REGIONALREPORT Triad
STONEVILLE — Gerbing’s Heated Clothingwill bring production of its apparel and blankets from China to a factory it is opening here in a former furniture factory. The Tumwater, Wash.-based apparel maker began hiring in May and says it will employ at least 150 by 2015.
WINSTON-SALEM — Primo Water is planning another public offering of stock of up to 6.9 million shares after it raised nearly $105 million in its initial public offering in November. The company has not set the official price. It says it would use some of the money to retire debt and the rest as working capital.
WINSTON-SALEM — Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice merged with Buist Moore Smythe McGee of Charleston, S.C., which it says makes it the largest law firm in the Carolinas. Womble Carlyle, based here, gained 44 lawyers from the deal, giving it 550 at 12 offices in six states and Washington, D.C.
ELKIN — Pittsburgh Glass Works considered 88 sites in fives states before deciding to spend $85 million to open a factory here that will employ 260 by 2016.
Winston-Salem-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Greensboro-based Lorillard and Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris USA won a favorable verdict in a Missouri lawsuit in which 37 hospitals and the city of St. Louis sought about $455 million in damages for treating smokers, contending that the companies sold an “unreasonably dangerous” product.