Biz in Brief
Business news from around South Jersey.
New Jersey’s unemployment rate rose to 3.2 percent for the month of October.
Subaru of America and TerraCycle, a recycler based out of Trenton, are bringing a recycling program to REI stores nationwide. They aim to collect snack wrappers accumulated from outdoor activities ahead of REI’s annual #OptOutside anti-Black Friday event. This is based off the automaker’s Subaru Loves the Earth program.
Rovagnati USA, an Italian meat processing company, is opening a 64,000-square-foot production and wholesale distribution facility in Vineland, with intentions to expand the facility to about 500,000 square feet over the next five years.
Morphe, a California-based cosmetics chain, is opening in the Cherry Hill Mall this fall.
Digital Accounting Institute and Visions in Innovative Accounting merged and launched DIGIT—a full-service firm providing comprehensive digital accounting and financial education. DIGIT provides real-time financial data through improved system structure and timesaving business operations.
Atlantic City Electric ranks second among East region midsize utilities according to the J.D. Power 2019 Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study.
A new bill, the New Jersey Fair Plat Act,proposed by Sen. Joseph Lagana, would allow collegiate athletes to hire lawyers or other representatives as they seek compensation and begin earning money for the use of their name, image and likeness.
Destination Maternity has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to the filing, the retailer has $244 million of debt and $260 million in assets.
Merck & Co. is cutting 500 jobs in several states, including a small percentage in New Jersey.
Rowan University and the city of Vineland are entering an agreement to determine the feasibility of establishing a veterinarian school. A contract for the feasibility study has been awarded and a report is expected in about six months.
New Jersey businesses received more than $3 million in grants from the New Jersey Labor Department. The funding is designed to help businesses acquire skilled labor by defraying costs associated with training employees.
Investors Bancorp, Inc. recently announced its banking subsidiary, Investors Bank, formed an alliance with ODX, a digital small business originations platform and a subsidiary of On Deck Capital, Inc. Investors Bank will deploy ODX’s digital loan origination platform in a phased approach to enhance its small business lending program in select areas of its banking network.
New Jersey American Water is investing $1.38 million to replace close to 7,000 feet of aging infrastructure in Cherry Hill. Contractors expect the work to be completed by the end of December.
Cumberland County is one of five communities in New Jersey that was selected by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to receive a $100,000 grant through the Opportunity Zone Challenge Program. The program supports efforts to attract community-supported opportunity zone investments, build investment readiness and help the community meet its goals for opportunity fund investment.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded $150,000 to the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy & Law at Rutgers Law School to support efforts to develop research and policy proposals on digital platform regulation and free speech.
Discount department store Shopper World is opening in the Hamilton Mall into the space that was formerly J.C. Penney.
Campbell Soup Co. is awarding more than $1.5 million in grants to 22 organizations as part of its philanthropic program, Campbell Healthy Communities, and its annual grant-making cycle. The New Jersey organizations receiving the grants are the Camden Coalition of Health Care Providers, the Center for Environmental Transformation, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the Food Bank of South Jersey and The Food Trust.
Subscription beauty retailer Birchbox is expanding its pop-ups to 500 Walgreens in 44 states, including eight locations in New Jersey, two of which are in South Jersey—Egg Harbor Township and Haddon Township.
The Shreiber Family Pet Therapy Program recently opened at Rowan University. The program, established with $3 million from Gerald Shreiber, J&J Snack Foods Corp. chief executive officer, provides therapy dogs to students to help their mental health.
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Published (and copyrighted) in South Jersey Biz, Volume 9, Issue 11 (November 2019).
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