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The Maui 10
Who's the county's most powerful player?
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May 15, 2008 PRICES UP, PROFITS DOWN
 | | RANK | PREVIOUS | COMPANY | | 1 | 1 | Monsanto Hawai`i | | 2 | 2 | Alexander & Baldwin | | 3 | 4 | Weinberg Foundation | | 4 | 5 | Maui Land & Pineapple Co. | | 5 | 3 | Tesoro Hawai`i | | 6 | 7 | Dowling Co. | | 7 | 6 | Wailuku Water Co. | | 8 | 8 | Goodfellow Brothers | | 9 | 9 | Hawaiian Telecom | | 10 | 10 | Maui Electric Co. |
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The price of a gallon of gasoline may be higher than ever before in American history, but that apparently doesn't seem to be translating into a Golden Age for Texas-based Tesoro, which operates the largest refinery in Hawai`i. On May 6 the Honolulu Advertiser reported that Tesoro lost $82 million in the first quarter of 2008—stunning news for a company that made $116 in profits in 2007. The reason for the catastrophe? "Hawai`i refinery operations, which ran at a lower production rate as the company upgraded equipment and dealt with a power failure and fire that temporarily disabled the Campbell Industrial Park during the quarter," reported the Advertiser. Actually, this isn't all that surprising. In November 2007, Tesoro stock sold for about $64 a share; today, the share price hovers around $25. You do the math.
STABILIZED!
Good news! On May 7 the Hawai`i Tourism Authority convened a special, emergency meeting to authorize spending $3 million from the state's special, emergency fund to offset the damage done to tourism by the loss of Aloha and ATA and the corresponding rise in airfares. This money "is specifically to stabilize the market's perception of Hawai`i and Hawai`i's airfares," HTA Director of Tourism Marketing David Uchiyama said in the May 8 Honolulu Advertiser. In other words, state tourism officials will buy a lot of advertising trying to convince Middle America that flying to Hawai`i for a vacation isn't going to be nearly as expensive as they think it will be. We can't lose! Unless more airlines fail, in which case we're screwed, but what are the odds of that? MTW
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| Entertainment and lifestyle news for Maui, Hawaii and the surrounding Islands. Maui Time Weekly is Mauis only independent and locally owned newspaper.
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