THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 28, 1995 TAG: 9508260313
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
``When it comes to having clout, in our country, money talks. It's not nobility that has the clout, because in our country we don't have titles. We tend to look to people with money and we tend to think of the heads of corporations as being wealthy. We tend to think of the wealthy as being leaders.''
The speaker is James F. Babcock, chairman of First Virginia Bank of Tidewater. The subject is the departure of the main office of HQ Home Quarters Warehouse from Virginia Beach.
Hechinger Co., HQ's owner, said last week HQ originator and chief executive Frank Doczi will drop to an advisory role and the headquarters of HQ, a $1 billion retail chain with 10,000 employees nationwide, will move to Landover, Md. In turn, 100 workers in Virginia Beach will be dismissed. It's an effort to buttress the sagging fortunes of the Hechinger chain of home improvement stores.
While losing 100 jobs hurts, the loss of the top decision makers who work in a head office also represents a setback. Doczi could and did write large checks on behalf of HQ for any number of worthy community endeavors.
``We're not a headquarters market like Atlanta, New York or Pittsburgh,'' Babcock said. ``We happen to be the kind of community that has to work very hard to create companies. We're the kind of community that creates companies that are acquired by the bigger corporations.... What I think is very striking - what's very interesting about this area in light of the lack of large companies - is the extent to which we do raise money.''
Hampton Roads, whose 1.5 million population makes it the nation's 27th largest urban area, ranks fourth in United Way per capita giving among all metro areas, Babcock said: ``That really tells you something about the generosity of the people living here.''
Speaking of generous, Sprinkle Masonry of Chesapeake needed experienced bricklayers on the Peninsula to build Briarfield High School in Newport News. Sprinkle's first Newport News Daily Press ad offered $17 an hour. Too few skilled workers responded. Sprinkle advertised again at $18.50 an hour. Same problem. So the company raised the wage to $20.
``There's just not enough skilled laborers,'' said vice president Mark Sprinkle, whose company is a subcontractor at the ``It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.''
Hampton Roads happenings: Steve Carleton of S.A. Carleton & Associates of Virginia Beach said he's introduced G.T.C. The product is said to render fats, oils and greases environmentally safe. Customers include restaurants, food processors, hotels and municipal wastewater systems.... Janet Woods has opened Janet's Fashions in Virginia Beach's Thoroughgood section. She had co-owned JJ's apparel shop and said she will bring the Lilli Ann apparel line to the new store....Deadline Typesetting Inc. of Norfolk has invested in new equipment. This includes high-end digital pre-press machinery that will give the shop full color pre-press capability.... Residential landscape architect Tom Rozier reports brisk business. He opened Dreamscape Designers in '93 in Virginia Beach and recently bought Aspen Irrigation of Chesapeake.
The Weather Channel, Norfolk-based Landmark Communications Inc.'s cable-TV flagship, has gone interactive with the introduction of its first CD-ROM computer disk, called ``Everything Weather.''
The CD-ROM includes climate data for more than 700 cities, 40 video clips of spectacular weather events, 250 still photos and 95 articles about weather, along with maps, animation, a glossary of weather terms, a daily planner, appointment calendar and weather journal.
And it has an on-line connection to be used for calling up access to current forecasts for 200 cities.
With an estimated retail price of $50, ``Everything Weather'' will be released next month in the Windows format. A Macintosh version will soon follow.
Cox Cable Communications Inc.'s planned purchase of the Newport News cable system, announced last year, is still several months from conclusion because Cox wants to first make sure the system gets a new city franchise, said Cox's local general manager, Franklin R. Bowers.
He said Cox and the city are hammering out terms of the franchise now. It will likely run between 10 and 20 years. by CNB