Motorized pulley manufacturer, Rulmeca Corp., has expanded its production line thanks to a yearlong expansion effort.  This fall, the firm’s electric autoclave manufacturer, Bondtech, commissioned a new machine and trained production staff on how to use it to bring a new capability in-house. The new equipment enables Rulmeca to offer more motorized pulley opt ...

While economic factors such as inflation and interest rate changes are expected to impact several sectors in the Wilmington area this year, some signs and local professionals in those industries show optimism about the possibility of continued growth.  The real estate market in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties this year won’t look like the start o ...

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has submitted a design application for its BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) to the U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The company, headquartered in Wilmington, has been working toward the goal of deploying its BWRX-300 design, which is based on its legacy boiling water reactor models. As GE Hitachi’s first S ...

After two years of life-uprooting curveballs thrown by a global pandemic, the end of 2022 was marked by COVID-19’s near-absence of a presence in daily life.    However, the pandemic’s impacts still reverberate, certainly so in the pressures exerted upon the health care system, which was critically strained this summer.   This year’s rea ...

Many influential local organizations saw leadership changes this year, from newcomers to familiar faces taking over the helm. In July, Aswani Volety started his role as the seventh chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Volety previously worked at UNCW, where he served as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Most recently, he served as th ...

Plenty of job openings and fewer applicants this year meant employees held the upper hand while employers offered higher wages, hefty sign-on bonuses and other perks to attract and retain workers. At Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center, hospital officials continued to navigate the nationwide nursing shortage. Burnout from the pandemic prompted nurses to qu ...

A Wilmington brewery with a social impact mission and backing from a large national beer company ceased its operations this year. TRU Colors CEO George Taylor announced the company’s end in September, just a few months after its taproom had opened on Greenfield Street. The company had also been distributing its first beer, TRU Light, at grocery stores and bar ...

Like many airports across the country, Wilmington International Airport took a hit from the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, but this year the airport moved beyond recovery into growth mode. ILM is on track to hit 1 million total passengers this year, as it did for the first time in 2019. In May, August, September and October, the airport logged some of the best numbers on re ...

The New Hanover Community Endowment officially formalized in 2022 and ended the year dolling out more than $9 million in its inaugural grant cycle. Formed by the February 2021 sale of the once-county-owned New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health, the community endowment spent much of the year taking shape. Bestowed $1.25 billion in hospital sale proceeds ...

Many Cape Fear area retirees might initially opt for a life of leisure but discover that they still have a lot to give, and perhaps a lot to learn. Some turn to volunteering, but others draw on their interests or expertise to start a business.    Christopher Pilloton is one of them. After leaving his IT consulting position in 2008 due to a mass layoff, he was h ...