This is a complicated story involving Superstorm Sandy, caveman food and a Fort Worth company, so bear with us.
Lee Ann Miller had a difficult time of it -- not as awful as that experienced by coastal residents of New Jersey and Staten Island, but pretty rotten for a North Texas marketing person trying to wind up a four-day business trip to the Big Apple.When the storm hit, Miller and a colleague from Personal Trainer Food were about to fly home from New York's LaGuardia Airport. They found a semi-seedy hotel for a couple of nights, then ended up spending two nights in LaGuardia's Terminal C, waiting until they could get a flight out.Miller's bench was swiped by another businesswoman when she hit the restroom."It was vicious," Miller said of the Darwinian scrap for a small place to bed down. She was forced to sleep on clothes pulled from her bag and placed over a cold tile floor.When she finally made it back to Cowtown, Miller suggested to her boss, Mike Starks, that they do something for all the New York and New Jersey residents still suffering.It was decided that folks from New York and New Jersey would get a $100 discount on PTF's 28-day, "paleo-proven" frozen meal pouches, which start at $299."Paleo," we were told, refers to what some consumers call the "caveman diet" -- food with no additives, but not organic so as to keep the price down. (Needless to say, it's doubtful if our hirsute forebears ever ate anything resembling mozzarella-roasted garlic chicken sausages.)Although PTF's YouTube video is titled "Hurricane Sandy Relief," it's not a purely charitable gesture.Starks told us that the company will still turn a profit on each parcel shipped, but added that the 100-buck discount "bites deeply into the margin." Neither he nor Miller would say by how much.Personal Trainer Food, as its name suggests, is marketed through exercise coaches around the country. Starks says the prices and quality outshine rival weight-loss packaged food programs, and his line enjoys a far higher re-order rate.And not all buyers are dieters, Starks noted, saying many repeat customers are "bachelors and widows" simply buying for convenience. Daily costs range from $10.67 to $13.89. Shipping is extra.Starks, 49, of Highland Village, started the company two years ago. He claims it has grown 500 percent in the past 12 months and will do even better during the current 12-month period.A self-described serial entrepreneur (home-healthcare nursing, digital production), he declined to provide gross sales figures because of a confidentiality agreement with investors.To get the discount, Sandy victims are instructed to get a code word by watching the video and then use it on the website -- www.personaltrainerfood.com -- when orderingBon appetit.Euless concreteWhen U.S. Concrete released its third-quarter earnings last week, the company's news release carried an unusual dateline: Euless, Texas.The company, which already had a Redi-Mix regional headquarters in Euless, recently moved its headquarters to the facility from Houston. The move was expected to add 45 professional jobs to the 250 already employed at the complex, at 331 N. Main St., which the city built for the company.Under a 25-year agreement with the city, Redi-Mix occupies the building rent-free as long as it generates a certain level of sales tax revenue.And a portion of sales taxes from regional concrete sales are rebated to the company.U.S. Concrete reported a net loss of $3.2 million in the quarter, including special charges related to derivatives and debt refinancing. Absent the write-offs, net income would have been $2.7 million, and quarterly sales increased 10.9 percent to $148.9 million.The company's stock (ticker: USCR) trades on the Nasdaq exchange.-- Steve KaskovichMilitary kudosFort Worth-based BNSF Railway is the top-ranked Tarrant area-based company on the latest list compiled by Military Friendly, a group that tests employers, franchises and schools by recruitment and hiring practices regarding veterans and their spouses.Since 2003, Military Friendly has surveyed employers with at least $500 million in annual revenues and ranked the top 100, which it says puts those companies in the top 2 percent of eligible employers. Its just-published 2013 list has a number of Tarrant-area firms, and not just in the defense industry.BNSF, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, is the only company on the list with its headquarters in Tarrant County, but there are several more that have major employment here. They include DynCorp., No. 11; JPMorgan Chase, No. 27; AT&T, No. 30; Chesapeake Energy, No. 43; Bank of America, No. 49; Lockheed Martin, No. 55; and Devon Energy, No. 57.No. 1 is San Antonio-based USAA, the big insurer and financial services company that has long catered to service personnel.Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727sabaker@star-telegram.comJim Fuquay, 817-390-7552jfuquay@star-telegram.comBarry Shlachter, 817-390-7718barry@star-telegram.comHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
