Starbucks adds Fizzio sodas in Hawaii

Starbucks Corp. wants to get in with the lunch crowd.

The coffee giant began offering a new line of handcrafted Fizzio sodas Tuesday at about 3,500 Starbucks stores in Hawaii and the southern U.S.

The carbonated concoctions come in three flavors: spiced root beer, ginger ale and lemon ale, made without artificial flavors, preservatives or high-fructose corn syrup.

The global coffee chain is also testing new sandwiches and said it will be adding more lunchtime options to compete with other chains such as Dunkin’ Donuts.

Burrows said prices for the new carbonated sodas will vary by location. A 16-ounce Fizzio soda costs $3.45 in Hawaii, for example. By this time next year the company expects the sodas to be in every store across the country. The chain currently has about 11,600 U.S. locations.

Walgreen net up 16% but misses forecasts

Walgreen’s fiscal third-quarter earnings jumped 16 percent compared with last year, aided in part by a lower income tax rate, but the nation’s largest drugstore chain missed Wall Street’s expectations.

The Deerfield, Ill.-based company said Tuesday an increase in foreign income helped knock its tax rate down to 31.5 percent, compared with 38.7 percent last year. As a result, the company’s income tax provision dropped $43 million in the quarter. The lower tax rate contributed a benefit of about 8 cents per share toward the company’s earnings, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Ajay Jain said in a research note that described Walgreen’s earnings as weak.

Walgreen Co. earned $722 million, or 75 cents a share, in the quarter that ended May 31, up from $624 million, or 65 cents a share, a year ago. The drugstore chain’s revenue climbed 6 percent to $19.4 billion.

U.S. consumer confidence hits 6-year high

WASHINGTON » U.S. consumers are more confident about the economy than they have been in more than six years.

The Conference Board’s confidence index rose to 85.2 this month from a revised 82.2 in May, the private research group said Tuesday. The June figure is the highest since January 2008, a month after the Great Recession officially began.

More Americans are optimistic about business conditions and the outlook for jobs, though fewer expect their incomes will grow over the next six months.

The index compiled by the Conference Board shows that confidence has been rising steadily since bottoming at 25.3 in February 2009. It’s well above last year’s average of 72.3, but it still hasn’t returned to full health. Before the recession the index usually topped 90.

ON THE MOVE

Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties has announced that Nana Isono has joined the firm’s Kahala office. Prior to joining CBP, she served as a Realtor-associate at Century 21 Aloha Properties.

Mark E. Agne has joined the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii’s board of trustees. He is a managing director who heads Equities in Japan and is co-head of APAC Equity Trading for Goldman Sachs.

Alan Chinen has been nominated for the first Elite Advisor Award. The National Tax-Deferred Savings Association sponsors the 2014 award, which is an annual recognition of excellence in the 403(b) and 457(b) retirement industry. Chinen is president and chief executive officer of Chinen & Ari­naga Financial Group in Mili­lani.