Former Citi Trends CEO
to head service firm
David Alexander, former CEO of Savannah-based Citi Trends, has been named to head TruGreen, a national lawn care company and subsidiary of the ServiceMaster Co.
Alexander resigned from Citi Trends in January after the value-price retailer’s results had weakened in recent quarters on declining same-store sales and the related need to offer more clearance markdowns. He had been president and CEO since April 2009.
He will report to ServiceMaster CEO Hank Mullany, who said Alexander has “an outstanding track record of executive leadership in customer service, operations, supply chain and driving revenue growth.”
Alexander was a retail consultant for London-based Apax Partners after serving two years as chairman, president and CEO of Portrait Corporation of America. He also served as president and CEO of Family Dollar Stores Inc.
Vegetable farm ordered to pay $500,000
ATLANTA — Federal officials say one of Georgia’s largest vegetable farms has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle claims that the company discriminated against U.S. and black workers because of their race and national origin while giving better treatment to workers from Mexico.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement Thursday involving Hamilton Growers Inc., which has done business as Southern Valley Fruit and Vegetable Inc. of Norman Park. The agreement resolves a lawsuit filed by the EEOC in September 2011.
The EEOC’s lawsuit alleged that the firm let most of its U.S. workers go but kept nearly all of its workers from Mexico. The lawsuit also maintained that black workers got fewer hours and were forced into less-lucrative work.
Gas turbine manufacturer sold to Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., the parent company of the Mitsubishi Power Systems America gas turbine plant at the Pooler megasite, has bought gas turbine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Power Systems, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.
Pratt & Whitney has about 430 employees and owns a majority share of Turboden, of Italy, which also manufactures turbines and will be included in the deal.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has focused its gas turbine business on large-capacity, high-efficiency systems, will diversify its power generation product portfolio with the acquisition.
The company is establishing a global structure to increase manufacturing capacity of large, high-temperature, high-output gas turbines annually. In addition to output from its Takasago Machinery Works in Japan, shipments have begun from the Savannah plant.
