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Southwest Virginia

Mar 24, 2025

Emory & Henry names new president

Washington County-based private college Emory & Henry University announced Monday that it was promoting Louise Fincher from interim president to the university’s permanent 23rd president. The university’s board of trustees unanimously selected Fincher as president during its spring board meeting. Fincher has more[...]

Mar 13, 2025

Speyside Bourbon Cooperage in Smyth lays off 75 workers

Speyside Bourbon Cooperage in Atkins will lay off 75 employees at the end of April due to slowdowns in the bourbon industry, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter dated Feb. 28. Speyside plans to end second-shift production and third-shift maintenance at the Smyth County facility. Laid-off wo[...]

Feb 28, 2025

New indoor farming operation to bring 118 jobs to Carroll County

U.K.-based business development firm Oasthouse Ventures, which specializes in low-carbon greenhouses, is investing $104.8 million to construct its first U.S.-based controlled environment agriculture operation in Carroll County, where it plans to produce tomatoes. Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday that the project will initial[...]

Feb 27, 2025

Southwest Va. Year-in-Review: Regional cooperation nets manufacturing projects

Southwest Virginia is weathering the economic disruptions of the transition from coal and a pandemic-related shift to remote work by focusing on a collaborative approach to business attraction. Teamwork is yielding results with a bump in manufacturing deals, punctuated by the November 2024 announcement that Wrap Technologies wou[...]

Feb 27, 2025

Southwest Va. Big Deal: EO hub offers regional workforce development

The workers and managers at Food City in Abingdon can see the future by stepping out and looking to their left toward a former Kmart. The old Kmart has been redeveloped by EO, a nonprofit that spun off from the United Way of Southwest Virginia, into the 87,000-square-foot Regional Workforce and Child Development Hub. Constructio[...]

Four cards and a stack of chips on a green felt table
Feb 17, 2025

Va. casinos report more than $72M in January revenue

January gaming revenues from Virginia’s casinos totaled $72.34 million, according to a report from the Virginia Lottery released Friday. Last month, Hard Rock Bristol casino reported about $18.52 million in adjusted gaming revenues (wagers minus winnings), of which about $15.16 million came from 1,486 slots and $3.36 milli[...]

Jan 30, 2025

Some SWVA communities see younger population stabilize

In Southwest Virginia, the trend of outmigration among younger people appears to be slowing and even reversing in some counties. The decline in the population aged 25 to 44 in Wise and Lee counties has slowed during the first half of the 2020s compared with the early 2010s, according to University of Virginia Weldon Cooper [&hel[...]

Dec 31, 2024

Southwest tourism spending climbs

Visitor spending in Southwest Virginia reached $766 million in 2023, a 12% increase from 2022, according to data from the Virginia Tourism Corp. The region also saw a 29% increase from 2019, a rise that puts it well above that of the state as a whole, which saw a 15% increase in tourism revenue from […]

Food City sign
Dec 26, 2024

Food City to pay $8.4M to settle opioids-related allegations

Abingdon-based K-VA-T Food Stores, operator of the Food City supermarket chain, has agreed to pay more than $8.4 million to the federal government to settle allegations under the False Claims Act (FCA) related to dispensing opioids and other controlled substances. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the agreement with K-VA[...]

Dec 13, 2024

Va. plays key role in McKinsey $650M opioid settlement

Global management firm McKinsey & Co. filed an agreement in Virginia on Friday to pay the federal government $650 million in a five-year deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice focused on opioid abuse. The Virginia attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) collaborated with U.S. a[...]

Nov 29, 2024

Hard Rock Bristol goes all-in for grand opening

The bright lights of Bristol shine considerably brighter following the opening of Virginia’s second full-fledged casino. The Nov. 14 grand opening of the $515 million-plus Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol, Virginia’s first hotel/casino combo, was grand indeed. Symphonies of sounds, from music to slot machines, in[...]

Nov 29, 2024

For the Record: December 2024

CENTRAL  Richmond-based international foam producer Carpenter acquired omnichannel bedding brand Casper Sleep for an undisclosed amount, it announced Oct. 29. Under the agreement, Casper will operate as a subsidiary of Carpenter. The deal marks the third acquisition Carpenter has made in the past 16 months. In November 2023, Ca[...]

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