HEALTHCARE
Mission Hospital named Tarek Salaway its new chief operating officer. He will oversee operations at Mission, which has campuses in Mission Viejo and Laguna Beach and is part of the St. Joseph Hoag Health network of care. He was most recently chief operating officer at Keck Medical Center of the University of Southern California and fills a position vacated when Kenneth McFarland departed last month. Salaway’s experience also includes leadership positions at Renton, Wash.-based Providence Health and Services, which is forming an alliance with St. Joseph Health.
HOSPITALITY
The Honda Center in Anaheim will host the 2017 P&G Gymnastics Championships and a meeting and trade show related to the event. The competition—slated for Aug. 17 to 20—is a marquee event in the selection process for the men’s and women’s national teams to compete in upcoming world championships. The USA Gymnastics National Congress and Trade Show will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center from Aug. 16 to 19, 2017. Anaheim’s destination marketing organization, Visit Anaheim, earlier this month formed a Sports Anaheim division focused on attracting sporting events to the area.
MANUFACTURING
Irvine-based Good Culture LLC got $2.1 million in seed funding led by Cavu Venture Partners in New York City with participation from 301 Inc. in Minneapolis. Good Culture makes organic cottage cheese in various flavors and is stocked in grocery stores that include Whole Foods and Sprouts. Cavu closed its first investment fund in January with $156 million from 134 backers. 301 Inc. formed in October as the venture capital arm of General Mills Inc.
RESTAURANTS
CKE Restaurants Inc., based in Carpinteria, Calif. near Santa Barbara but with a sizable presence in Anaheim, where it has its roots, is moving its headquarters to Nashville. The company has four fast food chains: Carl’s Jr. and Green Burrito, in Carpinteria, and Hardee’s and Red Burrito, based in St. Louis. Founder Carl Karcher ran restaurants in Anaheim starting in 1945 and opened the first Carl’s Jr. in 1956.
Moe’s Southwest Grill said a franchisee will open 13 restaurants in Orange County over the next several years. It opened its first three locations in California this month, one in San Diego and two in Sacramento. The fast-casual chain has about 600 restaurants. Moe’s Franchisor LLC is part of Atlanta-based Focus Brands Inc., which runs about 5,000 restaurants in 60 countries under brands that include Seattle’s Best Coffee and Lancaster, Penn.-based Auntie Anne’s pretzel shops. Focus is a portfolio company of private equity firm Roark Capital Group, also in Atlanta.
RETAIL
The Outlets at Orange said it will start building 60,000 square feet of retail space this month that will add 12 outlet stores to the Orange-based shopping center’s 120 tenants. The project is scheduled for completion by the holiday season. Plans include construction of several one-story buildings to encircle a center pedestrian plaza featuring a water element and seating. The outlets currently have nine buildings totaling about 898,000 square feet, of which 753,000 square feet are leasable.
SERVICES
Irvine-based call center provider Alorica will cut 160 jobs in Albuquerque, N.M., less than a year after the company opened an office there. The office had 500 employees before the cuts, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The duties formerly handled by the furloughed employees will shift to other U.S. and international Alorica offices. The company said it plans to fill at least 50 new positions at its Albuquerque office and will give furloughed workers a chance to apply for them.
The U.S. Labor Department ordered Garden Grove-based recycler Garcia Recycling Center & Metals to pay more than $200,000 in back wages and damages to workers, the Orange County Register reported. It said the company hadn’t paid workers for over-time labor.
