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Facebook’s IPO one of world’s largest
This Feb. 8 photo shows two workers inside Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Facebook stock is expected to begin trading publicly today.
NEW YORK - Facebook’s initial public offering of stock is one of the largest ever. The world’s definitive online social network is raising at least $16 billion for the company and its early investors in a transaction that values Facebook at $104 billion.
It’s a big windfall for a company that began eight years ago with no way to make money.
Facebook priced its IPO at $38 per share on Thursday, at the top of expectations. The IPO values Facebook higher than Amazon.com and other well-known companies such as Kraft, Disney and McDonald’s.
Facebook’s stock is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market sometime this morning under the ticker symbol “FB.” That’s when so-called retail investors can try to buy the stock.
Facebook’s offering is the culmination of a year’s worth of Internet IPOs that began last May with LinkedIn Corp. Since then, a steady stream of startups focused on the social side of the Web have gone public, with varying degrees of success. It all led up to Facebook, the company that’s come to define social networking by getting 900 million people around the world to share everything from photos of their pets to their deepest thoughts.
“They could have gone public in 2009 at a much lower price,” said Nick Einhorn, research analyst at IPO investment advisory firm Renaissance Capital. “They waited as long as they could to go public, so it makes sense that it’s a very large offering.”
Facebook Inc. is the third-highest valued company to ever go public, according to data from Dealogic, a financial data provider. Only the two Chinese banks have been worth more. At $16 billion, the size of the IPO is the third-largest for a U.S. company. The largest U.S. IPO was Visa, which raised $17.86 billion in 2008. No. 2 was power company Enel and No. 4 was General Motors, according to Renaissance Capital.
For the company that was born in a Harvard dormitory and went on to reimagine online communication, the stock sale means more money to build on the features and services it offers users. It means an infusion of funds to hire the best engineers to work at its sprawling Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, or in New York City, where it opened an engineering office last year.
And it means early investors, who took a chance seeding the young social network with start-up funds six, seven and eight years ago, can reap big rewards. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who sits on Facebook’s board of directors, invested $500,000 in the company back in 2004. He’s selling nearly 17 million of his shares in the IPO, which means he’ll get some $640 million.
The offering values Facebook, whose 2011 revenue was $3.7 billion, at as much as $104 billion. The sky-high valuation has its skeptics, who worry about signs of a slowdown and Facebook’s ability to grow in the mobile space when it was created with desktop computers in mind. Rival Google Inc., whose revenue stood at $38 billion last year, has a market capitalization of $207 billion.
“There seems to be somewhat of a hype around the stock offering,” says Gartner analyst Brian Blau.
That, of course, is an understatement.
Facebook’s IPO dominated media coverage in the weeks and days leading up to the event. Zuckerberg’s hoodie made headlines as did General Motors’ decision to stop advertising on the site -and rival Ford’s affirmation that its Facebook ads have been effective.
There are a few reasons for the exuberance. First, there’s Facebook’s sheer size and high profile. The company grew from a college-only social network to an Internet phenomenon embraced by legions of people, from teenagers to grandmothers to pro-democracy activists in the Middle East.
Secondly, it’s personal.
“It’s probably one of the first times there has been an IPO where everyone sort of has a stake in the outcome,” Blau says. While most Facebook users won’t see a penny from the offering, they are all intimately familiar with the company, so it resonates as something they understand.
And then there’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who turned 28 on Monday. He has emerged as the latest in a lineage of Silicon Valley prodigies who are alternately hailed for pushing the world in new directions and reviled for overstepping their bounds. He counted the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs among his mentors and he became one of the world’s youngest billionaires – at least on paper – well before Facebook went public. A dramatized version of Facebook’s founding was the subject of a Hollywood movie that won three Academy Awards last year, propelling Zuckerberg even further into the public spotlight.
Though Zuckerberg is selling about 30 million shares, he will remain Facebook’s largest shareholder. Even after the IPO, he will own 503.6 million shares, or 32 percent of Facebook’s total shares. At the $38 share price, his stake in the company is worth $19.1 billion. Zuckerberg will control the company with 56 percent of its voting stock as a result of agreements he has with other shareholders who promise to vote his way.
The set-up helps to ensure that he and other executives keep control as the sometimes conflicting demands of Wall Street exert new pressures on the company.
True to form, Zuckerberg and Facebook’s engineers are ringing in the IPO on their own terms. The company is holding an overnight “hackathon” Thursday, where engineers stay up writing programming code to come up with new features for the site. On Friday morning, Zuckerberg will ring the Nasdaq opening bell from Facebook’s headquarters.
The $38 share price is the price at which the investment banks arranging the offering will sell the stock to their clients. If extra shares reserved to cover additional demand are sold as part of the transaction, Facebook Inc. and its early investors stand to reap as much as $18.4 billion from the offering.
Follow Barbara Ortutay on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BarbaraOrtutay
Price of gas falls, wallets open
In a Sunday, April 15, 2012 photo, gasoline prices are posted at the Midway Plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bedford, Pa. U.S. consumer prices were flat last month as cheaper gas offset modest increases for food, clothing and housing. The data indicate that inflation remains in check. The Labor Department says the seasonally adjusted consumer price index was unchanged in April, after a 0.3 percent gain in March.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Americans are starting to see some relief from higher gas prices, a change that could revive the economy in the months ahead.
Consumer prices were flat in April, largely because of a decline in gas prices. Lower prices at the pump may be combining with steady job growth to power more spending on big purchases.
Sales of autos, furniture and electronics all rose in April. And Americans spent more at restaurants and bars – generally a sign of confidence in the economy.
“Consumer spending looks to have started the second quarter on a solid footing,” said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics.
Despite the strength in key areas, overall retail sales increased just 0.1 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That modest gain followed two stronger months in February and March.
Cheaper gas offset some of the gains in big purchases. The mild winter was also a factor. In the previous two months, it boosted sales in areas such as building materials and gardening supplies. Spending in those categories fell sharply in April.
Still, economists were encouraged by the details in the report. Excluding autos, gas station sales and spending on building materials, so-called core retail sales increased 0.4 percent, a modest gain.
“All the categories that showed gains are positive signs for consumer spending going forward,” said Leslie Levesque, senior economist at IHS Global Insight. “The categories where there were declines were mainly a payback for the warmer weather.”
The positive signs come six months before voters will decide whether to give President Barack Obama a second term in an election focused heavily on the economy. Obama is trying to convince voters that the economy is on an upswing. His Republican rival, Mitt Romney, counters that the unemployment rate is a still-high 8.1 percent and argues that Obama’s policies are weakening the recovery.
Recent job growth has contributed to higher consumer confidence. Employers have added 1 million jobs in the past five months, though the pace of gains has slowed recently.
Another reason to be optimistic: gas prices are falling after spiking earlier this year. The national average dropped to $3.73 per gallon on Tuesday, about 17 cents cheaper than a month ago, according to a survey by AAA. Sales at gas stations fell 0.3 percent in April.
“We had expected gas prices to be elevated until Memorial Day,” Levesque said. “The fact that they have already retreated so much is a very good sign. It alleviates the strain on consumers’ pockets.”
Cheaper gas also kept inflation tame. Gas prices fell a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent in April, the Labor Department said. That offset mild increases in the cost of food, housing, and clothes.
Overall, the consumer price index was flat. Excluding volatile food and gas costs, so-called “core” prices rose 0.2 percent.
In the past 12 months, prices have risen 2.3 percent, the smallest gain in more than a year.
Mexican company seeks judgment against Coeur d’Alene Mines
COEUR d’ALENE - A Mexican mining company is seeking a multi-million dollar judgment against Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation as compensation for the Idaho company’s alleged breach of contract, according to a lawsuit filed in a Mexican court.
Constructora de Carreteras MYGSA S.A. De C.V. alleges that Coeur d’Alene Mines has been unresponsive to claims that the company failed to pay for rock fragmentation work performed in Chihuahua, Mexico, as part of an eight-year contract between the two companies.
MYGSA, which purchased approximately $3 million in specialized equipment specifically for the job, is pushing for a resolution in absence of a response from Coeur d’Alene Mines. The case has been pending for more than a year and a half in the Eighth Civil Court of the Judicial District of Morelos in Chihuahua, Chihuahua.
“We provided services to Coeur d’Alene Mines according to our agreement and are asking to be compensated per the terms of our mutually agreed upon legal contract,” said Mario A. Rodriguez Morales of MYGSA. “Unfortunately, we have had to request assistance from the courts in resolving in a timely manner what was clearly spelled out by the terms of the contract.”
MYGSA is seeking more than $25 million in compensation.
Coeur issued a response Friday.
“There is an outstanding legal matter in Mexico regarding a claim made by MYGSA in late 2010 regarding work performed at the Palmarejo silver-gold mine in Chihuauhua, Mexico,” the release said. “We maintain that this claim has no merit and we will continue to vigorously pursue the matter in the Mexican courts.”
Coeur d’Alene Mines has missed several deadlines established by Eighth Civil Court Judge Jose Humberto Rodelo Garcia, including one earlier this month related to subpoenas requesting responses from company executives, according to MYGSA.
Several senior Coeur d’Alene Mines officials were subpoenaed, including President and CEO Mitchell J. Krebs, K. Leon Hardy, senior vice president and COO, and Donald J. Birak, senior vice president of exploration, Kelli Kast and Dennis E. Wheeler. None have responded, according to court documents.
Coeur d’Alene Mines planned to use the crushed rock by MYGSA as underground backfill at Palmarejo Mine, but has not paid for services provided or fulfilled its responsibilities under the contract signed in 2009, MYGSA alleges.
Palmarejo Mine, a silver and gold mine, is the company’s largest contributor of sales and operating cash flow, according to a description on the Coeur d’Alene Mines website. It produced $513 million in total metal sales in 2011, or about half of the company’s total metal sales.
Figpickels settles into new digs at Plaza Shops
Nick "The Trickster Nickster" Anker, 10, Hayden, performs card tricks during the grand reopening of Figpickels Toy Emporium in the Coeur d'Alene Resort Plaza Shops on Saturday. The event also helped launch the new Clump-o-Lumps toy behind Anker.
COEUR d’ALENE – What do you get with a toy store with more elbow room?
More toys and more activity.
That was the case during Saturday’s grand re-opening of Figpickels Toy Emporium in The Coeur d’Alene Resort Plaza Shops.
Jonah Webster, 4, Coeur d’Alene, couldn’t resist handling different cool toys. It’s a touchy-feely kind of place, after all.
“My favorites are the colored rocks and the toys that shine,” Jonah said while going from one toy to another.
Brett Sommer, who owns the store with wife Susan, said the 7-year-old business recently moved from 312 E. Sherman Ave. to 210 E. Sherman, No. 103, because more space was needed.
“We couldn’t do any more (at the former location) because it was so crowded,” Sommer said. “People would literally stop at the door because they could see it was too crowded.”
In the new digs, the Garden of Readin’ book section, Hats in the Belfry, a place to try on hats in front of a mirror that makes you look funky, and the Laser-rarium are being created.
“Before, the universe (to try out lasers in a dark place) was in the bathroom, and that just didn’t work out well,” Sommer said.
The event also helped launch the new Clump-o-Lumps toy, a cast of six characters in which their parts are interchangeable so that 2,303 combinations are possible.
“Create your own,” Sommer told attendees. “You can have a head of a shark on a body of a frog with legs of a squid.”
Nick “The Trickster Nickster” Anker, a 10-year-old from Hayden, mesmerized visitors with his card tricks.
“I’m having a lot of fun with it,” Nick said between tricks. “I like seeing the smiles on people’s faces.”
The move of Figpickels brings the Sommers’ three businesses under one roof. The couple also own Mrs. Honeypeeps Sweet Shop and Papillion Paper Emporium.
“We’ve been treated so well by the Hagadone Corporation,” Sommer said. “The proximity to The Resort and the entrance on Sherman are important to us.”
Tough as iron
Norm and Bonnie Anderson are closing the doors of Anderson Iron Works in Post Falls after more than four decades in business.
POST FALLS - Anderson Iron Works has had a decorated past.
After 43 years, the maker of ornamental iron, railings, spiral stairs and other custom iron products that are visible throughout the community will close its doors on Monday.
Owners Norm and Bonnie Anderson are retiring, marking an end to one of Post Falls’ oldest businesses.
“We tried to quit three years ago, but had a hard time doing it,” the 74-year-old Norm said softly. “My employees have been so good.”
Anderson’s work is spread throughout the region, including on the entrance sign to The Coeur d’Alene Resort, Silverwood Theme Park, the flower baskets on Sherman Avenue in downtown Coeur d’Alene, the elaborate “Amway” house on the Spokane River in Post Falls, the “Extreme Makeover” home near Sandpoint, restrooms at Coeur d’Alene parks, Post Falls’ entrance waterfall features and at numerous homes.
“It’s been a personalized business,” Norm said.
Custom railings and spiral stairs – the company has made about 800 of them – have been the best sellers.
When Norm and Bonnie first opened their shop in Huetter in 1969 after moving here from Minnesota, the business was on a 10-party telephone line.
Ten years later, the business moved to the green Quonset between Seltice Way and Interstate 90 where it has been for the past 33 years.
Through the years, Anderson carved a local niche for ornamental iron projects that had largely been served by Spokane firms years ago.
“My husband is an artist,” Bonnie said with a wide smile.
Norm added to his wife of 52 years: “I don’t call it that; I’m just a craftsman.”
Anderson also built a reputation in which employees stayed and two generations of family members played.
The company never got big. It generally had five or so employees because quality precision craftsmen were hard to find.
But workers stuck around, including Al Sims for 39 years and Daren Nelson 24 years, which the Andersons are proud of.
The company won a national American Legion award and a trip to Nashville for the group’s convention in 2004 for employing veterans. Norm served in the Army National Guard and Reserve himself.
“They’re just good, hard-working, disciplined and honest people,” Norm said of vets.
If there’s a handing off of the Anderson Iron Works baton, Norm said, unofficially it’s Scott Johnson of Johnson Custom Iron in Rathdrum, another longtime employee of Anderson’s.
“I’ve lined him up,” said Norm, adding that he’ll still tinker with iron for family and friends in retirement.
But no one was found to take over Anderson Iron Works itself.
“With custom work and the name on our business, it was hard to sell it,” Norm said. “One guy was going to take over, but he never came up with the money.”
But don’t count out Norm’s family tree from sprouting up in the trade in the future. His 11-year-old grandson, James Hohenstreet, found a liking around the shop.
“He’s in Seventh Heaven helping papa clean shop and work on hand rails,” James’ father Seth said.
Family has always been a major part of the business. The Andersons’ daughters – Lisa, Amy and Beth – grew up playing around the shop and later worked there. Recent years have been the grandkids’ turn to toss nuts and bolts in the can and get a glimpse of the trade.
Anderson, along the building industry’s side, rode the economy’s ups and downs over the years, but was never on the verge of closing, Bonnie said.
“The (latest) recession hit the builders harder than it hit us because private individuals were still buying,” she said.
The company has sponsored many community events, including some hosted by Post Falls Parks and Recreation, Shriners and the Post Falls School District, and has been recognized for longtime membership to the North Idaho Building Contractors Association, Post Falls Chamber of Commerce and the National Ornamental Miscellaneous Metals Association.
“They are really special folks, low key, but always there to help when needed,” Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin said. “Anderson Iron Works has truly left its signature on many projects.”
The company’s closure, chamber CEO Pam Houser is bittersweet.
“We are always sad to see a business close, but we are thrilled to see hardworking folks enjoy retirement,” she said.
And that’s how Bonnie reminds Norm to look at the end of an era.
“I tell him that this has been a good life, but what’s coming up is even better,” she said. “We’ll get to spend more time with grandchildren, travel and to be at our place on Lake Cocolalla.”
Vintage vendors
Sandy Bechthold, left, and Marie Widmyer discuss options for product display Monday for the upcoming Vintage & Garden show being held Saturday at Greyhound Park in Post Falls.
Lately, Sharon Blythe has started to notice her stuff piling up.
In her home. In storage, too.
It was time, the vintage dealer deemed, to unload.
“I thought ‘I’d better sell all of this in a big place,’” the Hayden Lake woman said on Monday. “And that I should invite some friends.”
She did. And so was born the idea for the first Vintage and Garden Show scheduled from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. this Saturday at the Greyhound Park and Event Center in Post Falls.
The event will include 80 vendors peddling vintage items for indoors and outdoors, Blythe said, some restored, some still bearing original paint and aging patinas.
Blythe assured those who come to haggle will find pieces that qualify as quirky, romantic, singular, and at prices that likely don’t compare to brand new products.
“(Vintage) is a hot new trend,” said Blythe, owner of Romance Your Home and organizer of the show. “We see people loving it because it feels like taking things once loved and repurposing them so they can love them again. It’s like a connection to the past we sorely need.”
Blythe is easily tempted herself, she said, adding that’s why her space quickly accumulated pieces from across the country.
“I can’t resist a good buy,” she said with a chuckle.
With motley pieces to sell, Blythe and several other vendors were practicing decor arrangements in a storage garage on Monday to prep for the show.
Items positioned around the room included rustic dressers, a make-up stand with flowered carvings, a mushroom sculpture, a crank-powered sewing matching and an apple-red stool, looking oddly alert atop a patterned rug.
“Does that tempt you?” said Blythe, a Hayden Lake resident, of the steel lawn furniture and watering cans she is carting to the show. “Gardens are just as important to people in the Northwest as their interiors.”
Fellow vintage dealer Sally Barlow of Coeur d’Alene said she got into the business to appease her whims as a chronic furniture arranger, many items hung in her own home before they’re sold.
Like the classic car grill tacked beneath her counter, and the car doors and fridge doors hung on the walls.
“There’s a lot of history in it, and memories,” Barlow said of the items, and added that she has some hand-painted furniture she thinks will go over big at the show. “I like to be unpredictable.”
Taking a break from rearranging, Marie Widmyer of Coeur d’Alene said vintage dealing is a hobby for her, to give a second life to items that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
“The side of the road,” Widmyer said with a laugh of where she finds most items she has restored. “That’s part of the thrill, trying to recycle things.”
Widmyer hopes to find a home for a vintage chair she just painted a vivid orange, she said, a color she assures will really make a room with the right placement.
Vintage has broad appeal because it offers items that are bona fide one-of-a-kind, she said.
“You can go to a store and buy new things, and it all looks the same,” Widmyer said. “It’s just hard to find things that are different.”
After Blythe eyed the items around the garage on Monday, she and the others measured the space.
Forty feet long, she noted.
“A lot of room,” Blythe said with a growing smile. “Want to go out and buy more stuff?”
Cuts like a knife
Don and Heike Stinson opened Accurate CNC Services in Hayden.
HAYDEN – With hard work, perseverance, and “a little more hard work,” Heike and Don Stinson created an entrepreneurial success story.
Prior to becoming business owners, Heike worked in medical billing while Don worked in management and construction.
In May 2003, the Stinsons opened Accurate CNC Services in Hayden.
Today, Accurate CNC Services is a state-of-the-art business that provides digitally automated, computer numerical control fabrication and cutting services.
Customers include machine manufacturers, sign companies, and cabinet companies. With six employees and plans for expansion, the company ships parts to a variety of national and international clients.
While the company is thriving, Heike Stinson admits that starting out was tough.
“We literally had no capital or customers,” she said.
In the first year, the Stinsons started with one router. They cut furniture parts and assembled air filters for an aerospace application. To keep costs low, they used a make-shift oven and a space heater to cure adhesives.
Early on, the Stinsons found that satisfying customer needs in an extremely competitive global marketplace was a particular challenge.
The Stinsons credit their success to passion, drive, attention to detail and hard work.
Heike also says that the company is unique in that it is not “just a metal shop, a wood shop, or a mill shop.”
Their equipment includes mills, routers and a laser. They can cut one part or a million parts and work in a variety of materials including wood, plastic and aluminum.
Accurate CNC Services is dedicated to providing a valuable service at a reasonable rate in a timely manner.
“We stand behind our work,” Heike Stinson said.
They received coaching from Dale Rainey, a coach with the Idaho Small Business Development Center.
“The coaches helped us become more effective decision makers,” Heike said.
Accurate CNC Services recently added a vertical machining center. To accommodate growth, they are planning to move to a larger, 14,000-square-feet facility at 2321 W. Dakota Ave. in June.
Info: 772-0641
Old law less bitter to breweries
Jeff Whitman, co-owner of Selkirk Abbey Brewing, worked with his other two business partners to find a way to open their company while dealing with a decades-old law dating back to the prohibition era saying the same brewer couldn't work for 2 companies.
POST FALLS - It’s out with the old and in with the brew.
That sums up how the Selkirk Abbey Brewing Co. – expected to open sometime in June along Seltice Way between Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene – was born.
A state law dating back to Prohibition days prevented the same brewer from owning more than one brewery.
Selkirk’s hurdle made legislators keen on job creation thirsty for a change this session, so the law was amended to allow a brewer to own two breweries.
Owners Robert Wallace and Jeff Whitman, who plan to partner with Fred Colby of Laughing Dog Brewing in Ponderay, toast the brew breakthrough.
“I was nauseous,” Whitman said about his reaction to learning about the law when their application for a state alcohol license was denied earlier this year. “I got a lot of dough stuck in this.”
Without Colby as a partner, Whitman said the venture would be a “big risk.”
“Having Fred involved gives us a huge leg up on any starting brewer,” Whitman said.
Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, and Reps. George Eskridge, R-Dover, and Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, were the primary supporters of the law that takes effect July 1.
Colby, in the meantime, has given up his shares in Selkirk so the company can get its state license and open before the law changes. Colby plans to be co-owner again on July 1.
The concept of Selkirk began when Whitman and Wallace met over beers at Enoteca in Post Falls and later got acquainted with Colby at a Laughing Dog tasting event.
“We got into a discussion about Belgian beers, and sealed it with a handshake at Fred’s around Christmas in 2010,” Whitman said. “Belgians are on fire right now. They give you a lot of versatility.”
Whitman said a variety of Belgian-style beers will be made, but he declined to say what they’ll be named until they’re sold. He said the beers will be sold at Enoteca and Pilgrim’s Natural Foods this summer initially to start, in addition to on site, with the hope they will be available at most local grocery outlets in the future.
“We’ll have one with an alcohol content of around 15 percent that will be a monster,” Whitman said with a smile, adding that it may be a year before it’s sold.
The business at 6180 E. SelticeWay in the former Habitat for Humanity building supply store features a dimly-lit Gothic-themed tap room with a seating capacity of 28.
The place is decorated with antique cathedral lights, photos of historic Trappist monasteries where beer was brewed and a modern fireplace.
The brewing and bottling operations will be housed in the back.
The business will have snacks, but not meals.
“I don’t want to run a restaurant,” Whitman said. “I want to brew beer.”
Whitman and Wallace will be the lone employees to start, but about a dozen are expected a year or so down the road.
Whitman estimates $500,000 has been invested in the business. The location is good for both visibility and shipments of grain and hops to arrive, he said.
“It’s in the middle of an industrial complex, so there’s nobody that you’re going to make angry and most of the places around us close shop between 3 and 5 p.m.,” Whitman said.
A familiar place for communication
Nick Backus, professor for the communications studies department of Western Oregon University, takes a phone call between seminars of the 36th annual Northwest Communication Association conference Friday at the Coeur d'Alene Resort.
COEUR d’ALENE - Back in 1986 when The Coeur d’Alene Resort opened the first group to meet there was the Northwest Communication Association.
NWCA, a group that includes college professors and students in the field of communication, hasn’t stopped coming back.
The group, even though conference members come from across the northwest, doesn’t move its conference to different cities each year. It could be held in Portland, Seattle, Boise, Spokane, Missoula, or elsewhere.
“Most academic conferences rotate cities,” said Michael Hazel, NWCA president. He’s a communication and speech professor at Gonzaga University.
For NWCA, it’s always in Coeur d’Alene.
“It does speak to the place – the laid back, welcoming nature of the town and the resort,” Hazel said. Hagadone Corp. owns both The Resort and The Press.
Between 150 and 200 students and professors, mostly students, are attending the conference this year. The conference started Thursday and runs through Saturday.
Why Coeur d’Alene year after year?
Hazel pointed to the area’s natural beauty, the laid back vibe of the city, the good relations the group has with The Resort, and the boat cruises.
“The small size of the town keeps people focused,” he said.
He added, “The people that are the sustaining members always want to come back here.”
The conference will include the typical panel discussions, workshops and presentations.
The conference also provides students with an opportunity to learn about life working as an academic, Hazel said.
Attendees can catch up on the latest developments in the field of communications and enjoy the company of those studying and working in the same academic field.
He’s a real Subway man
Jerry Jensen helps a customer during a recent shift at a Coeur d'Alene Subway location, one of 13 sandwich franchise locations that he owns and operates throughout the region.
COEUR d’ALENE – So, there was Jerry Jensen, clearing tables at the Subway store on Fourth Street on a weekday afternoon.
He was wiping down tables after the lunch rush that saw him baking bread and manning the cash register.
“I like to make sandwiches but they kept pushing me on the cash register. I wasn’t really happy about it,” he said, laughing.
“Whatever needed to be done,” he added. “Just a typical employee today.”
Except that Jerry Jensen isn’t your typical Subway employee.
He’s the guy that owns those sandwich shops with the distinctive Subway logo. Not two or three stores. Try 13, including four in Coeur d’Alene and two in Hayden.
Each store has a manager, and there are three regional managers who report to Jensen.
He likes to know the names of each his 120 employees, but admits that’s not always possible.
“I have a lot of good people who work for me,” he said.
Customers might be surprised to find the energetic 40-year-old whipping up their footlong Veggie Delight on whole wheat – but they shouldn’t be, he says.
That comes with the territory, along with 60 hour weeks, when you’re responsible for the food that keeps thousands of guests well fed and satisfied each day.
“I don’t mind jumping in and making some sandwiches,” the Spokane resident said. “That’s a lot of what I do. Popping in and out, making sure things are going OK.”
“If I could choose to do one thing, it would be to stand there and make sandwiches all day,” he said. “I’d much rather do that than all the paperwork I have to do.”
Not to mention employee evaluations, talking with managers, emails, phone calls, meetings, seminars, attending conventions, food and supply orders and being sure things get done right, “the Subway way,” on a daily basis.
“It’s important to get everybody on the same page, doing things the right way, from the guy that’s closing Saturday night to the person that’s opening Wednesday morning,” he said. “Consistency is the key.”
Earning his way
Jensen was 18, out of high school, when he started at Subway in 1990 as a regular sandwich artist.
“My parents said get a job,” he said, chuckling.
He continued working weekends at Subway while he attended Eastern Washington University. He eventually climbed his way up to a manager position, earning his degree in social science and education as he went, with plans to be a history teacher.
After graduation, though, instead of leaving Subway, he stuck with it.
“Bottom line, I could make more managing a Subway than I could being a brand new teacher so I stuck with Subway,” he said, smiling. “Turned out pretty good.”
Yes it did.
He worked in the regional development office that oversaw Eastern Washington and North Idaho stores, then as a field consultant, visiting and evaluating those stores.
Six years ago, he got the chance to own his first Subway at the Industrial park in Spokane.
Next came an opportunity to be a partner in the purchase of three stores in Lewiston. In January 2009, he bought an Orofino Subway, followed by buying three Coeur d’Alene stores.
He opened a Subway in Clarkston, Wash., and put one inside the Hayden Walmart. Most recently, he opened a Subway on Prairie and Atlas.
He’s also on the advertising board that oversees the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene market, and determines how advertising dollars are spent.
Jensen credits his managers and staff for his success, and loves teaching people how to lead, how to manage, how to deal with customers.
“The time I get to take people and promote them up the ladder to a management position or assistant, I feel like I did something to help that person succeed,” he said. “For me, personally, that’s most rewarding.”
“You can only grow as much as you have good people,” he added.
More expansion is possible.
“There’s nothing imminent, but if the good Lord blesses us, then we’ll have our eyes and ears open and we’ll jump on any opportunities that come our way,” he said.
Success
Subway’s sales skyrocketed with the introduction of the $5 footlong in 2008. Company officials expected it to attract customers, but the response was overwhelming.
Suddenly, everyone was buying a sandwich packed with veggies and meats.
“That’s something the really helped our sales take off,” he said.
And Subway maintained that momentum with a boost from the successful Jared the Subway Man campaign, and most recently, hiring Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps as its pitchman.
Jensen said Subway is one of the few quick-service restaurants that has done well through the recession.
“We didn’t plan on doing a $5 footlong because we knew a recession was coming. It was just something we did in Florida that worked, then went national,” he said. “It’s been a fantastic thing for the brand.”
Jensen doesn’t just work for Subway. He eats and lives it, too.
He and wife Nicole are parents to three hockey-playing sons. They’re on the road often for games, so naturally, they eat at Subway.
“The kids need to eat healthy,” he said.
Even on business trips, Subway is a standard stop – for the meal and to check on operations.
And yes, Jensen dines daily on Subway. He eats fresh, for sure, he says.
“Steak and cheese is the one I eat the most,” he said, smiling.