North Bay Business Journal

PETALUMA — Women’s activewear retailer Athleta, a division of San Francisco-based apparel giant Gap Inc., plans to nearly double the size of its 200-employee headquarters office in Petaluma this fall as the brand’s brick-and-mortar retail initiative picks up the pace.

NORTH BAY — Regularly scheduled freight rail service is once again a reality in Marin and Sonoma counties bringing with it a lower cost alternative for businesses compared to trucks for shipping raw materials in, and finished goods out, of the region.

Walter Eagan, a Russian River Valley appellation grower of zinfandel and chardonnay grapes east of Windsor, was surprised to get a three-year zin purchase grape contract from St. Helena-based Duckhorn Wine Co. earlier this year.

PETALUMA — Eurofins Scientific has added a new DNA sequencing facility to its laboratory in Petaluma. Headquartered in Belgium, Eurofins is an international provider of bioanalysis services and products for academic and industrial laboratories worldwide. It’s main U.S. genetic sequencing center is in Huntsville, Ala.

PETALUMA — Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, a 22-year veteran of Sonoma County public health, has joined the Redwood Community Health Coalition as the nonprofit’s new medical director.

WASHINGTON — The largest union vote to take place in over 70 years may have to be done all over again, after an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board recommended the results between two quarreling unions be set aside.

Spain-based Rivercap is setting up manufacturing plant in Benicia to make polylaminate and PVC plastic capsules to top wine and spirits bottles.

The 26,500-square-foot plant will “increase responsiveness” for Rivercap customers in North America and tighten the partnership between the capsule supplier and its exclusive distributor on the continent, according to José Saenz, chief executive officer of Rivercap USA Inc.

When you don’t need a cab, they are all over the place. But, when do you need a cab, they disappear — or they are all committed. I am not talking here about yellow cars in the city but about cabernet sauvignon vineyards in the North Coast.

NAPA — Microworks Technologies, a locally based developer of direct sales management software for the wine industry, is expanding as the needs of wineries for their tasting rooms, wine clubs and other direct-to-consumer channels change.

SONOMA COUNTY — The Sonoma County Medical Association recently named Jeff Sugarman as its new president, a position that he will hold for the next year. He recently shared with the Business Journal some his main priories as the new president of the SCMA, as well as his thoughts on a wide range of health care issues in Sonoma County — from access to specialty care, the new health care reform law and the increasing challenges of physicians in private practice, among others.

The Northern California Center for Well-Being, along with the Northern California Medical Associates, today celebrated the 20th anniversary of the HeartWorks Fitness Center, a cardiovascular rehabilitation program. The Center for Well-Being, which focuses on wellness and preventative care, and NCMA, a practice of cardiologists, have collaborated on the program made possible by ongoing support from [...]

NORTH BAY — Adventist Health, which operates numerous health care facilities from Solano to Lake County, announced that it is restructuring and renaming the region to the Northern California Network “as a result of growth and pending business opportunities.”

This concept is pretty simple, isn’t it? We expect that Sam’s mom will pick up our child from school when promised … that our salary increase will take effect as scheduled … that our boss will fight for our marketing budget as he said he would. We expect our leaders to have our back, to be responsive, to honor their word and generally do what they say they’re going to do when they say they’re going to do it. It’s simple … but when it’s absent, it can be paralyzing.

More often than I would have thought, I feel compelled to “prescribe” a vacation for a client. It seems that many hard-working, industrious types have a difficult time acknowledging that they need a break from work. This is especially true of small business owners, whose personal contributions are usually critical to their company’s daily operations. Yet, no matter how central a person is to an organization, it is imperative that he or she recognizes the benefits of taking time off. Taking a vacation is important for a number of reasons.

Commercial real estate leases and sales in north San Francisco Bay area counties

Professional and organizational people news for the north San Francisco Bay area.

A little bit of history was made at this week’s Top Manufacturers awards. Yes, over the years there have been plenty of technology industry events and hundreds of people packed Telecom Valley conferences in the boom years in the late 1990s. But in 25 years I can’t recall an afternoon like the Top Manufacturers awards when such a range of companies from big to small were gathered in one room.

[Updated: July 19, 11:25 a.m. with further lawsuit details and a link to the complaint] ROHNERT PARK — A Windsor-based waste and recycling company has filed a lawsuit against the city of Rohnert Park, alleging that its recent requirement of paying a “buy-in” fee to conduct business in the city “is tantamount to a bribe.”