Business Briefs

Blaisdell job fair to feature 120 employers

About 120 employers will be looking to hire workers Wednesday at the Job Quest job fair at Neal Blaisdell Center.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $3 general and $1 for students with school ID, seniors 55 and older, and military with ID. There will be 20-minute briefings from featured companies throughout the day.

Hawaiian Airlines, H&M, Bank of Hawaii and Central Pacific Bank will be among those companies looking to fill vacancies. Free professional head shots will be provided for job seekers that can be used on their LinkedIn profile pages.

To preregister for the job fair, go to www.successhi.com Opens in a new tab.

KonaRed hopes for drinks in 3,200 retailers

Kauai-based KonaRed Corp. said it hopes to be selling its coffee fruit beverage in 3,200 retail locations by the end of June, up from about 600 stores that carried the drink at the end of last year.

KonaRed CEO Shaun Roberts said 59 ABC Stores began carrying KonaRed Original at the end of 2013, adding to the approximately 540 other locations. Roberts expects the total to rise to 3,200 stores in the second quarter, a news release said.

KonaRed, based in Kalaheo on Kauai, sells a juice made from the skin and flesh of the coffee cherry — the thin, pulpy fruit protecting the coffee bean. The company went public in October with shares traded on the over-the-counter stock market.

Shares closed up 11 cents today at $1.24 with 7.6 million shares traded. The shares are up 61 percent this month.

Sam’s Club cuts affect 4 workers per store

The 2,300 cuts at Sam’s Club will affect about four workers per club on average, a company spokes-man said. Sam’s Club has two Oahu stores, on Kee­au­moku Street and in Pearl City.

Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is reducing its ranks of middle managers in an effort to be more nimble, the company said. The layoffs amount to 2 percent of its U.S. workforce of about 116,000.

Employees will be paid their regular salary for 60 days to give them time to apply for other openings at Sam’s Club or Walmart. Workers unable to find new positions after 60 days will be eligible for severance.

MorphoTrust wins state airport contract

MorphoTrust USA has won a new contract from Hawaii’s Department of Transportation to provide employee screening and badging services at seven major airports in the state, including Hono­lulu, Kona International, Hilo International, Kahu­lui, Lanai, Molo­kai and Lihue.

By virtue of its agreement with the Transportation Security Administration, Billerica, Mass.-based MorphoTrust receives biometric and biographic information for airport employees, processes and validates the received information, then facilitates its transmission to the TSA for vetting and clearance.

Honolulu sees decline in PV permits and values

Honolulu issued 162 permits for residential photovoltaic systems last week, down 16 percent from the same week last year, the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism reported Monday.

Year-to-date, Honolulu’s total number of residential PV permits was 502, a 27.7 percent decrease from the previous year.

Honolulu’s total value of residential PV permits issued last week was $3.8 million, down 36 percent from the same period last year, DBEDT said. The year-to-date value of residential PV permits was $12.8 million, a 41.4 percent decrease from the previous year.

The average value of residential PV permits last week was about $23,600, down from $31,100 in the same period last year.

ON THE MOVE

Park Restaurant, at the Lotus Honolulu at Diamond Head, has named Yoichi Saito its executive chef. Saito’s experience includes having his own restaurant called Saito in Greenwich, Conn. He also served as chef de cuisine and executive sous-chef at Roy’s at Pebble Beach, Calif., executive chef at Wasabina in New York and executive chef at La Rochelle and Angelo in Italy.

Kahala Nui has named Teina Anthony its new director of dining services. He has 23 years of professional cooking and kitchen management experience in hotel, retail and health care settings, including serving as senior executive chef at San Francisco Towers, chef de cuisine at the University of Portland and executive chef and general manager for Cafe 64 at Bayer Healthcare in Berkeley, Calif.

The Hawaii Medical Assurance Association has announced the re-election of directors to its board at its recent annual meeting: John Henry Felix, executive chairman and chief executive officer; Gail Mukaihata Hannemann; William McCorriston; and Warren Price. Hannemann was elected the board’s vice chairwoman.

University of Hawaii at Manoa has announced that Monique Chyba has received the science and lectureship award from Chiba University in December 2013 for her research contributions to applied mathematics. Chyba is a professor of mathematics.

SHIP AHOY!

Today’s ship arrivals and departures:

HONOLULU HARBOR