Companies

Now that Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. has taken ownership of the closed Marcus Hook refinery, the pipeline company has big plans for the Delaware River industrial site. Sunoco Logistics chief executive Michael J. Hennigan provided analysts with details Thursday about how the pipeline and terminal company plans to repurpose the refinery as a hub for shipping liquid fuels produced from natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shales. "We plan to create a world-class natural-gas liquids hub on the East Coast," Hennigan said.

The abrupt hiring of Houston Rockets assistant general manager Sam Hinkie as 76ers president of basketball operations and general manager, coupled with the swift kick the organization gave to Tony DiLeo on Friday, shows that owner Joshua Harris is going full-bore in doing away with one culture and giving birth to another. Harris has made his billions by propping up distressed companies, restoring them to value, and, in some cases, increasing their value. But in less than one year, the 76ers regressed badly after being one victory away from the Eastern Conference finals.

WHEN IT comes to large vacant buildings, developer Tony Rufo knows how to spot potential. More than a year ago, Rufo transformed the shuttered Nathaniel Hawthorne School into the Hawthorne Lofts: 53 units of luxury loft-style condominiums. The development offers floor-to-ceiling windows, a roof deck with a stunning view of Center City and ultra-low taxes thanks to a 10-year tax break from the city. According to Rufo's website, every unit has sold. But 2 miles south, just around the corner from South Philadelphia High School, sits a very different kind of Rufo property.

Consumers are demanding better service in unprecedented ways. In the last several months, public outrage has helped beat back efforts by Bank of America Corp., Netflix Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc. to raise fees or significantly alter services. The victories come at a time when money is tight all around and consumers are tapping into social media to air their frustrations with like-minded individuals. "In the past, people would be angry, but they'd be all over the country talking to their neighbors," said Kit Yarrow, a professor of consumer psychology at Golden Gate University.

Berwyn and Paoli Fire Company officials agreed Tuesday to let Chester County's 911 task force decide for them the most efficient service boundaries for the two companies. The agreement, reached at a meeting with Tredyffrin Township officials, ends a longstanding dispute over which volunteer company could better serve certain areas in Tredyffrin. The dispute focused particularly on the Chesterbrook development of 2,392 homes and dozens of businesses now in the Berwyn company's service territory.

Nelson Bean's business depends on tragedy. Tuesday's earthquake in Northern California and last month's hurricane in South Carolina are the stuff on which his Evans American Corp. thrives. Founded eight years ago in Houston by his father, the company specializes in catastrophe management - helping companies rebuild their crumbled facilities far more quickly than normal. "I don't know anybody who does exactly what we do," said Bean, president of the company. "I know people who rebuild damaged buildings, but we fit into a niche market inside of a niche market.

Shareholders had their say on pay in a big way at public companies this year. But anyone expecting widespread revolt over the big sums that many executives earned was probably disappointed. Just 37 of 2,293 companies whose shareholders had voted on compensation practices as of June 21 had failed to receive at least 50 percent of the shares voted in favor of those practices, according to Semler Brossy Consulting Group L.L.C. , a Princeton compensation consulting firm.

Bassi and her coauthors, Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, and Larry Costello, weren't trying to reinvent the wheel. The Good Company Index relies on 11 different sources of data and adds or subtracts points based on each company's appearance or ranking on those lists. For example, they used employee-generated survey data for the Fortune 100 as posted on Glassdoor.com, an online jobs site that collects information about salary levels and employee satisfaction. Glassdoor.com averages the employee reviews of a particular company on scale of 1 to 5. Supervalu Inc., the parent company of the Acme Markets supermarket chain, had a Glassdoor.com rating of 2.6, which translated into minus-2 points for the Good Company Index.

I TRACE MY roots back to 1862 (yes, during the Civil War) and railway legislation signed by Abraham Lincoln. Based in Omaha, I'm a top American transportation enterprise, with a railroad network spanning 23 states (mainly in the West) and more than 30,000 miles. I employ more than 40,000 people, use more than 8,000 locomotives and rake in more than $20 billion annually as I serve about 10,000 customers. My biggest customers include steamship lines, vehicle manufacturers, agricultural companies, utilities, intermodal companies and chemical manufacturers.

Ten Bucks County companies earned places on the Philadelphia 100, an annual list of fast-growing, privately held small companies in the Delaware Valley. "This year's companies are smaller than last year, more highly focused and probably have better long-term prospects," said David Thornburgh, director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center and manager of the project. "These are companies that have better defined their niche and have served those markets. They haven't had a strong economy to benefit from.

John Van Horne, 63, who has presided over the Library Company of Philadelphia during nearly three decades of unprecedented digital change, has announced he will retire in May 2014. When Van Horne arrived in 1985, the Library Company, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731, had a Wang word processor. Soon, it acquired a fax machine that used thermal paper. Now the library has created a rich and growing online environment. "This library has been in continuous operation for 282 years," Van Horne said in a statement.

A 42-year-old Camden man was killed Friday morning when a concrete partition at a city recycling center fell on him. It was the second fatal accident at the facility this year. Keith Rainer was pronounced dead at Cooper University Hospital shortly before 8:30 a.m., officials said. The accident happened around 8 at ReCommunity Camden in the industrial complex on the 2200 block of Mount Ephraim Avenue, Camden County Police spokesman Michael Daniels said. He said a front-end loader knocked over a concrete barrier, which fell on Rainer.

The Philadelphia Office of Inspector General has found 11 prime contractors that used the same supply company as a "pass-through" to circumvent the city's minority-contracting rules on work done for the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. The contractors paid JHS & Sons Supply Co., a certified minority-owned business, merely to satisfy the requirement, while JHS provided no work on the jobs. Inspector General Amy L. Kurland's office has found 19 PHDC contracts that included JHS as a pass-through.

GOV. CORBETT, trailing in the polls and taking a beating over the state's sluggish economy, has a new campaign strategy: Blame the stoners! Corbett rolled his eyes during an "Ask the Governor" interview Monday on PAMatters.com when asked about Pennsylvania lagging in job growth in March compared to almost all other states. He complained about misleading statistics. He explained that other states are growing faster now because they were in worse shape before. Then he turned to drug tests.

The Beatles' song "Come Together" was an anthem of odd juxtapositions: joo joo eyeballs, walrus gumboat. And the Suzanne Roberts Theatre beginning Thursday will be a forum for some odd dance pairings - hip-hop, gymnastics, aerial, ballet, jazz, and modern - when 27 Philadelphia dance companies perform in a nine-day festival conceived by choreographer Roni Koresh and called, appropriately, Come Together. In residence at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Koresh Dance Company - ranked by DanceUSA in the top 90 of the nation's 650 companies - is opening its spring season to 26 other troupes and, with a grant from PNC Bank, has added a second weekend.

Earl Goldberg, 87, of Glenside, owner and operator of an auto body and painting company in South Philadelphia for more than 40 years, died Friday, April 19, of complications from heart failure at Abington Memorial Hospital. Mr. Goldberg operated Star Auto Painting at Eighth and Reed Streets, a business started by his father in the 1930s. It did painting and bodywork for car dealers and owners. Mr. Goldberg wore flannel shirts and jeans to work every day, except during warm weather, when he would wear short-sleeve plaid shirts, his family said.

WHEN ED WHITE'S family would drive past Northeast Catholic High School for Boys on Torresdale Avenue, they could easily envision a halo around the building. The image came to mind because of the near-holy reverence Ed had for his alma mater. What was it about that school that Ed White held in such deference? A quiet man of few words, Ed might have had trouble putting his feelings into words, but his family attributed it to the gratitude he had for the education he received there, and his deep respect for the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales who run it. Whatever it was, Ed continued to serve the school long after he graduated in 1955.

Jones Group, the clothing, shoes and accessories maker that owns chains including Nine West and Easy Spirit, said Wednesday that it is closing 170 U.S. stores and slashing jobs as part of a plan to improve profitability. A spokeswoman for New York-based Jones Group, which has its financial offices in Bristol, said that 8 percent of the company's 10,000 jobs will be cut, or about 800 U.S. positions. The company, which also sells its products through department stores, has had stagnant sales, and it posted a loss last year.

John J. Orlando, 92, of Broomall, founder and CEO of Arch Sewing Machine Co., a Philadelphia-based supplier of industrial sewing machines to the apparel trade, died Friday, April 19, of natural causes at home. Mr. Orlando, who loved the clothing industry, worked through Thursday. When he failed to show up for work Friday, police went to the house and found him sitting in his favorite chair with his hands folded, as if asleep, said his son Anthony J. "To have our dad working with you every day, it makes you closer than anyone can imagine.

She could save money, and there's a good chance she wouldn't get caught, but Consuelo Gomez won't hire people who aren't authorized to work in the United States to work for Marty K, her cleaning and landscaping business. She believes she's being undercut by competitors that hire workers without permission. When potential clients tell her that rivals can do the same work for less, she is suspicious. "I'll hear, 'They're $2,000 cheaper than you,' and I say, 'That's impossible,' " said Gomez, whose business is in Bellevue, Wash.