20140714-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_--.qxp 7/11/2014 6:28 PM Page 1 ® www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 30, No. 28 JULY 14 – 20, 2014 $2 a copy; $59 a year ©Entire contents copyright 2014 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS VETERANS IN THE $20M bet on love of chocolate WORKPLACE VernDale’s new Detroit plant to expand dried-milk output How companies BY DUSTIN WALSH are earning their CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS stripes in amily-owned Detroit business VernDale Products seeking and Inc. has $20 million riding on the American palate hiring, Ffor premium chocolate. VernDale uses a bygone process of making dried milk Page 11 — a critical ingredient in those colorfully wrapped chocolates with European names and a creamier taste than the American milk Page 3 chocolate bars typically found in the Fair Lane prepares for some grocery store checkout line. The roller-dried whole milk supplier serious estate planning will open a new 82,000-square-foot plant on Weaver Street in west Detroit, near Hazel Park’s new plan: Trot the Southfield Freeway, in mid-August. out a microbrewery at track The plant is an all-in bet on the hunch Johnson that the American appreciation for qual- RiverFront Conservancy boss ity chocolate will continue to grow. brings development savvy The new plant comes at the request of its largest cus- tomer, one of Europe’s top makers of premium choco- late, said Dale Johnson, president and owner of Vern- Second Stage Dale. Johnson declined to name the customer. Small firms tell how they From its new plant in Detroit, VernDale Products will pump the secret sauce See Chocolate, Page 36 conquered the world, Page 23 of high-quality chocolate — or, to be more precise, roller-dried whole milk. KENNY CORBIN This Just In Crittenton invites health Homecoming invites ‘expats’ systems to begin sale talks Oil and gas exploration Crittenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester Hills is for to come back for comeback sale. In a statement, officials LeBron James did it in Cleve- with the 254-bed nonprofit hos- on rise in metro Detroit land. PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK pital confirmed they have in- BY CHAD HALCOM new wells have been moving over Brian Owens, Bill Martin and vited several unnamed health CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS the past two years toward South- Gwen Butler are doing the same systems to initiate discussions east Michigan. The Detroit area in Detroit. about a potential sale. Lease deals for landowners’ has yielded modest oil deposits at They’re coming home. Crittenton has formed a mineral rights and permits to drill relatively shallow depths, making Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan committee of board members new oil wells are both on the rise them cheap to drill and easier to was to announce Monday a new, and medical staff to make in metro Detroit. spot with new seismic imaging multiyear initiative to re-engage recommendations to the full But as new pumps begin to dot technology. ex-Detroiters in the city as it is hospital board. the landscape in communities like Exploration companies have slated to emerge from bankruptcy. Over the past several years, Shelby Township and Scio obtained 20 permits for wells Crittenton has explored merg- Township, the out-state por- Crain’s Detroit Business is a in the five-county region of Mary Kramer er, affiliation or acquisition tion of Michigan’s oil and Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, convener of the initiative we are with several health care com- gas exploration industry is Washtenaw and Liv- calling “The Detroit Homecom- panies. Sources have told largely lackluster. ingston so far in 2014, out ing.” The inaugural homecom- Detroit as “home.” Crain’s they include Flint- The shift is best docu- of 86 total drilling permits ing will be in iconic Detroit Butler is a perfect example. based McLaren Health Care Corp. mented by trends with statewide, according to venues Sept. 17-19 with an invita- She graduated from Mumford and Detroit Medical Center, state permits. data from the state Office tion-only audience primarily of High School and the University of which is owned by Dallas- Oil and gas exploration of Oil, Gas and Minerals, a “expats” — people who were Michigan and now is president of based Tenet Healthcare Corp. company executives and division of the Michigan born in metro Detroit, grew up Chicago-based Capri Capital Part- — Jay Greene state regulatory officials here, went to school here or say permit requests to drill See Exploration, Page 34 worked here — and still think of See Homecoming, Page 33 ISTOCK PHOTO Your Mission. Your Story. 2014 Giving Guide Your Suc ce s s! Contact: Marla Wise at [email protected] or (313) 446-6032 Don’t miss your chance to be part of Crain’s annual nonprofi t guide! NEWSPAPER 20140714-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 7/11/2014 5:26 PM Page 1 Page 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS July 14, 2014 MICHIGAN BRIEFS Whirlpool to buy $1B stake in Italian appliance maker CORRECTIONS Steelcase heir’s philanthropy for GR didn’t sit still Ⅲ A box on Page 4 of the July 7 is- Benton Harbor-based Whirlpool sue should have included Chrysler Peter Wege, the son of the founder of Grand from the U.S. Green Building Council. Corp. agreed to pay about $1 billion Group LLC and its $6 million com- Rapids-based Steelcase Inc., used his office furniture “I want to be remembered as one of the people who for a controlling stake in Italian ap- mitment among the funders that fortune on philanthropy throughout Grand Rapids tried to wake up the country on the environmental pliance maker Indesit Co., its largest are supporting the Detroit Institute for decades, a civic altruism that continues even af- problems,” Wege said in 2004, according to The Grand acquisition since buying former ri- of Arts’ “grand bargain” but ter his death July 7 at age 94. Rapids Press. “I’m doing it for my children and my val Maytag Corp. eight years ago, haven’t yet said how the funding As Steelcase’s largest shareholder, Wege — a fer- grandchildren. It’s got to be taken seriously this time.” Bloomberg News reported. will be administered if approved vent environmentalist — was able to commit mil- Aquinas College officials estimate that Wege’s do- “This will ideally position us for as part of Detroit’s bankruptcy lions of dollars toward “green” causes. He retired as nations topped $46.5 million over the years. sustainable growth in the highly plan of adjustment. vice chairman of the Steelcase board about a decade As co-chairman of a committee formed to commis- competitive and increasingly glob- Ⅲ A story in the July 7 edition ago to work on the Wege Foundation, which he creat- sion a major work of public art for Grand Rapids’ al home appliance market in Eu- about AdAdapted Inc. should have ed in 1967. It has given away millions, much of it in new city-county complex downtown, Wege helped rope,” Whirlpool Chairman and said the idea for the Ann Arbor his hometown. bring Alexander Calder’s stabile, “La Grande CEO Jeff Fettig said in a statement. company came from co-founder In 1998, he created a word and then wrote a book Vitesse,” to Grand Rapids in 1969. The acquisition follows Whirl- Mike Pedersen and not his part- called Economicology —combining “economics” and At Meijer Gardens, named for Meijer Inc. founder pool’s deal last year to buy a majori- ner, Molly McFarland. “ecology” — that spelled out his ideas about corpo- Fred Meijer, visitors will find the Wege Nature Trail ty stake in Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Ⅲ The top local executives listed rate environmental responsibility. He donated $20 and the Wege Library. Electric Co. for about $552 million as for Lochbridge on Crain’s list of million toward the new Grand Rapids Art Museum Rachel Hood, executive director of the West Michi- the appliance maker expands be- the largest Michigan mobile app building, which opened in 2007, on condition that it gan Environmental Action Council, told MLive.com, yond its home market. Whirlpool developers in the July 7 edition receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental “Peter’s voice was unique in saying that business derived 16 percent of its sales from should not have included Com- Design — better known as LEED — certification and environment can work together.” Europe, the Middle East and Africa puware Corp. CEO Robert Paul. last year, compared with 54 percent Lochbridge is Compuware’s for- from North America. Inc. plans to close campuses in Berrien County woman alleged to three-year grant for $700,000. mer professional services divi- Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids that have defrauded senior citizens out Ⅲ The website Simple Dollar sion, which was sold to Marlin Eq- ICH CELLANEOUS operate under the name Everest of millions of dollars through a ranked Kalamazoo — home of uity Partners in January. M - College as part of a plan to close a Ponzi scheme while employed as a Western Michigan University and Ⅲ Former Steelcase Inc. executive dozen campuses in 11 states, The licensed investment adviser at the Kalamazoo College (well, where food, better people, everyone’s a Jim Stelter, now CEO of Inscape California-based company reached Diversified Group Advisory Firm LLC. would it be, after all?) — ninth on friend; all are welcome where the Corp. near Toronto, said his compa- an agreement with the U.S. Depart- Ⅲ Mid Michigan Community Col- its list of the top 10 “Most Afford- compass ends.” Loses something in ny will send some business to his ment of Education after it failed to lege is starting a plastics engineer- able College Towns.” the translation to print, no doubt.