Actual finance blog

They sell quirky beers with names such as "Buffalo Drool" and "Wheach," a peach-wheat combo. You won’t see their commercials on television, because they do their marketing through fish fries and Facebook, e-mails and street festivals. Their staffers might wear kilts from time to time.

They are Missouri’s craft brewers, independent makers of small-batch beers. In this recession, they are proving they have something more than quirkiness: Staying power.

Craft brewers across the St. Louis region say their business is proving surprisingly resilient as the economy slices into the hide of other industries. Times are difficult, but craft brewers are growing or holding steady.

Good beer, good food and strong connections to the local area are essential.

"I don’t think our crowd has pulled back," said Dushan Manjencich, owner of Buffalo Brewing in midtown St. Louis. The brewpub, which opened in March 2008 on St. Patrick’s Day, is apparently benefiting from the revitalization of the Olive Boulevard corridor. Sales are up this year by 10 to 15 percent, Manjencich said.

Craft brewers — including beer-

brewing restaurants called brewpubs, microbreweries and regional breweries that send beer across hundreds of miles — sold 4.2 million barrels of beer nationwide in the year’s first half, up from 4 million in the same period last year, according to the Colorado-based Brewers Association.

With the overall U.S. beer industry basically flat, craft brewers will take that pace of growth, even if it’s slower than before.

Dollar sales from craft brewers increased 9 percent in the first half of 2009, compared with 11 percent growth in the same period in 2008. Measured in liquid, sales rose 5 percent this year, compared with 6.5 percent growth last year.

"Real good, considering," said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. "A lot of companies are still growing and expanding distribution."

O’Fallon Brewery in O’Fallon, Mo., is certainly looking for new territories. The company, which saw its beer sales to Missouri wholesalers rise 4.7 percent through June, is expanding distribution into Kansas and is also eyeing other states as far away as Florida.

"It’s pretty much, putting the blinders on and working the plan and not really doing anything different during the recession," said co-founder Tony Caradonna. "People are still coming to the party."

In Missouri, retail sales of craft beers brewed in the state were up nearly 18 percent, according to Nielsen. That far outpaced overall beer sales.

"Consumers are looking to buy locally," said Nick Lake, vice president at Nielsen Co. Drinkers of craft beers "like variety, and they certainly like ‘local,’ and they like to support the underdog."

Craft brands are slowly gaining space on store shelves and restaurant menus, Gatza said.

One reason is that some drinkers are switching from wine and distilled spirits to cheaper beer when they’re at a restaurant, bar or nightclub. In a Nielsen survey released in May, nearly a quarter of wine consumers reported choosing less expensive drinks.

Perhaps most importantly for craft brewers, support from wholesalers and retailers is growing, thanks to the hefty profits that stores and distributors can earn from selling pricey craft beer.

Craft beers represent 3.2 percent of the U.S. beer industry’s case sales and 5.2 percent of dollar sales, according to Nielsen.

Several craft brewers and beer-focused restaurateurs say they have not had to cut prices to attract drinkers. Prices for craft beers have risen more than 4 percent this year — an increase of $1.44 per case in supermarkets — according to Information Resources Inc.

In this economy, that’s "remarkable," said Dan Wandel, senior vice president at IRI. "The craft beer segment has a lot of momentum."

At St. Louis Brewery, the makers of Schlafly beer are watching sales rise in Missouri and across the Mississippi River in Illinois. The company’s beer sales to wholesalers in Missouri and Illinois were up more than 30 percent in the year’s first half.

For St. Louis Brewery — which operates the Tap Room in downtown St. Louis and the Bottleworks in Maplewood — the spike in beer sales in stores across the metro area has helped compensate for flat restaurant sales. The company is in the middle of a renovation at Bottleworks that will allow it to brew thousands of additional barrels of beer per year.

"We’re now a brewery with a restaurant, instead of a restaurant with a brewery," said Dan Kopman, chief operating officer.

That might be a good thing, because bars and restaurants are weathering tough times.

At Morgan Street Brewery on Laclede’s Landing, co-founder Steve Owings said overall business was flat. The brewpub opened in 1995 and focuses on attracting visitors to downtown hotels and conventions as well as sporting events.

Banquets, which represent about a third of Morgan Street’s overall business, are fewer and farther in between these days. Morgan Street’s beer production is on pace to be flat compared with last year, or perhaps short by a couple of batches. With one month remaining in its fiscal year, the company had made 600 barrels of beer. That compared with about 690 barrels in fiscal year 2008.

Square One Brewery near Lafayette Park and its sister brewpub, Augusta Brewing, are boosting production to keep up with bigger sales. Augusta’s production of beer is up about 27 percent compared with last year, and Square One is up 5 percent, said Steve Neukomm, owner of the establishments. Augusta might brew 550 barrels or more this year, he said.

"This year, we’ve actually been running very well," said Neukomm, who opened Square One in 2006. "I’ve been very, very happy. I almost don’t want to say something and jinx it."

Still, people have noticeably cut back on visits to bars and restaurants. That has been a challenge for Kansas City-based Boulevard Brewing, which draws 55 to 60 percent of its business from draft beer sold at such establishments.

Boulevard, one of the biggest craft brewers in the U.S., expects to make about 150,000 barrels of beer this year and is planning an expansion that will add another 60,000 barrels of capacity. But its sales in Missouri are basically flat this year.

The recession has taken a psychological and emotional toll even on folks who didn’t lose their jobs, benefits or even much investment holdings, said Bob Sullivan, Boulevard’s vice president of marketing. "They’ve kind of been holed up in their houses," said Sullivan.

But the new dynamic of eating and cooking at home also creates opportunity for Boulevard, which is paying more attention to grocery chains and other key retailers. Boulevard is putting on beer and food pairings at Schnucks stores. There are also radio commercials — featuring a voice-over by actor Matthew McConaughey — that encourage visitors at Price Shopper stores to grab a package of Boulevard Wheat along with prime cuts of beef.

"Certainly in tough economic times, drinking a good beer is an affordable luxury," said Nielsen’s Lake. Craft beer has "a lot of legs and a lot of room to grow."

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Brenda Rundle bought a Dell laptop at a Future Shop store in Toronto.

Her computer froze up last April, requiring a major repair by Future Shop.

The same thing happened in June.

"It consistently keeps losing memory," says Rundle.

"Eventually, it won’t even turn on."

She found that the manufacturer and retailer were doing little more than pointing fingers at each other when asked for help.

"I’ve been caught in the middle with a $1,400 paperweight, while spending money on Internet service," she complained.

Dancing a tango with two partners is no fun.

Recognizing the frustration factor, Future Shop’s head office took action quickly.

"Here’s what we’ll do," said spokeswoman Shannon Kidd.

"We’ll pick up and courier the laptop to our service depot in Toronto; we’ll diagnose, detail and repair the problem; we’ll courier it back to her home; and we’ll expedite the repair so the delay is minimized."

Future Shop also offered her an extended one-year warranty on her Dell laptop and a replacement if she had another issue with it during that time.

Dell Inc. started selling through retail stores in 2007, after selling online and over the phone before.

"Dell works with trusted retail partners such as Future Shop that strive to offer the best available customer service," says Gretel Perera, a spokeswoman for the Austin, Tex.-based manufacturer.

"In this case, we agree with the options and extended service that Future Shop has offered to the customer.

"The inconvenience caused to the customer is regrettable, but we trust Future Shop is doing everything in its power to accommodate the customer’s needs."

Some people who buy directly from Dell also write to me, asking for help.

Mike Delmar bought a Dell laptop in September 2006, along with a three-year extended warranty that covered on-site repairs lowest fee payday loans.

After shelling out money for several repairs not covered under the warranty, he refused to pay any more to fix a faulty laptop battery.

After I contacted Dell spokeswoman Janet Fabri, Delmar received a new battery, but had to keep the details confidential.

Ed Berlot told me about his $600 Dell monitor, bought last July, that had been replaced four times with refurbished models.

He said each monitor was replaced with a minimum of hassle under a three-year warranty that covered shipping costs. But he wanted help in getting a new monitor, not refurbished.

Dell gave him what he wanted three months ago – and the new one "works like a charm," he told me.

I’m in favour of a lemon law for computers: Once a repair has to be done three times in a row, a replacement is mandatory.

Future Shop already has a "three strikes and you’re out" provision in the extended warranties it sells.

Meanwhile, Lior Hershkovitz found a way to get faster service from Dell.

He has a brand-new laptop whose monitor was defective on receipt.

He didn’t want to ship it back and wait a month for a new one, custom-built to his specifications.

"I had only 30 days to get an exchange or a refund," he said.

"After that I’m at the mercy of their warranty.

"So I had to act quickly."

So, he went online and found an email address for founder Michael Dell, michael@dell.ca, at the Consumerist website.

That little exercise apparently did the trick.

An hour after he wrote a message, he got a call from Dell’s head office, promising to exchange his computer more quickly (within nine days).

Write to onyourside@thestar.ca or check the On Your Side blog at www.ellenroseman.com

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When it comes to rebuilding American cities, there are two basic approaches: Big, sweeping visions. Or block-by-block rebirth.

And the conflict between those two ideas sits at the heart of the debate over Paul McKee’s plan to rebuild 1,500 acres of St. Louis’ north side.

Is the $8 billion vision — of job centers, and housing, new streets and parks — the kind of plan that St. Louis needs to become a new, more vibrant city? Or is it the top-down imposition of one man’s vision upon its citizens, bound to destroy even as it creates. Is it a shot for the moon? Or too big to succeed?

These are the questions city leaders and residents will be asking over the next few months as they consider McKee’s NorthSide proposal and his unprecedented request for $205 million in city backing and countless other incentives. And as they do, they’ll enter a debate between big and small that has existed in urban planning for generations.

A century ago, the great architect Daniel Burnham urged Chicago to "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood." He then authored a massive plan to rebuild downtown Chicago. It helped transform the city.

Fifty years later, famed urbanist Jane Jacobs urged the organic, block-by-block rebirth of

urban neighborhoods, and warned against ripping out the old to make everything shiny and new. She helped fight off plans to clear Greenwich Village for a highway.

Here in St. Louis, efforts at so-called "urban renewal" cleared the Mill Creek Valley to build Highway 40, then built the doomed Pruitt-Igoe housing complex. More recently, city neighborhoods such as Tower Grove South and Benton Park have revived themselves on a diet of small-scale rehabs, even as downtown silver bullets like Ballpark Village and the Bottle District remain just dreams.

"The areas that have fared best have really been driven by that block-by-block mentality," said Claralyn Bollinger, president of ReVitalize St. Louis, a coalition of neighborhood activists. "It takes a whole community to make projects happen that make a neighborhood strong.

SILVER CANNONBALL

McKee’s plan is much grander than those — perhaps the biggest ever proposed in St. Louis. It’s more like a silver cannonball than a silver bullet. To make it work, he pledges to combine the best of both approaches — the diverse urbanity of Jacobs with the inspiring scale of Burnham.

"You have to engulf that whole huge area with a new sense of belief," he said.

It’s a project on the kind of scope the government used to do, several local planners noted, back in urban renewal days. They didn’t always work out as planned.

Mill Creek, for instance, still generates resentment, said veteran St. Louis architect Andy Trivers, over the thousands of people displaced to build a highway.

"It was a different world," Trivers said. "And that was OK then ‘for the greater good.’ But it really wasn’t good."

Inevitably, there was a backlash. Citizen activists fought off big projects, and the government gradually took a more hands-off approach. Neighborhood-run development groups came into vogue, and public-private partnerships replaced big government projects.

That’s especially true in St. Louis, said Sarah Coffin, a professor of urban planning at St. Louis University. The city has taken a light touch to planning, especially at the neighborhood level. Coupled with a weak real estate market, that opened a window for a developer like McKee to create his own vision.

"The city’s not going to lead," she said. "So the private sector will."

REACHING OUT

And while private development may be more efficient, it raises its own set of thorny issues — like public involvement.

The sharpest criticism of McKee comes from those who say his plan is too top-down, that he hasn’t done enough to engage a community that feels alienated by his five years of silent land-buying instant cash loans.

But McKee, chairman of McEagle Properties in O’Fallon, Mo., is a private developer. Until now, he hasn’t had to engage the public, notes Todd Swanstrom, a professor of public policy at the University of Missouri—St. Louis. But he wants the city’s approval for $410 million in infrastructure financing — and its agreement to pay back half that sum if the project can’t — and that will force it into the public realm.

"He’s going to have to be very public," Swanstrom said. "There can’t be too much consultation."

Still, more consultation from the start would have been better, said Bollinger.

Most of the small local groups that have worked to turn around neighborhoods across the city in recent years have focused on community involvement, she said. They’ve woven rehabs and new businesses into the existing fabric.

"And I’m not convinced that putting down a huge-scale development like this is going to be a panacea," Bollinger said.

A DIFFERENT WAY

Just across Florissant Avenue from the footprint of McKee’s project, sits a contrast to that huge scale development — Old North St. Louis.

That neighborhood has seen a wave of rehabs and new homes built in recent years, and the nonprofit Old North St. Louis Restoration Group will finish a 27-building, $35 million redevelopment of the 14th Street pedestrian mall. The once nearly empty plaza will soon house shops and businesses on the street level, with 80 apartments above.

Local residents have driven nearly all these efforts, said Sean Thomas, the group’s executive director. And they’ve focused on building from existing assets of the neighborhood. It takes a long time, though.

"One of the great challenges is we have to do it piece by piece. We just don’t have the resources to do everything," Thomas said. "But it happens at a pace that people can adjust."

Farther west, where McKee is working, there’s less fabric to build on and fewer residents. McEagle’s request for city financing says 44 percent of the 1,500-acre redevelopment area is either vacant land or vacant buildings. About 8,900 people live there, many in apartment complexes or developments that would stay put. And McKee says he wants to build around and include existing residents.

TOO BIG TO FAIL?

While some observers blame McKee for helping tear down that fabric and drive down the population as he has bought land in recent years, others note that the near north side has long been troubled.

"It’s the scar of 50 years of disinvestment," said Rick Bonasch, a veteran of St. Louis community development who has launched a blog that follows NorthSide. "And it’s big.

So big, McKee argues, that the area needs a really big plan if it will ever turn around. Nothing small will do the trick.

"We’re trying to affect something in a big way," McKee said.

That’s why he bought as much land as he could, where he did, he said. And it’s why he’s asking the city for more: To create jobs and build new neighborhoods in a place that’s seen too little organic growth for too long.

It’ll take a lot of land. McKee’s already got some. And that speaks to another truth of really big plans, Bonasch noted. In a sense, they’re too big to fail.

"We all kind of have a stake in him being a success here," he said. "He controls a lot of land, and I don’t think he’s going away."

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WASHINGTON — Initial flight tests have found that jet fuel made partly of camelina, algae or other biofeed stocks can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes by more than 50 percent, doesn’t affect performance and presents no technical or safety problems, a top Boeing official said Thursday.

"It meets all jet fuel requirements and then some," said Billy Glover, who heads Boeing’s environmental strategy group.

Glover said a full report on the test flights would be released next month and aviation biofuel could be approved for use as early as next year. Despite its promise, however, Glover said the real problem is how quickly growers can start producing and refiners processing enough biofuel to make it an alternative to the Jet A fuel used today.

Aircraft account for about 3 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, the principal greenhouse gas, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Though Boeing doesn’t expect much growth in aircraft carbon dioxide emissions, some have estimated they could triple by 2050.

Boeing, Virgin Atlantic, New Zealand Air, Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines, along with GE Aircraft Engines, have conducted four tests using a mixture of biofuel and regular jet fuel over the past 15 months. The planes involved included wide-body 747s and single-aisle 737s. The biofuels included blends of babassu, oil from sustainably grown coconuts, jatropha, algae and camelina.

Babassu oil comes from a tree that grows in the Amazon region of South America. Jatropha is a scrub brush that grows on marginal farmlands. Camelina, which provided oil for lamps in the days of the Roman Empire but for centuries was dismissed as little more than a weed, also can be grown on marginal lands, perhaps in rotation with such crops as dry-land wheat.

Of all the crops, camelina, for now, holds the most promise, Glover said.

Molecular biologists at Targeted Growth, a Seattle company, have used genetic engineering to develop a super strain of camelina seeds that are being sown on tens of thousands of acres in eastern Washington, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota, said Thomas Todaro, the company’s chief executive paydayloans.

Eventually, camelina could be grown on more than 10 million acres in the U.S.

In addition to the five states where it’s now grown, Todaro said, it could be grown in eastern Oregon, in high plains states such as Texas and Oklahoma, and even as far east as North Carolina and Georgia.

"This year, there were three times more requests for our seeds than we were able to provide," he said.

While reluctant to call camelina a wonder plant, Todaro said it could produce 100 to 200 gallons of camelina oil an acre, or about 1 billion gallons a year. The plant also grows well in Australia, Canada and central Europe. Todaro said it wouldn’t compete with others crops, such as wheat and corn, because it can be grown on marginal lands or in rotation, and doesn’t require irrigation or heavy use of petroleum-based fertilizers.

Although the world’s airlines consume about 65 billion gallons of fuel a year, Todaro and Glover said that camelina would be a good start.

In addition, Glover said the test show a camelina blend of aviation fuel reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 80 percent, more than any other biofeed stock.

"Camelina is very encouraging, but we need a portfolio of things," he said.

While algae may be the most promising biofuel, it’s still eight to 10 years away from full-scale production, Todaro and Glover said.

The test flights lasted a total of less than six hours, but Glover said the biofuels have been thoroughly tested in the laboratory. The Air Force and Boeing competitor Airbus have also been working to develop aviation biofuel.

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Spending 25 years in sales and marketing with Rawlings has changed the way Mike Thompson sees America’s favorite pastime. While watching a Yankees game on TV recently, he noticed something different about the team’s struggling slugger Mark Teixiera. It wasn’t the form of his swing that drew Thomspon’s attention, but what he was swinging — he wasn’t using his usual Rawlings bat.

It is common for struggling players to turn to superstitions to get them over a slump, such as a new brand of bat, but as a leader in sports marketing for the company, Thompson has to notice these idiosyncrasies. He knows that’s not the way most people watch baseball, but mixing business with the sport he loves hasn’t soured his enjoyment of the game.

There have been several chances to work elsewhere in the sports industry for Thompson, but the Southern California native loves working for what he calls the "mecca" of baseball companies. (About 35 percent of major league players wear Rawlings baseball mitts — the most of any company.)

The job requires Thompson to travel often to meet with athletes and their agents. More recently he’s spent time scouting emerging markets, such as Japan, to understand how the company can capitalize on baseball’s international growth.

Despite the frequent trips that take him away from his family, the job has its perks — many of which, he said, come in the form of sports memorabilia that line the walls of Thompson’s office and home.

How’s the economy affecting your business?

It’s a struggle. In 2008, we saw this coming about October when everything just started sliding. Fortunately for us, we really battled through all that, so we achieved our goals in 2008. This year has been even more challenging. Our business is off a little bit right now. But, obviously, the key is how you respond and recover and get up off the mat. … People are a little resistant to pay $400 for the high-end, premium ball glove or $350 for your top bat. So you look at segments of the business and say lets bring it down, develop a $199 bat or glove. We look at it from a product point of view.

I’ve heard plenty about baseball teams spending less on players’ contracts this year because of the poor economy. How have you handled paying players less on endorsement deals?

We’ve held a similar position. What’s been cool about it is agents and players have been understanding. With a few expected exceptions, there’s been a willingness to get on board. We’ve gone back and said, "The product is what you want, you’re going to have to take a bit of a cut this year cash advance today." They’ve been pretty understanding.

What’s more common with players you work with now — players who use new equipment regularly or those who stick with an old piece because of superstition?

I think it varies. At the professional level, from a ball glove point of view, depending on your position, at the professional level, once they get comfortable with the tool of their trade it’s hard to knock them off it. The guys who will switch are pitchers. They’re basically playing catch. So he typically doesn’t have a difficult time with it. But, say, a player like Albert Pujols, who’s been using a Rawlings product his entire career, he would have a very difficult time making that transition (to a new glove).

And a glove is different from a bat. A guy goes into a slump, if he’s 0-for-10, he sets that bat down and goes to the next one. There are lots of guys that use our bats and we’ll see, from time to time, they’ll switch to the competition. Typically, they’re in a slump. Or you can see a guy is swinging our bat now. The reason? He got a hit with it and continues to use it.

The bat thing goes back and forth. The glove thing, (players are) pretty regimented about that.

How do you deal with finicky athletes selecting equipment on superstition? Isn’t your job about controlling that?

It is, but this is where our branding guys come into play. Everything from blogs to YouTube videos. A lot of this stuff is moved digitally. Kids watch that.

For example, we might throw up an example of a home run exhibition that we staged with our partners that put on these high-level high school showcases using our bats. And you’ll see guys hitting third- deck bombs. We’ll take those clips, we YouTube them and put them on the Web for people to see.

What’s your favorite piece of sports memorabilia?

Well, I’m sort of a memorabilia geek. What’s in my basement would make this (stuff in the office) look pretty silly. But I’ve never asked for an autograph. A lot has come to me just from being in the business. In (the office, my favorite is) probably the Cardinal jersey from the 1940s. …It’s an actual gamer from about 1947.

In my basement, I’ve got a Babe Ruth signed check. I’ve got the program … from Yankee Stadium when they unveiled Mickey Mantle’s monument. I’ve got a lot of Joe DiMaggio stuff.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Thursday reported a stronger-than-expected 5 percent rise in sales at U.S. stores open at least a year in April, helped by demand for Easter merchandise.

Analysts, on average, were expecting the company’s same-store sales to rise 2.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters Estimates.

The world’s biggest retailer said Easter seasonal products posted a same-store sales gain in the high single-digits compared with a year ago. For the month ended May 1, Wal-Mart said net sales rose 2.4 percent to $29.853 billion.

Earlier this year, Wal-Mart said it would no longer provide monthly sales forecasts free credit report and score. Instead, the world’s biggest retailer said it would give forecasts for 13-week periods that roughly track its quarterly financial reporting periods.

The retailer said on Thursday that it will provide its next 13-week forecast when it reports quarterly results on May 14.

(Reporting by Nicole Maestri, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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Logitech, the world’s largest computer mouse maker, disappointed markets by posting a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss as the global economic downturn dampened consumers’ appetite for its products.

By 1053 GMT (6:53 a.m. EDT), shares in the group had plunged 11 percent to 12.19 Swiss francs, underperforming a near flat Swiss index .SLI.

The group painted a gloomy outlook for the first quarter, but Chief Executive Gerald Quindlen told Reuters this could be the turning point in the year for Logitech.

“Although we expect Q1 to be the low point in operating results there are signs that demand is stabilizing,” Gerald Quindlen told Reuters in an interview.

The fourth-quarter net loss of $35 million fell well short of analysts’ forecasts and compared with a year-earlier profit of $60.3 million.

“The historic (sales) growth levels of 15 percent are certainly not a thing of the past,” Quindlen said, adding that it was “just a question of time” before Logitech returned to a profit margin of 32 to 34 percent.

Consumers are reining in spending as their savings portfolios tumble in value and many worry about their jobs. Retailers are also reluctant to build up stock in the face of sluggish demand as the economic crisis bites.

“Logitech’s results are very disappointing,” Sal. Oppenheim analyst Nicolas von Stackelberg said, adding the worst was probably yet to come instant payday loan.

Logitech sees first-quarter sales of $300 million to $320 million and an operating loss of $40 million to $50 million. The first quarter is traditionally the group’s weakest period.

Fourth-quarter sales fell 32 percent to $408 million as a stronger dollar weighed, but Logitech said its market share was largely stable, and in some product categories it had even managed to grow.

“It seems that Logitech had to, and will, clean out old inventory with high discounts,” said Helvea analyst Tomas Hilfing. “As we had assumed, retailers seem to be keeping low inventory levels currently.”

Logitech said it will reduce shipments of its products and push promotional activities to help lower stock levels at shops.

Quindlen said further job cuts were unlikely after the group said in January it was cutting 15 percent of its salaried workforce — or around 500 jobs.

Analysts had expected Logitech to post a net loss of $3 million, according to the average estimate in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Thompson in Zurich and Jennifer Robin Raj in Bangalore; Writing by Katie Reid; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

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A St. Louis-based company that makes stem cell research products could benefit from President Barack Obama’s decision this week to broaden what stem cells qualify for federal funding.

Fine chemicals maker Sigma-Aldrich Corp. develops and sells general scientific kits that can be used by researchers and about 580 products specifically for stem cell research.

These products are a small portion of Sigma-Aldrich’s overall business. But the company is strengthening marketing efforts as stem cell research expands.

Obama signed an executive order Monday to lift federal funding restrictions on certain types of human embryonic stem cells. The action reversed a 2001 policy by President George W. Bush. Bush allowed federal funding only for human embryonic stem cells created before August 9, 2001.

The policy change doesn’t necessarily mean any extra federal research money. But it does expand the scope of funding.

The research opportunities look promising. Embryonic stem cells created after 2001, which now will qualify for federal funds, have been produced with better technology and can better meet what’s needed to treat human diseases, said Dr. Mary Ellen McAsey, an associate professor at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield. She received part of a $1.1 million grant from the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute for research using adult stem cells.

Dr. David Smoller, president of the Sigma-Aldrich’s Research Biotech business unit, said it was difficult to quantify how much the company would benefit from the expanded federal guidelines.

An increase in orders could happen if scientists need more research products and tool kits as they continue their stem cell studies with federal money easy payday loans.

The company is well-positioned to take advantage of this potential increase, but it would have only a small effect on overall earnings, said Daniel Ortwerth, a materials analyst for Edward Jones in Des Peres who tracks the company.

Sigma-Aldrich is "very deliberately a well-diversified company," Ortwerth said, so any one product carries little impact.

Smoller sees a stronger potential boost from the stimulus package, which includes more than $10 billion in additional funding for the National Institutes of Health.

"I think life science companies will benefit for sure," Smoller said.

The stimulus package specifies some NIH money for induced pluripotent stem cells, which are adult cells reprogrammed to mimic human embryonic cells, said Dr. John Kessler, director of Northwestern University’s Stem Cell Institute. So an increase in some stem cell research funding is on the way.

That could trickle down to more orders for Sigma-Aldrich.

To market its product portfolio, the company announced Wednesday that it had launched a one-stop shop online for researchers to quickly find and order stem cell research products. The launching and Obama’s action are "total coincidence," Smoller said.

atablac@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8140

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Moores Clothing for Men says consumers will barely notice the difference when it begins running new ads next week aimed at addressing federal Competition Bureau concerns about misleading representation.

"We’ve added one word – select," said Dave Starrett, president of Canada’s leading menswear chain with 100 stores across Canada.

The bureau asked for the amendment because it felt the retailer’s previous ads failed to make clear that a national two-for-one designer suit sale applied only to some of its suits.

"In these tough economic times, consumers are more concerned than ever in getting value for their money," said Andrea Rosen, the bureau’s deputy commissioner of competition.

Since the start of the economic downturn last fall, more retailers have resorted to two-for-one deals and other offers to attract customers. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, Rosen said: "It is important for advertisers to remember to clearly and conspicuously disclose any limitations or exclusions in their advertisements to ensure that consumers can make informed purchasing decisions good credit score."

To resolve the bureau’s concerns, Moores agreed to prominently disclose in its television, website and in-store signage that the sale applies only to select designer suits. The sale, which began the first two weeks of February, continues next week, Starrett said.

No other penalty was imposed on the retailer.

In previous cases of misleading advertising, the bureau has levied fines of more than $1 million against retailers, including Grafton-Fraser and Suzy Shier. However, in those cases the retailers were accused of inflating their regular prices to overstate the "sale price" savings to consumers.

Starrett said the bureau didn’t dispute the savings at Moores are real. "What it really came down to was the definition of `designer’."

The bureau said that by publishing its findings against Moores it hoped to deter others.

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Japan, China, South Korea and 10 Southeast Asian nations agreed to form a $120 billion pool of foreign-exchange reserves that can be used by countries to defend their currencies amid the deepening global recession.

The amount is 50 percent more than the $80 billion proposed last May, and an expansion of the current arrangement called the Chiang Mai Initiative that allows only bilateral currency swaps. The nations’ finance ministers and government officials jointly announced the decision at a meeting in Phuket, Thailand, today.

“The pool will shore up confidence and provide support for these nations in any kind of emergency,” said Alvin Liew, an economist at Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore. “We cannot rule out that some countries will need to tap the fund in this crisis.”

Many Asian currencies have weakened in the past year, threatening to undermine regional stability, as fallout from the global credit crunch ripples through their export-dependent economies. The fund is aimed at ensuring central banks have enough to shield their currencies from speculative attacks such as those that depleted the reserves of Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea during the 1997-1998 financial crisis.

“Capital flows into the region have decreased due to global de-leveraging,” the ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their three northern neighbors said in a joint statement.

Threat to Growth

Large reversals “of capital flows, which have affected the financial markets, could undermine growth prospects,” they said. “This can be a significant downside risk to regional growth, which has already been dragged down by the global economic downturn.”

Eight of 10 of Asia’s most-traded currencies outside of Japan have declined against the dollar in the past year, led by a 37 percent slump in the Korean won and a 23 percent drop in Indonesia’s rupiah, according to Bloomberg data.

The currencies are at risk of further losses as wealthier nations curb overseas investment and private investors sell existing stock and bond holdings in emerging markets.

Japan, China and South Korea will provide about 80 percent of the currency pool with the 10 Asean members contributing the remainder, the statement said, in line with last year’s proposal. How much each country will contribute is still under discussion and no date was set for completion of the new arrangement 500 payday loans.

Asian Crisis

A decade ago, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea spent much of their foreign reserves attempting to prop up their exchange rates. The three nations were forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund for more than $100 billion of loans. In return, the governments had to cut spending, raise interest rates and sell state-owned companies.

In the years since, Japan, China and South Korea together with the Asean economies have amassed more than $3.6 trillion of foreign-exchange reserves, about half of the global total.

Fallout from the current global slump has led to some Asian nations using their reserves to support their currencies.

South Korea’s foreign-currency holdings declined to $202 billion in January from a record $264 billion last March. The nation may use reserves after the won weakened beyond 1,500 per dollar last week, Yonhap News reported today, citing unidentified government and central bank officials.

Malaysia’s gold and foreign-exchange reserves fell to $91.3 billion on Jan. 30 from $123.7 billion on Aug. 15. Indonesia’s reserves have slumped by $10 billion since last July to $50.9 billion at the end of January.

‘First Step’

“There remains the need for more foreign exchange cooperation and coordination” to bolster regional stability, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda told the ministers in Phuket, according to the text of his speech obtained by Bloomberg News. “A multi-lateralized and expanded Chiang Mai Initiative is a critical first step only if it is operationalized quickly.”

Asian nations are expanding or forging new bilateral currency swap agreements even as they set up the combined reserve pool. Japan and Indonesia yesterday agreed to boost the size of an existing bilateral swap agreement to $12 billion from $6 billion. China and Malaysia this month agreed on a three-year 80 billion-yuan ($11.7 billion) currency swap.

“As an interim measure, the existing bilateral swap agreement network should play its full role and be strengthened in terms of size and participants if necessary,” the Asian ministers said in the joint statement.

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