• Young Bros. raises fuel surcharge to 2.78% • Tools for starting and running small businesses • January visitor arrivals up for state, down for Kaua‘i Young Bros. raises fuel surcharge to 2.78% Young Bros. Limited raised its fuel surcharge
• Young Bros. raises fuel surcharge to 2.78%
• Tools for starting and running small businesses
• January visitor arrivals up for state, down for Kaua‘i
Young Bros. raises fuel surcharge to 2.78%
Young Bros. Limited raised its fuel surcharge to 2.78 percent, up almost 1.5 percent over the previous rate. The increase is the second since the Public Utilities Commission authorized the company’s use of a fuel price adjustment in 2007.
The company announced it was pursuing the rate increase last month. The adjustment was implemented March 4.
Young Bros. said the change translates to a 1 cent increase to the cost of shipping a 24-package case of saimin and about 1 cent to the cost of shipping a case of 24 cans of juice or soda.
On Dec. 4, 2007, Young Bros. applied its first adjustment of 1.29 percent after the Public Utilities Commission approved implementation of a fuel price adjustment clause in October. This adjustment is re-examined quarterly.
Young Bros. President Glenn Hong has repeatedly pointed to the rising cost of fuel.
“Since August of last year, fuel costs have risen 21.89 percent,” he said. “We are continuing to streamline our operations for efficiency, but do need to acknowledge these hefty fuel cost increases.”
Tools for starting and running small businesses
The Kaua‘i Small Business Development Center will host its first-quarter event on March 18 for female entrepreneurs.
Business Planning for Women of Kaua’i is designed for women who want to start their own business or who are already in business for themselves.
Diana Shaw, director of the Kaua‘i Small Business Development Center, will give an overview of business planning; attorney Nancy J. Budd will cover legal issues, including how to legitimize a new business; and accountant Judy Arrigo will talk about understanding the numbers.
On the subject of marketing, the speakers will include Beth Tokioka, director of the county Office of Economic Development, and Jenny Fujita of Fujita & Miura Public Relations as well as Kaua‘i Made Products.
The seminar will begin at 5:30 p.m. with registration and networking and continue with the presentations until 7:30 p.m. on March 18 at the Kaua‘i Community College Elections Room.
The cost to attend is $22 per person through today, $25 Monday and after.
For more information, call 855-2742 or e-mail WIBRKauai@gmail.com
Also sponsored by the Small Business Development Center is a series of workshops offering tips on how to start and run a small business.
Topics to be discussed include entrepreneurship, forms of business organization, key ingredients for business success, sources of capital and services offered by the Hawai‘i SBDC Network, as well as other resources for start-ups.
The workshop will take place on the following dates: March 13 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.; March 20 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.; April 10 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.; and April 24 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
There is no registration fee, though pre-registration is required online at www.hawaii-sbdc.org to attend. For more information, call 241-3148.
January visitor arrivals up for state, down for Kaua‘i
Total visitor days for air and cruise visitors in January 2008 rose 7.5 percent compared to January 2007. Those figures were boosted by a 4.1 percent growth in arrivals to 597,126 visitors, according to preliminary statistics released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Among the top four visitor markets, arrivals from Canada jumped 27.7 percent, the U.S. West was up 3.9 percent and the U.S. East was up 2.2 percent. Japanese air arrivals were down 5.2 percent compared to January 2007. Total air visitor arrivals from all other geographic areas grew 13.3 percent.
“We are pleased by the growth in total cruise and air visitor arrivals and the continued increase in air visitor spending in January 2008,” said State Tourism Liaison, Marsha Wienert. “We are especially excited with the surge of visitors from Canada, Hawai‘i’s fourth largest visitor market.”
The growth in arrivals by air from Canada was the sixth consecutive month of increases. Canadian visitor arrivals have risen on an annual basis every year since 2002.
Air visitor expenditures on Kaua‘i declined 3.2 percent to $106.3 million.
Kaua‘i also saw a 3.2 percent decline in total visitor arrivals compared to January 2007, largely due to a drop in cruise visitors to this island.
Actually, visitor days for Kaua‘i were up 0.9 percent from last January, boosted by visitors on Alaska Airlines’ direct flight.
Contributing to the statewide decrease in total cruise visitors for the month were two less ship tours in January 2008 compared to 2007.
One ship tour began at the end of December 2007 and was counted in that month, while the other was due to a change in itinerary from a seven-day cruise to a ten-day cruise. In addition, the Norwegian Wind which was home-ported in the islands last January has not been in Hawai‘i since April 2007.
