Cintas, Multi-Link Honored by Better Business Bureau

Cintas Corporation and Multi-Link, Inc. are the 1997 recipients of the Better Business Bureau's Quality 2000 Award.

The two companies were selected after completing an intensive application process, which involved focusing on issues such leadership, process management, human resource utilization and customer focus and satisfaction. Five thousand applications were sent out by the BBB. Each completed application was reviewed by an independent panel of judges from UK's Carol Martin Gatton College of Business & Education.

Cintas Corporation, a national uniform service company with an office in Lexington and four Kentucky manufacturing plants (located in Bath, Powell, Perry and Rockcastle counties), was chosen as the winner in the large business category, Multi-Link, a communications equipment manufacturer based in Nicholasville, was the recipient in the small business category. Multi-Link's activated power controller product, The Power Stone, was the winner of Teleconnect magazine's 1997 Editor's Choice Award and the 1997 Governor's New Product Award sponsored by the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers.

Eskew & Gresham Merges with Regional CPA Firm

Eskew & Gresham, Kentucky's largest independent certified public accounting (CPA) firm, has announced its merger with Crowe Chizek and Co., the nation's 10th largest CPA firm.

Eskew & Gresham, which has been in business for 75 years, has 14 CPAs in its Lexington office and 22 in its Louisville office, with a total office staff of 70.

Crowe Chizek opened a Louisville office last year staffed by 10 employees. The firm has nine other U.S. offices throughout Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio as well as an office in Redhill, England (near London).

Jim Naus, managing partner with Crowe Chizek, said the firm plans to add approximately 20 more employees to the two Kentucky offices by the end of the year.

The nine current Eskew & Gresham partners will become Crowe Chizek partners and the Eskew & Gresham name will be retained until the firms complete the process of blending their market identity and internal operations.

With combined annualized revenues of more than $120 million, Crowe Chizek will rank as the eighth largest CPA firm (based on revenue) when the Ernst & Young/KPMG Peat Marwick and the Coopers & Lybrand/Price Waterhouse mergers are completed.

National City Signs Merger Agreement

National City Corporation and First of America Bank Corporation have announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement.

First of America Bank is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan and ranks 39th among banking companies in the U.S., based on total assets.

National City Corporation, based in Cleveland, Ohio, is a $53 billion bank holding company with 845 branch offices in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania. National City ranks 19th in the nation in terms of assets. National City Bank has 19 locations in and around Lexington.

With combined assets of $74.4 billion, the merger will create the 13th largest banking organization in the U.S. in terms of total assets. Together, the two serve more than eight million households in six states. The merger is expected to close by the early part of the second quarter.

BellSouth Triples Coverage Area

BellSouth Mobility Inc. has tripled the size of its Kentucky wireless telephone coverage area as the result of an agreement with United States Cellular Company. The terms of the agreement call for BellSouth Mobility to acquire 69 counties in Kentucky and Indiana from United States Cellular in exchange for BellSouth territories in Wisconsin. Forty-four of Bef[South's newly-acquired counties lie in the southwest region of Indiana and western Kentucky; the other 25 counties are located in eastern Kentucky. Prior to the agreement, BellSouth offered wireless service in 32 Kentucky and Southern Indiana counties, with the coverage area primarily consisting of the metropolitan Louisville and Lexington markets.

"It just made a lot of sense for us to target our energies on expanding and enhancing our traditional market - the Southeast," said Michael Dobbs, regional general manager for BellSouth Mobility Kentucky. "And since United States Cellular was more of an upper-Midwest company, it was logical for them to have a strong interest in our Wisconsin territories."

In Kentucky, United States Cellular did business under the name Cellular One in the eastern part of the state and as United States Cellular in Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Customer service centers in Evansville, Louisville and Lexington will continue to provide local assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week to customers in the former United States Cellular coverage area.

Dobbs noted that "because of the economies of scale," the acquisition will enable BellSouth to offer premier service for a lower cost.

Link-Belt Plans Expansion

The Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company has announced plans for a major engineering facility expansion. The new 25,000-square-foot facility will provide the space needed for new product design and production engineering growth, said Dan Quinn, vice president of engineering for Link-Belt.

"This addition will facilitate 'con-current' engineering by locating new product design alongside production engineering," explained Quinn.

The project is being handled by Denham Blythe Co. and is expected to be complete by late spring.

Charities Benefit from Fazoli's Growth

The opening of the new Fazoli's Italian Restaurant at Hamburg Pavilion represented the 300th restaurant for Lexington-based Seed Restaurant Group.

The restaurant joins Target and Goody's as one of the first companies in the new power center located at the intersection of Winchester Road and I-75.

In keeping with its tradition of donating to a local charity on opening day of their restaurants, Fazoli's contributed $300 to Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Bluegrass. In celebrating its 300th store, however, the company has taken that tradition one step further. This month, participating Fazoli's restaurants across the country will choose a local charity and donate a penny for every breadstick served during the course of one week. The average Fazoli's serves about 14,000 breadsticks per week.

Fazoli's has experienced rapid growth since Seed purchased the restaurant concept in 1990 from Jerrico Inc., which originated the concept in the 1980s. Last year the company began a westward expansion into Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado and now has more than 6,000 employees throughout 28 states.

Kentucky's Quality Awards Enter Second Year

Applications are now being accepted from companies petition wanting to participate in Kentucky's quality award program. The Commonwealth of Kentucky Quality Award, which is patterned after the U.S. Commerce Department's Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, was established in 1996 to provide a honored system for Kentucky businesses to measure their progress and growth. It is not a competition and businesses and organization of any size are eligible to participate. Each organization that submits an application will receive written feedback identifying strengths as well as areas that need improvement.

Thirty Kentucky organizations were honored for their commitment to quality at the first annual awards presentation last year. The Danville, Kentucky plant of the Dana Corporation, which manufactures automotive engine gaskets and sealants, was awarded the Governor's Gold Quality Award.

For more information about how your company can participate in this year's program, call the Kentucky Quality Council at 606/2559458 or 800/453-0798. A $50 application fee is required, plus an additional $1 per full-time employee (maximum of $1,000) when submitting the application package.

Square D Donates Habitat House

Square D has announced plans to foot the entire bill for a Habitat for Humanity house to be built later this year in Lexington.

The company's commitment comes as part of its participation in the Angel Network, an effort initiated by talk show host Oprah Winftey. One of the goals of the Angel Network is to secure corporate support for 205 Habitat homes in communities where Winfrey's show is broadcast.

"Habitat for Humanity is very special to Square D because residential construction is a major market," said Chris Richardson, president and chief operating officer of Square D.

Although Square D has played an active role in the construction of a number of Habitat projects throughout the country over the past several years, the Lexington house will be the largest single Habitat contribution by the company and its people in Lexington, said Jim Eidson, plant manager for Square D's Lexington facility. Materials for the project will run in the neighborhood of $43,000. Construction labor will be provided by community volunteers and the family for whom the house is being built. (One of Habitat's basic tenets is that the family selected by the organization be willing to invest "sweat equity" to become homeowners.)

Square D's Lexington plant, which is the company's principal producer of electrical load centers and safety switches for both residential and commercial use, is the company's largest facility, employing some 1,100 people.

Financial lndustry Leads '97 Merger Activity

With a staggering $145.8 billion in transactions during the first three quarters of 1997, the financial services industry dominated the country's merger scene last year, according to Mergerstat, a publication of Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin, an investment banking services company. Banking and finance, brokerage, investment banking and insurance accounted for 32 percent of the overall deal market Mergerstat reported.

Law Firm Develops Regional Presence

Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs has announced plans to expand its presence in the region with the opening of an office in East Tennessee. The new office, the firm's fifth in Tennessee, will be located in the Northeast Tennessee Business Park adjacent to the Tri-Cities Regional Airport. It will be headed by former Circuit Court judge and well-known environmental and employment attorney Ed E. Williams, Ill.

The new location helps solidify the firm's position as the largest law firm operating in the Kentucky-Indiana-Tennessee region and is another part of its plan to become a statewide law firm in Tennessee, said Stewart E. partner of Wyatt, Tarrant Combs. Wyatt was the first out-of-state law firm to enter the Nashville market in 1989 when it merged with the 15-lawyer firm of Gilbert & Milom. Since then, it has added offices in Memphis, bringing the number of Tennessee lawyers to 65.

In addition to its Tennessee offices, Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs has offices in Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort and New Albany, Indiana.

PR Firm Earns National Ranking

Lexington-based PrestonˇOsborne has been recognized as one of the best public relations firms in the nation by Inside PR, a leading industry publication.

The publication's annual report on agencies ranked PrestonˇOsborne as one of the 14 best firms in America for handling public affairs issues.

In its assessment of the firm, Inside PR noted that PrestonˇOsborne "...brought to issues management, and public affairs clients in particular, a strategic insight and a business savvy that is still uncommon among agencies its size and is way ahead of the curve in its commitment to research as part of the public relations planning process..."

The firm was founded in 1968 as The Preston Group and is Kentucky's oldest public relations firm. Phil Osborne, president and CEO of PrestonˇOsborne, purchased the company from the firm's founder, Thomas L. Preston, last July.

Association Update

• William L. Underwood, M.D., Ginny Luftman and Mary Gus Smith are the recipients of the Fayette County "Medical Society's top awards for community service.

Underwood, a pediatrician at the Lexington Clinic, was cited for his exemplary volunteerism, demonstrated through his service over the past 31 years at the Baby Health Service Clinic. Underwood served as chief of staff of Baby Health from 1970-1982 and again from 1994 to the present. Under his guidance, the Baby Health Service was awarded the 1997 Presidential Service Award, one of the most prestigious awards given to a volunteer organization.

Ginny Luftman and Mary Gus Smith received the Society's Lay Person Award for their efforts in creating the SMART (Students Made Aware Reject Tobacco) program. SMART implements an interactive presentation that teaches the risks associated with smoking to middle school students.

• The Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute recently awarded Bruce R. Isaac with the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation. Of the estimated 125,0000 commercial real estate practitioners in North America, only 5,200 currently hold the CCIM designation. Isaac is associated with NAI Isaac Commercial Properties, Inc.

• Lexington builder Tom Padgett was recently awarded Custom Home magazine's "Pacesetter Award" for excellence in management. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the National Home Builders Association Custom Builders Symposium in Orlando, Florida, which was attended by 600 custom home builders from across the U.S.

Padgett's company, Padgett Construction, was recognized in a salute to 15 of the best custom builders in the business.

Padgett has been building and remodeling homes in the Lexington area since 1984.

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