News

BUSINESS BRIEFS: Selee acquisition, Pardee finances, United Way adds staffers

By Bill Moss, Published: July 2, 2015

Selee Corporation has acquired Fiber Ceramics, a Cincinnati corporation that could help the Hendersonville company speed its production.

“One of the things they do well is in our process to make the same product, we take 44 hours to fire our furnace,” said Mark Morse, Selee’s president. “They can do it in four.”
The potential for faster manufacturing comes as Selee is seeing marketing growth in a new product.
“That’s the idea — to speed up production and find some cost reductions and hopefully put some of our own products through there,” Morse said. “We have another product that is getting quite bit of growth. We can free up that firing space for that product and we can transition other things into this new furnace.”
Selee will continue to operate the business in Cincinnati until it receives permits for the move to the company’s Shepherd Street plant. Then the company will move equipment into the Hendersonville plant.
A maker of reticulated ceramic foam structures for use in molten metal filtration and kiln furniture applications, Fiber Ceramics has about six employees and brings in about $1 million in annual revenue, Morse said. “It’s a competitor in an area where we have not done a lot of work,” he said. The move is not expected to add jobs at the Hendersonville plant.

Pardee reports healthy finances

Pardee Hospital sustained year over year growth in most of its patient services through the first eight months of the fiscal year, the Board of Directors heard last week.
Two-thirds of the way through the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the county-owned UNC Health Care affiliate reported admissions of 5,056, or 288 ahead of budget and 602 better than the eight-month period a year before. Emergency room visits were up 663 to budget and 846 ahead of 2014. Combined Hendersonville and Fletcher urgent care clinic visits were 3,026 ahead of budget and 4,360 better than the year earlier.
Gross operating margin of $9 million through May beat the budget by $1.33 million and topped the 2014 number of $5.45 million.
“May was a little bit down from what we have seen” so far this year, Finance Committee chair Bill Smith said. “Cost containment continues to be very strong.”
Total physician visits of 67,388 fell short of the target by 6,866 but came in ahead of last year by 8,225.
“We brought on a lot of physician practices,” Smith said. “Some of them came on later than expected. Some of them ramped up slower.”

United Way adds two new staffers

Sarah KowalakThe Henderson County United Way has announced the hiring of two new staff members.
Sarah Kowalak, who served as the agency’s marketing coordinator from 2007-2013, rejoined the United Way after two years as community relations director at The Free Clinics. Originally from Massachusetts, Kowalak and her family have been in Henderson County for 10 years. As director of community impact, Sarah collaborates with United Way partners to make improvements in education, income and health in the community.
Tana BlackTana Black started last week as marketing and communications coordinator. Formerly a freelance reporter and photographer for the Asheville Citizen-Times, she also worked in communications with an international adoption agency and most recently worked in the mortgage industry with two local banks. Raised in a military family, she has traveled widely and called many places home. She has lived in Western North Carolina for almost 20 years.