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Almanac
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Business New Haven
11/3/1997
By: BNH
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Thunder Down Under
Global motor vehicle parts supplier Echlin Inc. of Branford and Atkins Carlyle Ltd., an Australian automotive and industrial corporation, have signed a letter of intent. According to the agreement, Atkins will purchase the assets of Echlin's automotive parts distribution business, Echlin Australia Pty. Ltd. The business generates roughly $40 million in annual sales. The companies expected to close the transaction by the end of October, and Echlin will use the undisclosed proceeds from the sale to pay down its bank debt. As part of the transaction, the companies will also enter into a three-year supply agreement under which Atkins will distribute Echlin's products throughout Australia.
ConnSTEP Steps Up
Like the weather, everyone talks about growing new technology-based companies in Connecticut - but no one does anything about it. Well, almost no one. The Connecticut State Technology Extension Partnership (ConnSTEP) has received a two-year contract to undertake a Connecticut Entrepreneurial Resources of Technology (CERT) program aimed at developing methodology to encourage and improve technology-based business growth in the state. The project will then use the methodology to assist three or more companies in the early stages of commercialization. Capital Access Partners of Trumbull has been awarded a two-year program from ConnSTEP to conduct an analysis of the weaknesses and strengths of Connecticut as an environment for technology firms, and to develop tools to capitalize of the strengths and minimize or eliminate the weaknesses. It is hoped that the project may provide a model which will serve as a blueprint for statewide implementation, and even be capable of adaptation by other states.
Back To Work
Unemployment insurance claims continue their downward trend in the state. During the two-week period ending October 4, claims averaged 29,510, down 5.4 percent (1,692 claims) from the previous two-week period, reports the state's Department of Labor. Compared with the same period one year ago, claims were down 5,342, or 15.3 percent. Both first-time and continued claims fell, and claims activity was down in all but one of the state's 18 job centers.
Patent Place
The Patent and Trademark Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce has officially designated the New Haven Free Public Library a patent and trademark depository library. The Patent and Trademark office selects at least one facility in each state, usually a university or public library, as a patent and trademark depository library. Both the New Haven Free Public Library and the Hartford Public Library were selected because of the increasing number of filings of patent and trademark applications in the state. The public will henceforth have access to the patent and trademark office's large database and other technical information about patents and trademarks.
Setting the Record
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced last month that it had set a new record for dollar amount of loans in Connecticut during its recently concluded 1997 fiscal year. In the state 801 loans totaling $190.5 million were approved for small businesses, a figure the SBA says helped to create 5,444 new jobs statewide.
Quote of the Fortnight
Connecticut congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, 54, had better get rolling: She looks like a stone that's been gathering moss.” So sayeth the November issue of George, in numbering DeLauro among Washington's “worst dressed” women. The Third District Democrat and New Haven native is pictured in John F. Kennedy Jr.'s contribution to the vanity-press industry wearing an odd-looking patchwork jacket of a greenish but ultimately indeterminate hue.
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