Corporate report

Fort Myers' Pearl Brands wins Bayliner Boats national account
Fort Myers-based Pearl Brands was awarded the national advertising and brand management duties for Knoxville, Tenn.-based Bayliner Boats, one of the world's best-known boat brands.
“
We're thrilled to team up with Bayliner Boats and return to our roots in the recreational boating category,” agency owner Scott Qurollo says in a press release.

The account comes as a result of Pearl Brands nearly a year of consulting and project work for Bayliner Boats.

Bayliner was established in 1957 and currently has more than 400 dealers in nearly 80 countries around the world. The company operates as part of the Brunswick Boat Group, a division of the Brunswick Corp.

Quality Carriers expands into Kentucky Market
Quality Carriers Inc., a bulk chemical carrier subsidiary of Tampa-based Quality Distribution Inc. (symbol: QLTY; recent price: $10.03), has expanded into the Kimper, Ky., market.

“As the leading bulk carrier in North America, when one of our customers asked us to consider affiliating a small bulk carrier servicing their coal customers in Kentucky, we listened,” says Randy Strutz, Quality Carriers president, in a release. “We've partnered with SF Transport Holdings, a family-owned bulk carrier, which services the coal industry in Kentucky and West Virginia.”

Newslines announces revenue sharing with contributors, editors
Newslines, a Sarasota-based crowd sourced news search engine, announced a new revenue-sharing system to give 50% of all its ad revenues to writers, editors and people who invite others to use the site.

The company says it will pay writers for posts and editors for improving posts. Registered users can also earn income by inviting friends into the system. Payments are made through PayPal once an individual's income passes $20.

“We hate that the people behind many large sites get rich off of the free work of their contributors,” Mark Devlin, Newslines founder and CEO, says in a press release. “Contributors who help build a business should also get a share in the growth of the business.”

Newslines was founded by U.S.- based Scottish entrepreneurs, Mark and Mary Devlin, in May 2014. The site is described as a mix of Google News, Wikipedia and YouTube, which lets contributors add 50-150 word summaries of breaking and archive news. Posts are compiled into news timelines, called “newslines.”

The Devlins previously founded japantoday.com, which they describe as Japan's largest English news and discussion website.

Silver Airways expands Tampa flights to Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Abaco
Silver Airways announced several additional flights to and from Tampa. The airline increased its flights between Fort Lauderdale from four to five flights per day on weekdays. Two new weekly nonstop flights have been added between Tampa and Marsh Harbour (Abaco) on Saturdays and Sundays. It is also providing one-stop same-plane service to Tallahassee from
Tampa each business day with a connection in Orlando.

“We are proud to be the airline of choice for travel throughout the Sunshine State and the Bahamas, and we're happy to see that both business and leisure travelers are taking advantage of our new convenient intra-Florida and Bahamas flights,” Silver Airways CEO Sami Teittinen says in a press release.

St. Pete, Punta Gorda airports adding Allegiant flights
As part of a larger 22-route expansion, Allegiant has announced new nonstop service to two Gulf Coast airports. The airline plans to offer year-round direct flights to and from Akron/Canton, Ohio and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. to St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport and to and from Raleigh-Durham, N.C. to the Punta Gorda Airport. The new flights are scheduled to begin in May.

Duffy's Sports Grill opens first West Coast location
Duffy's Sports Grill, a sports-themed casual dining restaurant, has opened its 27th location in Estero. Located on the corner of Corkscrew Road and Stoneybrook Golf Boulevard, the site marks the restaurant's first location on Florida's West Coast and comes on the heels of Duffy's expansion in Central Florida with restaurants in Orlando and Lake Mary.

“Duffy's has chosen Estero as our first location on the west coast because of the community's growth strategy and vision for the future,” Jason Emmett, Duffy's Sports Grill senior vice president of operations, says in a press release.

Duffy's Sports Grill, based in Lake Worth, was founded in 1985.

Advanzeon Solutions, Nevada Health Co-op expanding relationship
Tampa-based Advanzeon Solutions Inc. entered into a new memorandum of understanding to offer additional services to the Nevada Health Co-op. Advanzeon has been providing its behavioral health services to the co-op primarily in the southern Nevada/Las Vegas region. The agreement calls for a more formal provider services agreement within the next 90 days covering what is commonly known as the Northern Frontier of the state of Nevada; an area not previously serviced by Advanzeon for the Nevada Health Co-op.

Nevada Health Co-op is one of the health care co-ops funded in 2012 through a loan from the Department of Health and Human Services, as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

GulfCoast Business Finance president resigning
Ron Reuss, president of GulfCoast Business Finance Inc., has announced plans to retire from the St. Petersburg firm. He has been with the organization for the past 14 years. Reuss plans to continue to assist GulfCoast Business Finance during the transition to new leadership.

The change is not expected to impact operations or loans.

The nonprofit works with the U.S. Small Business Administration and private lenders to provide long-term, fixed asset financing to businesses.

Frontier Airlines adding flight from Fort Myers to northern Kentucky
Frontier Airlines announced plans to offer daily nonstop service between Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Ky. The flights are scheduled to start April 30.