Firms

For its new chief executive, the board of the weight-loss company Nutrisystem Inc. picked a veteran of the publishing industry. On the face of it, helping people diet would seem to have little in common with giving them something good to read each month. But as Dawn M. Zier explained, both Nutrisystem and her previous employer, Reader's Digest Association Inc., are, at their core, direct-marketing firms. They sell their goods directly to customers, spending large amounts on advertising and marketing not only to reach new customers but to keep and sell more products to existing ones.

Three of Lower Gwynedd's largest industries made presentations to the township Board of Supervisors Tuesday night opposing an ordinance that would tighten zoning restrictions in commercial and industrial districts. Lawyers for Rohm & Haas, McNeil Pharmaceuticals and Hansen Properties argued that the proposed ordinance was too restrictive and would impair their ability to operate their businesses. The ordinance, which was proposed by Lower Gwynedd zoning officer Joseph Zadlo in November, calls for increased yard setback requirements and more stringent lighting regulations and prohibits businesses from using hazardous chemicals on their property.

Several local firms and dozens of national companies have moved into the stock market, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Wall Street to snap up shares of their own stocks. Some firms are buying back their own shares to take advantage of what they deemed to be bargain prices. Some are buying as a way to bolster confidence in their long-term business prospects. And others are moving into the market defensively, putting more shares into friendly hands and supporting the prices, lest corporate raiders scoop up their suddenly cheaper shares.

An Atlantic City construction company allegedly used as a "sanctuary" for criminal activities by members of the Scarfo crime family could be seized by New Jersey authorities. Scarf Inc., run by Philip "Crazy Phil" Leonetti, the alleged No. 2 man in the organization led by Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, was named in indictments made public yesterday, along with Scarfo, Leonetti and 16 other reputed crime figures. A New Jersey grand jury said Scarf Inc. was used as a "sanctuary for meetings pertaining to the operation, conduct and control" of illegal activities.

Two old-line Philadelphia printers, Smith-Edwards-Dunlap Co. and Graphic Arts Inc., said Thursday they have merged their operations and now operate out of the Smith-Edwards-Dunlap plant in Port Richmond. The combined operation has 130 workers and there are no major layoffs planned, said Jonathan Shapiro, president of the merged company. He said combining the companies allowed the printers to benefit from economies of scale and stay in Philadelphia. Each company will continue to sell and market its products under its name.

Forty-four percent of corporate executives surveyed by Atlas Van Lines believe the economy will improve in 2012, the moving company said Wednesday. Of 360 executives completing the first-quarter survey, 26 percent said their firms plan to relocate more workers this year than last, while 86 percent of companies will spend as much or more on relocation in 2012 than in 2011. After progressively declining over the past two years, 65 percent of firms are offering relocated employees full reimbursement, far more often than lump sum or partial reimbursement, the Atlas survey showed.

Resource America Inc., of Philadelphia, has agreed to combine one of its asset management units, Apidos Capital Management L.L.C., with CVC Cordatus Group to form CVC Credit Partners, which will have $7.5 billion in loans and other credit-related assets under management, the two companies said Wednesday. For its contribution of Apidos, which had $5.5 billion in assets under management on Sept. 30, Resource America will receive $25 million in cash and a 33 percent ownership interested in CVC Credit partners.

Jack Leonard thinks small, a philosophy that has made a small fortune for him in real estate. His Haddonfield firm, Roney, Vermaat & Leonard, lacks the advertising budget of the Century 21 franchise offices and the thousands of sales agents that Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group boasts coast-to-coast. He doesn't have it, and he doesn't want it. It is by design that this nine-year-old company has only one office. Daydreams here are not about expansion. Why should they be, asked Leonard, noting so far this year his realty's 20 agents have brought home $21 million in sales.

The accounting profession is under siege, its cash flow battered by economic downturn, its image tarnished by the Laventhol & Horwath collapse. The legal profession is in turmoil, with demand for legal services, particularly in real estate and corporate work, on the wane. Amid such turbulence, some professional firms are busting up. Others have gone belly up. But a handful have chosen a third route: counseling. To save their firms, or keep them from getting into trouble in the first place, they are turning to a new kind of consultant, the consulting psychologist.

For a nonprofit company like Biosciences Information Service (Biosis), it might seem a bit extravagant to invest almost $500 for a booth at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's two-day Operation Native Talent conference. The 60-year-old Philadelphia firm, which employs about 350, is the world's largest abstracting and indexing service for the life sciences, but one of the smallest companies taking part in the annual jobs' fair. The conference, held yesterday and today at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza hotel, brings together more than 6,000 college seniors and recent graduates with about 90 would-be employers.

JULIE Margaret Van Sciver seemed to thrive on high-risk adventure. Meg, as she was known to family and friends, left Philadelphia's cloistered atmosphere of private schools, benefits, horse shows and social climbing to pursue often risky adventures in many corners of the globe. On May 12, she was paragliding over Lookout Mountain in Colorado when she fell 40 feet. Emergency personnel took her off the mountain that afternoon, and she was taken to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colo.

NEW YORK - Small-company stocks were a bright spot in a slow and choppy start to the week for Wall Street. The Russell 2000, an index of small-company stocks, climbed above 1,000 points for the first time and ended higher Monday, even as the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor's 500 index, and the Nasdaq composite index all edged lower. Small stocks are doing well because they are more focused on the United States, which is recovering, and less exposed to recession-plagued Europe than the large international companies that make up the Dow and the S&P 500. The gains for smaller companies are encouraging for the broader market because they show that investors are becoming more comfortable about the economy and investing in riskier assets, said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management.

In this digital world, old-industry companies can be busier than ever. "We're running around the clock," said Nicholas Maiale, second-generation owner of Inserts East Inc. on industrial-heavy Central Highway in Pennsauken. The company is printing circulars and newspaper insert ads for ShopRite, Dick's Sporting Goods, Duane Reade drugstores, Mealey's Furniture, Five Below Inc., and other retailers. Maiale has hired 30 workers in the last several months, boosting total employment above 200. They staff a rebuilt eight-unit Heidelberg Harris 36-inch heatset press line and two folding machines, financed with a $5 million loan from TD Bank.

Editor's Note: The opinions and analysis expressed here reflect the views of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of TD Bank, N.A. or its affiliates. Kip Anthony was a farm boy from the Midwest who went on to become a mechanical engineer at big companies doing big things. His work included preserving the rich sound of Steinway pianos, reconfiguring jet engines to move oil and gas through pipelines, and - curse him, if you must - creating aircraft seating.

B ILL GLAAB, 29, and Courtney Apple, 27, a married couple living in Washington Square West, founded Hand in Hand Soap in 2011 in Fishtown. The company's bar soap is sold in 225 stores in North America and Europe, the biggest retailer being Anthropologie. To date, Hand in Hand says, 65,000 bars of soap have been donated to children in Haiti. Apple, an Ardmore native, oversees marketing; Jersey native Glaab handles finances. I spoke with Apple. Q: How did you come up with the idea for Hand in Hand?

Calvin G. Connett, 93, who retired as a Philadelphia regional sales manager for Pitney Bowes, the manufacturer of postage meters and computer software and hardware, died of a heart attack Monday, May 6, at his home in Cinnaminson, where he had lived since 1973. Born on Staten Island, N.Y., Mr. Connett worked for Pitney Bowes after graduating from high school. He served in the Army from May 1941 to November 1945, mostly in a supply unit. A son-in-law, John McElhinney, said Mr. Connett landed in France 10 days after D-Day and fought in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

NEWARK, N.J. - The location of the trees that Joyce Kilmer wrote were more lovely than any poem has long been in dispute, with a handful of towns from Massachusetts to Indiana claiming to have inspired the verse. But a New Jersey historian said he now has irrefutable proof that Kilmer was stirred by the woods of the Ramapo Valley when he wrote the well-known words, "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree. " Alex Michelini, founder of the Joyce Kilmer Society in Mahwah, said Friday that a letter written in 1929 by Kilmer's widow, Aline, to a graduate student shows that "Trees" was written on Feb. 2, 1913, at the couple's former home in Mahwah.

After serving as a teenage Army sergeant during World War II, Alfred Ciccotelli returned to South Philadelphia to help his parents run their grocery store at Seventh and Montrose Streets, two blocks east of the Italian Market. It was a modest-enough life that he lived above the store with his parents, who had emigrated from the regions of Abruzzi and Campania. But in 1963, he founded what has become the nationwide Italian food importer and distributor of Cento Fine Foods, headquartered in West Deptford, a firm that now employs more than 150 workers.

AN OFFICE OF the Inspector General investigation found that 10 more companies working with the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. had been using a sham subcontractor to meet minority-participation requirements. The prime contractors made it appear as if JHS and Sons Supply Co., a minority-owned firm, was getting a substantial portion of the business. In fact JHS was just acting as a "pass-through" for the money to get to another company, William Betz Jr. Inc., that was actually doing the subcontracted work.

With its top-flight medical schools, hospitals, and pharmaceutical industry, Philadelphia has long been fertile ground for health information technology start-ups. More recently, there has been a lot of effort in the region to nurture "green" technology firms focused on reducing energy use and promoting renewable energy sources. If the University of Pennsylvania's Bobbi Kurshan gets her way, education technology will be the next sector locally to produce growing businesses.