year, economists expect Russia to show the slowest growth within BRIC. Some investors also don’t trust Russia’s government or the strength of its companies’ corporate governance.

Keep it inRussian stocks more than doubled last year, and many pros think more gains are in store. A Credit Suisse survey of fund managers and other big-wig clients early this year found 31 percent predict Russia will be the year’s top emerging market. Citi Investment Research also likes Russian stocks, as stock prices are close to historical averages, relative to earnings.

The stock market in Russia generated some of the best returns in the world last year, helping investors who were heavy into the BRICs. BRIC stocks come from Brazil, Russia, India and China, and they're at the heart of any emerging market investing strategy. But while stocks in Russia are hot, the economy isn't. So, is it time to take the R out your BRIC? Here are some things to consider:

ost of Tupperware’s sales still come at “parties,” but they are happening in many more languages

than they used to. From Brazil to Russia to Turkey, non-English speaking countries are some of Tupperware’s biggest areas of growth.

About 16.5 million Tupperware parties took place worldwide last year, up from 15.5 million in 2008. The company enjoyed double-digit sales growth in many of its emerging markets, including Brazil, India, and Indonesia. Even mature foreign markets showed strong growth. French sales grew 33 percent, versus 6 percent in North America, excluding currency effects.

Here’s the really good news for the company: Tupperware keeps a bigger percentage of its foreign sales as profit.

The company’s numbers have improved enough that S&P may upgrade its credit rating to investment-grade status. Tupperware, which also has a smaller beauty products unit, has seen its stock more than triple in the past year.

Analysts are split on whether the shares have more upside: Seven analysts rate it “buy;” three rate it “hold.”

SOURCE: regulatory filings

B E H I N D T H E B R A N D T U P P E R W A R E B R A N D S ( T U P )

AP

Europe,Middle East,

Africa

Asia NorthAmerica

20052009

Percentof salesby regionexcluding beauty division

Foreign markets have become more important in recent years.

0

20

40

60%

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f

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Dow industrials+2.3%

+5.5% +1.3%

pp MO YTDExtra p

Nasdaq+3.9%

+8.7% +2.5%

pp MO YTDp

S&P 500+3.1%

+6.8% +2.1%

pp MO YTDp

LARGE-CAP

S&P 400+4.4%

+10.5% +6.0%

pp MO YTDp

MID-CAP

Russell 2000+6.0%

+12.3% +6.5%

pp MO YTDp

SMALL-CAP

Money&Markets

10729.89 6469.95 Dow Jones industrial average 10571.94 10326.10 10566.20 240.94 2.3 s s 1.3 |9854321 59.4 4265.61 2134.21 Dow Jones transportation 4205.66 4129.04 4195.84 61.27 1.5 s s 2.4 |99765432 91.2 7471.31 4181.75 NYSE Comp. 7294.04 7035.05 7291.31 256.27 3.6 s s 1.5 |9876421 70.2 2327.03 1265.52 Nasdaq Comp. 2327.03 2247.33 2326.35 88.09 3.9 s s 2.5 |996432 79.8 1150.45 666.79 S&P 500 1139.38 1105.36 1138.70 34.21 3.1 s s 2.1 |98752 66.6 770.47 397.97 S&P MidCap 770.47 738.35 770.47 32.11 4.4 s s 6.0 |9976431 88.8 11941.95 6772.29 Wilshire 5000 11911.66 11512.41 11906.56 394.15 3.4 s s 3.1 |9876531 71.7 666.02 342.59 Russell 2000 666.02 630.61 666.02 37.46 6.0 s s 6.5 |9976521 89.7

52-WEEK WK WK YTD 1YR HIGH LOW INDEX HIGH LOW CLOSE CHG %CHG MO QTR %CHG %CHG

1,000

1,050

1,100

1,150

1,200

S O N D J F

11.22

MON

2.60

TUES

0.48

WED

4.18

THUR

15.73

FRI

2,000

2,100

2,200

2,300

2,400

S O N D J F

35.31

MON

7.22

TUES

-0.11

WED

11.63

THUR

34.04

FRI

Close: 2,326.351-week change: 88.09 (3.9%)

Nasdaq compositeClose: 1,138.70

1-week change: 34.21 (3.1%)

S&P 500

StocksRecap

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