Bits of business: CBICC launches community partnership

The Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County recently launched the Business and Industry Partnership to ensure that local businesses have awareness of and access to resources necessary to support competitiveness and growth.

“CBICC members are committed to strengthening Centre County’s private sector economy. A critical component of that mission is taking care of our own; helping local companies succeed and grow,” said CBICC President and CEO Vern Squier. “The purpose of the partnership is to work more closely with individual businesses in order to determine unmet needs, address obstacles to growth or identify untapped opportunities.”

The partnership is split into five teams, which intend to reach beyond CBICC’s membership to the entire business community.

BIP’s underscoring goals are to understand a company’s operations and learn of growth barriers, serve as a conduit to other businesses facing similar challenges, provide guidance, identify potential business collaborations and ensure workforce training needs are met.

The BIP committee includes about 20 professionals from the public school system, higher education, the private sector and government officials.

Designer wins Houzz award

Jennifer Hendrickson, of Jennifer Hendrickson Interiors, won Best Of Design on Houzz, a platform for home remodeling and design.

The upscale interior design firm was chosen by users of the Houzz community from among more than 1 million active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals.

The Best Of Houzz is awarded annually in three categories: design, customer service and photography.

“We are thrilled to receive this award for the third time,” Hendrickson said. “We enjoy sharing our latest projects on Houzz and value the website as a tool to communicate ideas with our clients.”

State College Wal-Marts untouched

Goliath retailer Wal-Mart announced it would close 269 stores, 154 of them domestic.

The company is closing all 102 of its small Wal-Mart express stores.

State College, and Pennsylvania for that matter, didn’t make the list.

The majority of United States closures — all set to shutter doors before the end of January — are located in the Bible Belt.

Bank merger to close

F.N.B. Corporation and Metro Bancorp announced that shareholders of each company approved its merger.

The merger was announced Aug. 4 and the deal has continued to advance. Under the terms agreed upon by boards of directors of both companies the shareholders of Metro Bancorp. will be entitled to receive 2.373 shares of F.N.B. common stock for each common share of Metro Bancorp, Inc. The exchange ratio is fixed and the transaction is expected to qualify as a tax-free exchange for shareholders of Metro Bancorp.

All regulatory approvals have been made, and the companies expect the merger to close Feb. 12.

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 11:53 PM with the headline "Bits of business: CBICC launches community partnership."