Not my Type 2

Savannah celebrity chef Paula Deen, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, waited three years to reveal a diagnosis of Type II Diabetes. Her Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible made a list of the five unhealthiest cookbooks of 2011. The list was published last December by Washington DC-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Deen reportedly has dropped sweet tea entirely, but she refuses to remove herself from butter.

Aiken County and Laurens County in food packaging

Pactiv LLC, a major player in foodservice and food packaging products, has announced its plans for a $5.5 million expansion at its existing operations in Aiken County. Over the next three years, Pactiv’s expansion should add 25 new jobs. In Laurens County Unicite Inc., a Chinabased plastic films manufacturer with offices in Greenville, plans to invest $70 million, which will generate 100 new jobs. In the past year, South Carolina has recruited more than $4.7 billion in investment and more than 13,000 new jobs in the manufacturing sector.

Housing recovery a little ways off

Charlotte-based Mark Vitner, Wells Fargo Securities’ senior economist, is quoted in the San Francisco Business Times saying a full housing market recovery should take maybe until 2020.

Duke rates up

Duke Energy, headquartered in Charlotte, was granted recently its request for an average 6 percent rate increase by the S.C. Public Service Commission. Residential customers will see rates rise by 7.1 percent. Commercial customers are getting a 5.2 percent increase; and industrial, 5.1 percent. The new rates, effective in February, portend an annual revenue increase of $92.8 million and reflect an allowance for Duke of 10.5 percent return on common equity. Duke Energy is still waiting to hear from the N.C. Utilities Commission on its request for a compromise rate increase of 7.2 percent.

Southern profits up

Atlanta-based Southern Co.’s largest subsidiary is Georgia Power, and the company’s income for 2011 totaled $2.2 billion, up 11.7 percent, from annual revenue of $17.7 billion, up 1.2 percent.

SCANA taxes up

Across South Carolina in 2011, SCANA Corp. and its subsidiaries, including South Carolina Electric & Gas, paid more than $150 million in property taxes, an 8 percent increase over the $142 million paid in 2010.

Wings

Axum Capital Partners of Charlotte has taken a controlling interest in Wild Wing Café, a 32-location restaurant company based in Mt. Pleasant. The chain’s sales in 2011 were more than $100 million.

Boeing

The North Charleston Boeing plant expects to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner this spring. The first three Dreamliners will have interiors finished in Everett, Washington, and shipped to South Carolina, but the fourth Dreamliner’s interior will be fully upfitted in the Lowcountry. Boeing expects to deliver 600 commercial airplanes in 2012, amounting to an estimated $80 billion in revenue.

Construction contracts

According to ENR Southeast, South Carolina should see an eight percent increase in construction activity this year, making $8.5 billion in contracts in residential, commercial and industrial construction.

Clemson business

Clemson at the Falls is a center for business education and Clemson’s MBA program in downtown Greenville. The MBA program now includes a one-year entrepreneurship concentration designed to develop ideas for the marketplace. For more information: http://www.clemson.edu/mba

Unemployment

The N.C. unemployment rate dropped to 9.9 percent in December from 10 percent in November. The S.C. unemployment rate dropped to 9.5 percent in December from 9.9 percent in November. In Columbia the unemployment rate for December was 8 percent, down from 9.1 percent in December 2010. Marion County’s unemployment rate in December 2011 was 18 percent, the highest in the state. Lexington County had the lowest at 7 percent. Atlanta’s unemployment rate for December was 9.4 percent.

Band together

James Copenhaver, USC’s director of bands from 1976 to 2010, recently donated $1 million to endow scholarships for students enrolled in the band program. Copenhaver’s university concert bands performed at conventions of the Music Educators National Conference, the College Band Directors National Association, and the American Bandmasters Association. He is past president of the National Band Association and the Southern division of the College Band Directors National Association.