Business Briefs for Feb. 25

VIRGINIA

Estes Express Lines boosts Mexican service

DETROIT -- Estes Express Lines is expanding its Mexican truck-freight service to and from virtually any point in Mexico through a new subsidiary, Estes Logstica.

The Richmond-based company will now provide door-to-door freight consolidation and transportation service throughout Mexico, as well as across the border into the United States and Canada.

The less-than-truckload carrier has had service to and from Mexico since 2003, covering major commercial markets.

"NAFTA has created a tremendous amount of commerce between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada," said company CEO Rob Estes. "Estes Logística is in place to reliably meet the transportation needs of manufacturers to get their materials and goods wherever they have to go."

New Kent development's sales office to be topped

The Viniterra sales office in New Kent County will be topped off Friday at 2 p.m.

Viniterra, part of the New Kent Vineyards development, features estate-size home sites in a gated residential community built around New Kent Winery and a Rees Jones Signature Golf Course.

The Marengo Management Corp., the contractor, and Dreaming Creek Timber Framers will set the timber.

The 46-by 28-foot sales office structure was designed by Hopke and Associates of Williamsburg. The firm also designed the New Kent Winery.

E.T. Moore Manufacturing Inc. of Richmond milled reclaimed antique long-leaf heart pine and old-growth hemlock beams for the structure. Dreaming Creek Timber Framers of Powhatan County milled the mortise and tenon joinery.

Va. high court to hear Dominion plant case

Environmentalists go to court today in an effort to block Dominion Virginia Power's 585-megawatt coal-fired power plant under construction in Wise County.

The Virginia Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in an appeal of the State Corporation Commission's approval of the $1.8 billion project.

The challenge filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center contends that the law authorizing construction of the plant is unconstitutional because it requires the plant to burn Virginia coal.

Supporters of the plant see it as a boon to economically depressed Southwest Virginia, and they say it will create a new market for Virginia coal.

THE NATION

Ford sets more buyout offers and exec pay cuts

Hourly workers at Ford Motor Co. will get another round of buyout and early retirement offers, and the company's top two executives will take 30 percent pay cuts as Ford tries to find a way out of the worst sales slump in 26 years.

Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. will see the salary reductions this year and next, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

In addition, local union leaders were told yesterday that the company will make buyout or early retirement offers to all 42,000 U.S. hourly workers. The offers are part of a series of contract concessions in a tentative agreement reached between the United Auto Workers and the company.

Ritz Camera Centers files for bankruptcy

Ritz Camera Centers Inc., the largest camera-store chain in the country, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, blaming the deepening recession and the consumer transition to digital photography.

The 91-year-old company has about 800 locations in more than 40 states, including Virginia. They include the Ritz Camera chain, Wolf Camera, Kits Cameras, Inkleys and the Camera Shops.

The Maryland-based company also owns 130 Boaters World Marine Centers, which were hurt by last years record oil prices, according to court papers.

Wyeth defends products amid scrutiny in China

TRENTON, N.J. -- Drugmaker Wyeth, a top player in China's infant-formula market, is dismissing claims that its products are to blame in the latest round of reports there linking nutrition products to kidney stones in infants.

Wyeth said yesterday that its products -- infant formula and milk powder -- have repeatedly been tested and found safe by governments of China and five other countries in the region, as well as by an independent lab hired by the Madison, N.J., company.

A report by the China Daily newspaper said about 20 families have complained that their youngsters developed kidney stones after drinking milk powder produced by Wyeth.

"We're aware of these reports," which appear to have originated with blog posts by a concerned parent whose child had become ill, Wyeth spokeswoman Natalie deVane said.

Elsewhere