Local Business and Economic Development
RAMP 2023 Cohort- RAMP photo
The latest round of high-tech entrepreneurs and startups looking to take their business vision to the next level have been announced as members of the Spring 2023 cohort at the RAMP accelerator in downtown Roanoke. WFIR’s Gene Marrano has the story:
The Executive Director of the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce says a business leadership series with a twist will be back this month. WFIR’s Emma Thomas has more:
A leading global supplier of parts for commercial and personal vehicles will establish its North American headquarters in the City of Salem. WFIR’s Ian Price has more.
Press release from Roanoke Regional Partnership: SALEM, VA – Representing $32 million in investment, STS Group AG, a leading global supplier of interior and exterior parts for commercial and personal vehicles, will establish its North American headquarters in the City of Salem in the former General Electric building, adding 119 jobs to the region.
The facility will be operated as subsidiary, STS Group North America, and its presence contributes to the region’s strong automotive manufacturing cluster. The new facility will supply commercial truck assembly operations by Volvo Trucks in Pulaski County as well as other truck and automotive facilities throughout the Midwest and Southeastern US markets. STS Group AG is working with Phoenix Group, the owner of the former General Electric building, to upfit roughly 200,000 square feet of the existing space and to construct a 32,000-square-foot addition on the north end of the building.
“Salem is a perfect base for STS Group to start its footprint in the USA, following existing customers locally and extending the customer portfolio,” stated Alberto Buniato, CEO of STS Group. “On top of a perfect existing location in a suitable industrial cluster, we were delighted to find a very attentive and helpful support with the City of Salem, with Roanoke Regional Partnership, and with Virginia Economic Development Partnership.”
A $500,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund will assist with the project; Salem’s Economic Development Authority will meet tomorrow morning about matching it.
Amanda Livingston (L)
C Palmer photo
The Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Business Awards Breakfast next Friday morning at the Salem Civic Center. Livingston joined the Chamber as executive director last October. She was live in-studio on WFIR this morning to talk about her vision for the business support non-profit; hear the complete conversation on the link below; watch it on Facebook.
The Roanoke Regional Partnership has just launched an AI-powered jobs board that harvests data from 14,000-plus websites daily, posting what director of talent strategies Julia Boas says will feature “every” job available in the area. Job seekers can use filters to narrow down their searches. The regional jobs board is available on the get2knowroanoke.com website. (see link below)
https://get2knownoke.com/jobs-board/
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose last month at its fastest pace since June, an alarming sign that price pressures remain entrenched in the U.S. economy and could lead the Fed to keep raising interest rates well into this year.
Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose 0.6% from December to January, up sharply from a 0.2% increase from November to December. On a year-over-year basis, prices rose 5.4%, up from a 5.3% annual increase in December.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 0.6% from December, up from a 0.4% rise the previous month. And compared with a year earlier, core inflation was up 4.7% in January, versus a 4.6% year-over-year uptick in December.
The report also showed that consumer spending rose 1.8% last month from December after falling the previous month.
January’s price data exceeded forecasters’ expectations, confounding hopes that inflation was steadily decelerating and that the Fed could relent on its campaign of rate hikes. It follows other recent data that also suggested that the economy remains gripped by inflation despite the Fed’s strenuous efforts to tame it.
INFLATION
Nine months after a groundbreaking Ridge View Bank cut the ribbon at its first branch on West Main Street in Salem this morning. 3 other Ridge View projects are under construction – including the home office on Franklin Road in Roanoke City. Carrie McConnell is the President of Ridge View Bank, which could branch out to as many as four states at some point.