Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2017
Vol. 104, No. 055 • Two SecTioNS
Gottlieb launched natural foods supermarket before they became mainstream
Ameris Bancorp had to put merger and acquisition activity on hold for the next few months because of a regulatory issue, but CEO Edwin Hortman remains optimistic about the bank’s growth potential this year. “We haven’t done an M&A deal in nine months but if you look at the earnings gain that we’re going to have from our (new) line of businesses, I don’t know of an M&A deal that we could have done that would have given us that kind of earnings accretion,” Hortman said during the company’s quarterly conference call with analysts. The new lines of business he was talking about include an equipment finance division to serve clients in the construction, transportation and manufacturing equipment sectors. The company also last month announced a joint venture to provide credit on property and casualty insur- Hortman ance premiums. Hortman said those two businesses could add 25 cents to 30 cents per share in earnings to Ameris, which reported adjusted operating earnings of $2.30 a share for 2016, up from $1.66 in 2015. Ameris last month said it had to put a hold on any merger activity because it was in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, a federal law requiring financial institutions to help the government prevent money laundering. The bank blamed software issues for the
By Karen Brune Mathis, Managing Editor Jacksonville native, Aaron Gottlieb, launched his visionary business 21 years ago. Before the proliferation of national chains in the industry, Gottlieb, now 42, and his wife, Erica, saw the need for a natural and organic foods supermarket. They launched Native Sun Natural Foods in a small Mandarin location. Since then, they more than doubled the size of that San Jose BouBou levard store, opened a Baymeadows supermarket and two years ago expanded to Jacksonville Beach. Native Sun now has about 160 employees. As a privately held company, it does not publicly disclose sales.
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Aaron Gottlieb Founder of Native Sun Natural Foods
You were a college student when you decided to open a natural and organic foods market. Why? I grew up with the average AmerAmer ican diet. My father worked all day and my mother would make dinner or pick dinner up, and we became a fast-food family. When I got into college, I had peaked at 220 pounds and I looked in the mirror and said, “I need to
change my lifestyle.” I found a job at a natural foods store and started looking into a quality-of-food lifestyle. At the time I had decided to go vegan, which is consuming no animal products. Just by making that leap, I dropped 80 pounds. How was it accepted in Jacksonville? There were small natural foods stores serving the commucommu nity and doing a great job, but there was nobody as a grocer focused on organic ingredients. Through customer service, we were accepted fairly quickly and we developed a strong core. Twenty years later, I would tell you the majority of that core still shops at our locations. It was a lot of hard work to educate people, listen to their needs and start teaching them all the SUCCESS
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Ameris optimistic about its potential
NATURAL PIONEER EER We were here creating a market before these chains were.
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Every day is ‘bike to work day’ for city engineer
May 15-19 is National Bike to Work Week and May 19 is Bike to Work Day, when people are encouraged to leave the car at home and take two wheels to work. Every day is bike to work day for Amy Ingles, the city’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. She hasn’t owned a car for nearly five years and rides her bike each day between her home in Riverside and her office Downtown at the Ed Ball Building. “I have about a three-mile radius,” said Ingles. “I can find every-
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thing I need between Riverside and Downtown.” She’s in charge of making sure Jacksonville evolves into a city that depends less on the automobile and more on walking and two-wheeled transportation. A cyclist all her life, Ingles used her bicycle to get to class at Georgia Tech, where she earned a dual master’s degree in civil engineering and urban planning. “I’ve always been interested in infrastructure and the way things work,” she said. After she graduated, she went to work in Boston as an analyst for the U.S. Department of Transportation at Volpe, the National
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By Max Marbut Staff Writer
I have about a three-mile radius. I can find everything I need between Riverside and Downtown. Amy Ingles, city bicycle and pedestrian coordinator
Transportation Systems Center. Ingles co-authored research papers with topics like wearable sensors in transportation and incorporating health considerations into transportation decision making. Her job with the city is closer to ground level, such as evaluating intersections and coming up with plans to make crossing the street
safer for pedestrians and sharing the roadway with motorized vehicles safer for cyclists. Jacksonville is becoming more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly, but it still remains one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. when it comes to pedestrians and cyclists being injured or killed on roadways. Part of that’s due to the city
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having been designed primarily for automobiles during its rapid growth after World War II and partly because people aren’t aware of the rules of the road when it comes to four wheels and two wheels — or feet — sharing the street. “There’s a lot of education needed. It’s a complicated issue,” said Ingles. Jacksonville, with its flat terrain and year-round weather conducive to cycling and walking, is reflecting the national trend toward more walking and cycling instead of driving. Ingles said millennials are less COORDINATOR CONT INUED ON PAGE A-6
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