What's Up With Businesses Around the State?

There were lots of announcements of new businesses opening during the last week. These announcements came from all areas of Oregon and included:

· Gearhart Junction Café, a 1950s-style American diner, has opened in Gearhart. If offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner with no items on the menu over $10. Coast River Business Journal, 7-1-09

· Aquarius Books & Gifts opened in Grants Pass. It offers books, t-shirts, incense, candles, and aromatherapy items. Grants Pass Daily Courier, 6-20-09

· Interfor Pacific will reopen its Gilchrist mill and call up to 70 employees back to work. It will produce materials for furniture, paneling, hand tools, and other goods. Bend Bulletin, 7-1-09

· Jim Normandy, inventor of the aluminum guitars and basses that bear his name, has opened Normandy Guitar, a retail store in Salem. It offers three styles of guitars, all hand welded and riveted in Salem. Statesman Journal, 7-2-09

There was also one big change announced...
· Shin-Etsu Handotai Group, a Japanese manufacturer of solar equipment and computer chip components, purchased the Hewlett Packard Co. campus in Vancouver. Officials at SEH America, Shin-Etsu’s Vancouver-based North American headquarters, are not commenting on their plans for the site, which will likely be used either to manufacture silicon wafers for computer chips or to make solar panel components. HP will lease back a portion of the site for the time being. Portland Business Journal, 6-26-09

And a local mill is scaling down employment:
· Pendleton Woolen Mills will close a portion of its yarn-making operation in Pendleton, moving the work to its Washougal, Wash., mill. The consolidation will mean the loss of 20 jobs; about eight workers have already been laid off. The Oregonian, 7-1-09

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