wichitabusinessjournal.com
VOL. 27 NO. 42
INSIDE
With deal’s demise, Beechcraft has new challenges BY DANIEL MCCOY
BEST IN BUSINESS ADVICE More slow growth, UMB’s Eric Kelley tells WBJ winners. P5
OCTOBER 19, 2012 $2.50
News that talks between Hawker Beechcraft Corp. and Superior Aviation Beijing Co. Ltd. have broken down doesn’t surprise industry observers, at least two of whom say the failed negotiations could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. On Thursday, Hawker announced that it had ended negotiations with Superior, which had proposed buying Hawker’s civil aviation business for $1.79 billion, and that it would emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a reorganized, standalone company named Beechcraft Corp. Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group, who has been skeptical of Superior’s pro-
posal since it was announced in July, says the deal’s demise allows Hawker to move forward with a more realistic plan. “Getting rid of this false hope is a necessary step,” he says. Aboulafia questioned from the Aboulafia start whether the little-known Superior had access to the capital it needed to buy Hawker. While there’s plenty of money in China, he says, there is also a “myth” that any company there has access to it and the clout to “either destroy us or save us all.” Aboulafia says Hawker now faces new chal-
lenges, particularly related to trying to sell its business jet line. But Aboulafia says there doesn’t seem to be much interest in it. In fact, he says, the only product lines that would be attractive to buyers are the ones the company wants to keep, such as the turboprop and piston lines. “They’re in a weird position,” he says. “The parts they can sell are also the parts that are survivable. The survivable stuff is all old. The new stuff is not. It’s very weird.” Aviation analyst George Tsopeis, of Montrealbased Zenith Jet, says he’s saddened the talks
See HAWKER, Page 24
Value Place finds home in North Dakota boom SWEPT TO SUCCESS Valley Center superintendent’s first school job: custodian. P10
SPECIAL PUBLICATION 2012 Health Care Heroes. (subscribers only)
THE LIST Community/technical colleges Colleges and universities Pages 18-19
BY JOHN STEARNS
Wichita-based Value Place is benefiting from the Bakken Shale oil-drilling rush in North Dakota, where one franchisee is accounting for about a quarter of the company’s hotels in development. While demand for lodging on the Bakken is red-hot, it’s just part of an overall thawing of the hotel development landscape nationwide, says Kyle Rogg, Value Place’s president and chief operating officer. He says the economy is beginning to awaken and credit is becoming more readily available. “We’re starting to see sort of a glimpse of a recovery,” he says. It’s a better picture than in 2008 and 2009, when financing dried up and many of the plans for the company and its franchisees ground to a halt. Before the crash, the company had grown to 162 properties in just six years. JOHN STEARNS / WBJ “We talk a lot about when the world fell apart,” Rogg says. Kyle Rogg, president and chief operating officer at Value Place, stands next to a U.S. map showing Value Place Today, business isn’t on fire, but it is growing, and the locations across the country. A light was recently added to the northwest corner of North Dakota, where two Value Places opened side-by-side in Williston, the boomtown of the Bakken Shale oil play. See VALUE PLACE, Page 27
Study: ‘Skills gap’ is overblown — but not in Wichita BY DANIEL MCCOY
A new study has named Wichita as one of only five of the 50 largest manufacturing centers in the country to have a “severe” skills gap, meaning there are not enough skilled workers for manufacturers to hire. The study, conducted by Boston Consulting Group, looked at areas where wage increases outpaced inflation by 3 percentage points annually for five years — places where employers were having to pay more for skilled workers because of a shortage of available talent. Overall, the study found that a shortage of skilled workers was less pervasive nationally than some believed. The shortage of needed workers amounts to only 1 percent of the nation’s
11.5 million-person manufacturing work force. But it did identify local areas that met its “severe” criteria — where more than 40 percent of the highskill work force experienced high wage growth during the study periUtash od. Wichita was joined on that short list by San Antonio, Miami, Baton Rouge and Charlotte. It’s a problem that the industry partners at Wichita Area Technical College have been pointing to for some time, says Sheree Utash, WATC’s vice president for academic affairs. She also says it proves the value of the foresight local leaders
See SKILLS, Page 23
FILE PHOTO
Manufacturers in Wichita are having a tougher time finding skilled workers than in other cities, a new study suggests.