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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2022)
A11 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2022 q DOW 30,706.23 -313.45 BRIEFING Portland startup raises $15M A Northwest Portland startup that facilitates group travel said Tuesday it has raised an additional $15 million, reporting rapid growth as the pan- demic wanes. TrovaTrip facilitates multiday travel to inter- national destinations. It offers tools to help hosts gauge interest in poten- tial destinations, helps them budget and price the excursion and market the trip. Its clients include social media personalities seeking to boost revenue by arranging trips with their online followers. TrovaTrip says 15,000 travelers have booked through its site and it had bookings of $15 million last year, despite lingering effects in the pandemic. The company said “rapid growth” has continued this year. Founded in 2017, Tro- vaTrip has now raised $20 million altogether. Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group led the funding joined by prior backers including the Or- egon Venture Fund, Ele- vate Capital and the Port- land Seed Fund. q NASDAQ 11,425.05 -109.97 bendbulletin.com/business q S&P 500 3,855.93 -43.96 p 30-YR T-BOND 3.57% +.05 q CRUDE OIL $84.45 -1.28 q GOLD $1,659.70 -6.50 q SILVER $19.10 -.17 Beyond Meat executive charged after biting man A top executive at plant-based food com- pany Beyond Meat has been charged with fel- ony battery after a fight outside a college football game in which he was accused of biting a man’s nose. Doug Ramsey was also charged with making a terroristic threat after the attack Saturday in a park- ing garage outside a Uni- versity of Arkansas foot- ball game in Fayetteville. Beyond Meat said Tuesday it has suspended Ramsey indefinitely. According to a po- lice report, Ramsey was angered when another driver inched in front of him in a traffic lane and made contact with the front passenger wheel on Ramsey’s Ford Bronco SUV. — Bulletin wire reports EURO $.9969 -.0044 FOUR-DAY WORK WEEK | PILOT FINDINGS Successful for most firms, but not all BY ARIANNE COHEN Bloomberg The four-day workweek is... working. That’s the message emerg- ing from the closely watched companies shifting to four- day workweeks in pilot pro- grams run by the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global. A survey out Tuesday finds that 78% of leaders at the more than 70 U.K. companies that shifted to “It’s extremely encouraging to see that (productivity improved). We would see it as a big productivity success if productivity stayed the same.” — Joe O’Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global four-day schedules say their transition was good or “seam- less.” Only 2% found it chal- lenging. Most (88%) say that four-day schedules are work- ing well. The idea of a four-day workweek is no joke. Califor- nia lawmakers recently con- sidered, and then shelved, plans for a statewide four-day workweek for some employ- ees. A survey by Gartner found a shorter week to be a favored recruitment and re- tention strategy. Six-month pilot programs with more than 180 compa- nies are currently underway in a half-dozen countries. Em- ployers typically transition to four-day, 32-hour schedules (with variations depending on role and industry), with no re- duction in pay. In the U.K. pilot, executives at companies with a total of 3,300 employees were sur- veyed at the halfway point. The program is operated in conjunction with the 4 Day Week Campaign and the think tank Autonomy, along with a data-collection partnership of researchers at Boston College, Cambridge University and Oxford University. See Four / A12 CENTRAL OREGON | UNEMPLOYMENT Rates rise slightly Bulletin staff report NTSB wants vehicles to check blood-alcohol level The National Trans- portation Safety Board is recommending that all new vehicles in the U.S. be equipped with blood-alcohol monitoring systems that can stop an intoxicated person from driving. The recommendation, if enacted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, could reduce the number of alcohol-related crashes, one of the biggest causes of highway deaths in the U.S. NHTSA said this week that roadway deaths in the U.S. are at crisis lev- els. Nearly 43,000 peo- ple were killed last year, the greatest number in 16 years, as Americans returned to roads after pandemic stay-at-home orders. Early estimates show fatalities rising again through the first half of this year, but they de- clined from April through June, which authorities are hoping is a trend. The NTSB, which has no regulatory authority and can only ask other agencies to act, said the recommendation is de- signed to put pressure on NHTSA to move. q Breakside Brewery looks into Astoria location BY KATIE FRANKOWICZ KMUN Breakside Brewery, one of the dominant players in Oregon’s craft beer industry, plans to open a loca- tion in Astoria. The city confirmed the Port- land-based business is discussing the logistics with city staff on open- ing an eating and drinking estab- lishment — not a brewery — in a building that formerly housed the Astoria Co+op. Breakside operates several tap- rooms and breweries in the Port- land area. The new Astoria location would be just across the street from two local breweries, Reach Break Brewing and Fort George Brew- ery, and a block over from Bridge & Tunnel Bottleshop and Taproom. See Brewery / A12 Lydia Ely/The Astorian Breakside Brewery could move into the former location of the Astoria Background photo: 123RF Co+op on Exchange Street. JOHN DAY Antitrust suit filed against logging company BY STEVEN MITCHELL Blue Mountain Eagle A coalition of businesses, including the Prairie Wood Products sawmill, logging contractors and ranchers, filed an antitrust lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Pendleton against John Day-based logging com- pany Iron Triangle. In court documents, attor- neys for the Malheur Forest Fairness Coalition argue that the 10-year stewardship con- tract — set to expire in early 2023 — between the Malheur National Forest and Iron Tri- angle was intended to spread economic opportunities around. Instead, the attorneys ar- gue, Iron Triangle has orches- trated a series of maneuvers to consolidate all of the bene- fits of the long-term contract into a monopoly on four sep- arate fronts — timber sales, contract logging, the saw-log market and the stewardship services market. Russ Young, Iron Triangle’s owner, said in a statement Friday that the company had received a copy of the lawsuit. “We are working through the complaint and will have a statement as soon as we are able,” he said. Stewardship contract Lawyers for the coali- tion — which, in addition to Prairie Wood Products, in- cludes Rude Logging, Brett Morris of Morris Forestry, Engle Contracting, brothers Doug and Darrell Emmel of Emmel Brothers Ranch and Pat and Hedy Voigt of the Ricco Ranch — write in the court documents that to understand the “iron grip” that Iron Triangle has on the Malheur National Forest, one first has to understand how the stewardship contract came to be awarded to the company. See Logging / A12 Unemployment rose slightly in Deschutes County in Au- gust compared to the month before, but, overall, the jobless rate held steady near record levels set before the pandemic, according to the monthly em- ployment report. In Deschutes County, the seasonally adjusted unem- ployment rate was 3.6% in August, up slightly from July when it was 3.4%. Those rates are up a fraction from record low unemployment levels set in February 2020, prior to the pandemic, when it was 3.3%, according to the jobs report. During the same period a year ago, Deschutes County’s seasonally adjusted unemploy- ment rate was 4.8%, according to the Oregon Employment Department’s regional unem- ployment figures. In all, the county added about 320 jobs in August, led by strong job growth in edu- cation and health services, ac- cording to the report. Accom- modations and food services chipped in 110 jobs. Financial activities and information jobs did post losses in August. In Jefferson and Crook counties, however, the over- all employment rate was far below what it was a year ago during the same period, ac- cording to the report. In Jefferson County the seasonally adjusted unem- ployment rate rose to 4.8% in August, slightly higher than its lowest rate set prior to the pandemic in November 2019 through January 2020, accord- ing to the report. A year ago during the same period, the county’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.2%, according to the report. Only 260 more nonfarm jobs were added over the past year, according to the report. New jobs were added in the wood products manufacturing sector and leisure and hospi- tality, according to the report. The wholesale trade sector in Jefferson County lost 20 jobs, according to the report. Similarly, Crook County saw its unemployment rate rise to 4.9% in August, just up slightly from record low unem- ployment set in October 2019 through January 2020, accord- ing to the report. Still the Au- gust numbers were far lower than the same period a year ago when the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was at 6.3% The county lost 30 nonfarm jobs in August, despite being among Oregon’s top counties for job growth this past year, according to the report. Crook County posted job growth in construction, infor- mation and professional and business services, according to the report. There were no no- table industry job losses.
