Sixth Street Runza closes its doors

Steve Prososki is closing his Runza Restaurant on Sixth Street, preferring to focus on his longtime location along South Iowa Street.

The Runza at 3418 W. Sixth St. closed Friday after five years in business. The 2,800-square-foot restaurant had a drive-through window and room for 80 diners, but never reached its potential when compared to the 20-year-old location at 2700 Iowa.

“I just split my business in half instead of doubling it,” Prososki said.

Prososki recently sold both Runza buildings to a local investment group that includes developer and property manager Doug Compton.

Prososki signed a nine-year lease for the Runza building at 27th and Iowa streets, so that he could continue to operate the restaurant that he’s owned there since 1994. Most of the 10 employees from the north location are transferring to the remaining restaurant, he said.

Lawrence

Celliance plant meets consistency standard

Celliance Corp.’s manufacturing plant in the East Hills Business Park has reached a quality-control milestone, having attained “ISO 9001:2000” certification by TUV America Group, Celliance announced Friday.

But the company owned by Atlanta-based Serologicals Corp. still isn’t saying when the $28 million plant will begin full production.

The 43,000-square-foot plant has been idle since March, when Serologicals laid off 19 employees after conceding that pharmaceuticals companies and other biosciences operations had yet to run their own quality-control tests on the plant on its signature product, Ex-Cyte, a liquid that promotes cell growth.

The company said Friday that the plant was continuing such “validation activity,” but they did not indicate when the plant would begin production.

Investing

Earnings outpacing analysts’ expectations

Despite a handful of high-profile disappointments, second-quarter earnings have come in above Wall Street’s expectations thus far, giving investors confidence in the continued strength of the economy and corporate America.

As of Friday morning, 202 of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index components had reported earnings. Of those, 145 companies, or 72 percent, reported earnings above Wall Street analysts’ expectations, according to Thomson Financial.

Another 31 companies, or 15 percent, had earnings in line with estimates. And only 26 companies, or 13 percent, failed to meet forecasts.

Of the 18 Dow Jones industrials that have reported so far this earnings season, two companies – Citigroup Inc. and General Motors Corp. – missed Wall Street’s estimates. Merck & Co. Inc. and 3M Co. met expectations, while the rest of the Dow companies beat the Street.