Idaho Business Review IBR

Grocer Supervalu Inc.’s fiscal fourth-quarter net income dipped 2 percent, partly weighed down by softer sales and store closings. The earnings topped Wall Street expectations. Supervalu stock surged $1.42, or 16 percent, to $10.50 in premarket trading. The stock has ...

Small business borrowing improved slightly last year after plunging in 2009, said Kelly Robertson, Boise-based senior vice president and director of regional credit for Zions Bank. Activity so far this year has been similar to that of 2010. “We continue ...

Donnelly residents Louis and Paige Miller got their first forest-restoration contract, to thin out underbrush and small trees land managers consider wildfire fuel, in the summer of 2009. They lined up more contracts, and early the next year applied for ...

The Buckner Co., a commercial insurance agency based in Ogden, Utah, has entered Idaho by opening an office at 960 Pier View Drive, Idaho Falls. The company liked the stability of the Idaho Falls economy, CEO Terry Buckner said, and ...

NEW YORK, N.Y. – It might be inconceivable to small business owners that a disaster hundreds or thousands of miles away could shut them down. But the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have interrupted shipments of parts and finished goods ...

Health insurance carriers cut commissions 30 to 60 percent since part of the federal health care reform law took effect Jan. 1, said Idaho Association of Health Underwriters lobbyist Jim Genetti. He proposes the Idaho Legislature support changing the law ...

Small businesses that financed buildings during the mid-2000s boom did so with the anticipation of continued economic growth and increased valuations. As the downturn has dragged on, most face balloon payments on commercial mortgages that are pushing them to look ...

Idaho added securities brokers and insurance agents in 2010 as firms got more bullish. Business growth has been a bigger factor than health care reform on the insurance side so far. The state saw a nearly 11 percent increase in ...

Idaho’s leveled off unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, boosted by an estimated 4,000 jobs during the past 12 months, is a good indicator that small business should be on the recovery. Jeff Thredgold, economic consultant to Zions Bank, said, “A ...

Investment capital is starting to flow to community banks to help them improve balance sheets and get off regulators’ watch lists. Bank of the Cascades parent Cascade Bancorp and McCall-based Idaho First Bank recently raised capital in stock offerings. “There ...