Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We have 3 corporate HQ announcements to post today. Two from Norway and one homegrown. One Pharmaceutical testing and consulting, one industrial software tech, and one employee and customer service tech, but all are helping to diversify the Greater Houston economy.
First up
Eagle, an ISO-certified analytical laboratory, opened its new headquarters in southwest Houston, Texas. Registered with the FDA, DEA and Texas Department of Public Safety, Eagle provides science-based testing and consulting services to 503A compounding pharmacies, 503B outsourcing facilities and pharmaceutical manufacturers worldwide.
Strategic partners include PCCA, a Houston-based, FDA-registered supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients and technical consulting to pharmacies, healthcare institutions and outsourcing facilities. PCCA President Jim Smith and PCCA Chief Scientific Officer Gus Bassani, PharmD, participated in the grand opening ceremonies.
Fifteen years ago, we had a vision that pharmacies had a need to assess the quality of the compounded formulations they were making,” Dr. Bassani said. “We’ve gone from four employees and 4,000 square feet to 50 employees and 30,000 square feet. Today, Eagle is not only about assessing the stability, sterility and quality of formulations prepared in compounding pharmacies, they’re also about the testing of what is prepared in CGMP environments, such as those within the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.” https://www.areadevelopment.com/news...on-texas.shtml
When considering entering the United States market, Francois Laborie, general manager of Cognite North Americas, of course considered some of the obvious cities for a regional headquarters."Initially, when we talked about the US, people assumed Silicon Valley or Boston, because we are a traditional software company," Laborie says. "But we really didn't consider too long because the customers we work with require a pretty deep understanding of industry."The Norway-based company decided to bet on the energy capital of the world and has announced future offices in Houston as well as Austin — both to open by this summer. This will be Cognite's first expansion outside of Northern Europe. The company makes data software for industrial businesses
Cognite, which expects around 50 employees (both new hires and relocations) split between the two locations, already has strategic Houston partnerships in place. Cognite will operate out of Station Houston and even has an internship program and partnership with Rice University. Overall, Laborie says the reception of the city has been positive."Houston went above and beyond," Laborie says. "The relationship with Rice has been very interesting because they are working closely with the Houston municipality to transform this image of Houston to get a stronger driver on innovation with the Innovation District, which spoke very loudly to us."These partnerships are a crucial party of the company, Laborie says, and Cognite plans to work within Houston's innovation ecosystem to continue to push the envelope on innovative technologies.
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Questback, a global technology leader in employee and customer experience management, today announced that its U.S. headquarters would be formally seated in Houston. The company has had an office in Houston since 2015 and has hundreds of employees worldwide, including a presence in New York City.
“We are very excited to formally announce Questback’s U.S. headquarters in Houston,” said Frank Møllerop, CEO of Questback. “With a fast-growing technology sector, in addition to well-established vertical markets, Houston is a fantastic location to continue to grow our large portfolio of U.S.-based customers and partners.”
Houston is home to forty-seven Fortune 1000 company headquarters, making it the perfect place for our continued expansion in the U.S. market,” said Maurice Milton, President and General Manager of North America Sales and Field Operation at Questback. “The city’s vibrant and diverse business community presents a wide range of new opportunities for Questback’s experience management solutions.” https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...arters-Houston
Today we have a homegrown food distribution giant getting bigger , a Swedish digital financial services company for immigrants, a Portuguese boot maker, a global IT services firm moving from Pennsylvania, and a solar power retailer that is a subsidiary of a SoCal solar power generator opening local Headquarters and helping diversify the greater Houston economy.
First up
Sysco, the nation’s largest food service distributor, said Tuesday it had acquired two Hawaii-based food wholesalers and distributors.
Armstrong Produce and Kula Produce are sister companies that operate in Honolulu, Kona, Maui and Kahului. The companies, founded in 1979 and 1987, respectively, have approximately $155 million in combined annual revenue.
Under Sysco’s ownership, the companies will operate as part of FreshPoint, the Houston-based food giant’s specialty produce company. Sysco did not disclose the purchase price
CEO Magnus Larsson announced the company's launch from the stage at TECH FEST in Stockholm in September; the company will open its U.S. headquarters in Houston later this month
STOCKHOLM and HOUSTON, Oct. 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- MAJORITY, the first digital financial service for migrants in the world today announced its departure from stealth with the launch of the first-ever membership-based app made specifically for international communities, starting with those living and working in the United States. The company is also announcing the opening of its U.S.-based headquarters in Houston, TX to complement its Swedish office in Stockholm.
MAJORITY chose Houston as the site of its U.S. headquarters as it represents one of the most vibrant and diverse communities of migrants living and working in the country. MAJORITY's sister company, Rebtel, already has a number of subscribers who are living in the Houston area, so it made natural sense to debut within a community that shares ties and familiarity with the services offered by MAJORITY and in an area where the team is already ingrained. The company has hired over 200 local employees from the community to serve as local ambassadors and is looking forward to soon becoming a key resource to help those who need it most. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/major...133000279.html
next
Urban Shepherd Boots can be aged by fire upon request. The technique is a nod to traditional Portuguese work boots that were believed to have been hung to dry in the fireplace by shepherds, farmers and other field laborers after a day’s work. The flames lent a patina that some modern-day customers want.
Fired or not, Urban Shepherd Boots get better with age, says Houston attorney Mike Lodzinski, who with his wife, Krystle, recently invested in the brand and relocated its headquarters to Houston.
Global IT services firm Techwave expands into new Houston headquarters
Company is looking to foster and hire local talent, encourage more women to pursue IT careers
Techwave, a global digital technology and consulting services firm, has expanded into a new Global Headquarters & Regional Digital Innovation Center in the Houston Energy Corridor’s Republic Square. The new location is over triple the size of its former offices in Exton, Pennsylvania.
The headquarters will also serve as Regional Digital Innovation Center (RDCs) serving the North American client base. The other Techwave RDCs are in Hungary and Australia.
Techwave Houston Regional Development Center (RDC) will provide state of the art training program to recruit and grow young talent aligned with a customer centric focus to drive innovation and transformation. The plan is to double the headcount operating out of Houston RDC by the end of 2020.
Techwave also has U.S. offices in California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and international offices in Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, UK , Australia , Singapore , South Africa and India. https://techwave.net/media/global-it...-headquarters/
Finally
HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–174 Power Global Corporation (“174 Power Global”) today announced that it broke ground on the $200 million Oberon Solar Power Facility (“Oberon”) in Ector County, Texas. In addition to expanding its solar generation investments, 174 Power Global also announced the launch of a new retail affiliate, Chariot Energy, to facilitate the delivery of affordable, clean energy to customers across Texas.
A Houston based, and privately held engineering and construction firm, is specializing in specialty building of manufacturing facilities for companies from around the world, bringing global economic diversity to the Greater Houston economy.
Keith Dalton may have been born and raised in Houston, but the graduate of Robert E. Lee High School (now called Margaret Long Wisdom High School) and Texas A&M credits much of the success of his company to firms that made their bones across the globe.
Houston-based developer KDW (Kingham Dalton Wilson) has focused on luring overseas-based companies looking to open Houston-area manufacturing facilities by offering them all-in-one, so-called “design build” services that include everything from site selection to permitting to design to engineering to construction.
Q: Where are your clients coming from?
A: We have too many to describe. We have lots of German companies making everything from diesel engines for ships to drilling equipment to temperature vessels and gauges. We have Dutch companies in the valve industry, packaging facilities from Vietnam, Japanese companies making cranes, building materials from Ireland, pipe and oil and gas materials from France, underwater umbilical cables from Poland and England. These companies are either coming for the first time or relocating to Texas. Some of the owners are direct descendants of 150- to 250-year-old companies. All they want is a facility to make more of their product here, and they need it as efficiently as possible, and they don’t want to deal with multilayered contracts for all of the services needed to build the building. They just need a single source to coordinate everything. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...photo-18634588
A Finnish Alternate fuel company along with a local Ice sculpture and catering company are adding clean energy and cold ice to Houston's economic diversity !
Neste leads the pack in sustainable jet fuel production
On a windowsill in a Galleria office overlooking Houston’s ribbons of roads sit four jars: one filled with dark brown cooking oil, fried sediment sunk to the bottom, and another with creamy, sludgy tallow tinted a pale yellow.
Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
Two smaller glass containers hold clear diesel and jet fuel — the products, after a complicated refining process, that could power commercial vehicles and airplanes
The small amount of clear liquid is not enough to fuel a trip from Houston to the Permian Basin, but Neste, the Finnish energy company that produces it, says it’s on track to become the largest producer of sustainable aviation jet fuel in the world, with brand-name customers to boot.
To produce the fuels, Neste contracts with waste collection companies that take used cooking oil from restaurants and waste from animal and vegetable processing plants in the U.S. Those providers sell the used oils to Neste.
It store the oils in a terminal in Houston before shipping it to one of its refineries in Finland, the Netherlands or Singapore for processing. It’s Galleria-area U.S. headquarters employs 65 people who focus on sales and managing its raw materials.
In September, the Environmental Protection Agency approved Neste U.S.’s petition, made in partnership with with Houston-based Texmark Chemicals Inc., for a new renewable fuel standard pathway to produce jet fuels in Texas. Texmark, a chemicals processing company, will purchase renewable diesel from Neste’s Finnish refineries and fractionate, or break down, the diesel at its Galena Park facility to create renewable jet fuels and renewable diesel “bottoms,” a fuel has a higher average energy density than renewable diesel. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...photo-18664041
Chainsaw and chill: It’s ice sculpture season in Houston
It was a scene that could only happen in Houston, with its freewheeling lack of zoning and love of the improbable. The backyard of the blue-and-tan house with a jet ski parked out front is the unlikely home of a booming ice carving business, DLG Ice Factory. Its owner, Rolando de la Garza, first encountered the art — which involves shaping frozen water with chainsaws, chisels, picks and propane torches — at a catering event in El Campo.
DLG Ice Factory ice carvers Don Lowing, left, and Burr "Buddy the Viking" Rasmussen moving ice blocks before carving for an order for the Frostival at Discovery Green, which they are producing the Houston skyline, on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, in Houston. The company prepares as many as 100 blocks of ice for holiday events, and starting Photo: Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer
DLG Ice Factory has worked hard to diversify the types of events it services. “Once we had a funeral in the morning, a strip club for lunch and then we were at Senator John Cornyn’s in the evening.” Butter said, clarifying, “The strip club was to deliver a booty luge. We weren’t just having lunch.” DLG also sells high-end ice cubes of its dense, clear ice for bars to use in whiskey; for $9 a cube, you can have your ice hand-monogrammed. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...tent=headlines
Two $100 million plus projects, one at City Centre, and one at the Port of Galveston are helping to bring innovation and recreation to Greater Houston's economic diversity.
City Council approves $6M tax break for live-work-play entrepreneurial community
A live-work-play entrepreneurial community in west Houston is getting a $6 million tax break for helping stimulate Houston’s nascent tech ecosystem through its $150 million mixed-use development, a project that’s pledging to support more than 400 jobs by 2023.
The Founders District is being developed on 32 acres near the intersection of I-10 and Beltway 8. With the Cannon startup hub as an anchor, the development plans to create office spaces, restaurants, bars and apartment units. It wants to become a community where budding entrepreneurs can share ideas and build companies.
Photo: Founders District
It’s the first mixed-use development to receive a tax abatement from the city of Houston in the past decade, and it aligns with what Mayor Sylvester Turner and others have spent the past few years seeking to create. City officials, business leaders, local universities and startup assistance programs are seeking to diversify Houston’s economy into one that nurtures entrepreneurship, particularly fast-growing companies that attract venture capital. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...photo-18742681
Port, Royal Caribbean make deal for third Galveston cruise terminal
Royal Caribbean Cruises and the Port of Galveston will sign a long-term agreement on Thursday to build a third cruise terminal in Galveston, following approval Wednesday by the port’s governing board.
The contract, more than a year in the making, clears the way for Royal Caribbean to invest about $100 million into a 150,000-square-foot terminal, which is slated to open in November 2021. This terminal will be able to accommodate the cruise company’s largest ships, the Oasis class of vessels,whichcan hold roughly 6,600 guests, as well as Royal Caribbean’s future fleet of ships, the Icon class that will be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and use fuel cell technology.mm
Pictured is a rendering of the cruise terminal that will be built by Royal Caribbean in Galveston.
Photo: Royal Caribbean and the Port of Galveston https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...tent=headlines
A Houston based woke investment firm, merges with a local crowdfunding technology platform to create a socially conscience investment firm, for all kinds of investors large and small, local or international, and thus creating more economic diversity for Greater Houston.
Collaboration Capital and NextSeed were Houston investment companies on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Collaboration advised people with between $2 million and $25 million to invest in stocks, bonds and other traditional investments. NextSeed.com was a crowdfunding website where individuals placed an average of $1,000 to $1,500 into private companies
But both organizations shared an underlying desire to provide more investment opportunities (and unique opportunities) to a broader swath of people. And so they merged their businesses and plan to develop a full-service investment firm that uses NextSeed.com’s technology and Collaboration Capital’s socially and environmentally conscious investing.
Together, the companies are seeking to help investors fund a loan or take equity in local, private businesses - via NextSeed.com - and buy stock in publicly traded companies that provide fair wages, promote women and minorities or protect the environment - via Collaboration Capital. Ultimately, they plan to make the latter available to more people through NextSeed.com.
Through the partnership with Collaboration Capital, Lee sought advice on getting wealthier individuals to invest in more private, local businesses. And Knapp, whose father and grandfather were community bankers, saw a possibility for reaching more investors and smaller businesses.
And while many in Houston’s nascent startup community are trying to attract venture capitalists to the Bayou City, Lee argues that venture capital is just a sliver of the money available. And that NextSeed, his own Houston-based tech startup, is pursuing another avenue to help its peers.
Photo: Michael Wyke / Contributor https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...photo-18748384
Honeywell has acquired a Houston based Technology company combining their technology and increasing the number of Honeywell employees in Houston helping to increase Greater Houston's economic diversity.
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) has acquired Houston-based Rebellion Photonics for an undisclosed amount.
Rebellion, which has commercialized an intelligent monitoring system that can detect and analyze gas leaks, fire or security issues in real time, will become part of Honeywell's Safety and Productivity Solutions business, according to a press release. Rebellion's technology also will be used in Honeywell's Performance Materials and Technologies business to help manufacturers improve safety and compliance.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
