Tag: FedEx

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Phil’s FESJC

Phil Cannon

This is arguably the greatest week of the year for Memphis sports. Seventy of the finest golfers on the planet arrive in the Bluff City for the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first of three playoff tournaments to decide the winner of this year’s FedEx Cup. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler will be here. Xander Schauffele — winner of the PGA Championship and the British Open — will be here. So will Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Thomas. Memphis is the center of the golf universe for a precious, if humid, weekend.

I always think of Phil Cannon when the FESJC rolls around. We lost the longtime tournament director much too soon (in 2016), but Phil’s imprint on the event lives on, and in ways that go beyond any plaque or statue. The hundreds of volunteers who make you feel like the tournament belongs to you, personally? That’s Phil Cannon’s influence. A media center equipped with every tool a reporter might need to best share a story? That’s Phil Cannon’s influence. And the ongoing bonds between our tournament and both St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and FedEx? That’s Phil Cannon’s priority list, living and breathing, making the FESJC distinct from any other golf tournament in the world.

Phil was the primary source for my very first feature in Memphis Magazine, way back in June 1994. He treated me like a veteran scribe in town for Sports Illustrated. I have little doubt every writer who crossed his path would tell you the same thing. Phil Cannon was a Memphis treasure. When the FESJC makes sports headlines every summer, I’m reminded that he still is.

• The Memphis Redbirds unveiled a new sign on the outfield wall at AutoZone Park last Saturday, a tribute to the 1938 Negro American League champion Memphis Red Sox. It made for a glorious night at the ballpark, Memphis beating Gwinnett, 8-2, while wearing uniforms commemorating the city’s Negro League team of days gone by.

It’s a good start for a franchise and facility that desperately needs to better embrace the history we’ve seen over the ballpark’s first quarter-century. That lone red chair on the right-field bluff? That’s where Albert Pujols (yes, that guy) hit a baseball to win the 2000 Pacific Coast League championship for Memphis. But there’s no plaque to tell a new fan why September 15, 2000, is an important date in Memphis sports history. Just an oddly placed red seat. 

And how about a reminder (poster?) that Yadier Molina played here, and actually caught his first game with Adam Wainwright on the mound at AutoZone Park? (The two broke the major-league record for starts by a battery in 2022.) You might recognize highlights of David Freese from the 2011 World Series. Did you know Freese hit game-winning home runs in the 2009 PCL playoffs, helping Memphis to its second championship? A visual reminder would make AutoZone Park a better, happier place.

• The U.S. Olympic basketball teams (men and women) both brought home gold medals from the Paris Games. Salute to LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, and the many future Hall of Famers who handled the uncomfortable role of heavy favorite and made it to the podium. It makes for a good time to remind voters for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame that Memphis legend Penny Hardaway is the only member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team — also gold medalists — not currently enshrined. The only one. Mitch Richmond is in the Hall of Fame, for crying out loud, but not Penny Hardaway. Let’s get this corrected.

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Junior Achievement of Memphis to Launch Startup Park by FedEx

A student works as a teller in JA BizTown's simulated bank. (Credit: Junior Achievement of Memphis)

Junior Achievement of Memphis have teamed up with FedEx to produce the next generation of Memphis entrepreneurs. A new program between the two organizations will teach early-stage entrepreneurship education for elementary school students.

The new program, Startup Park by FedEx, will introduce 5th and 6th graders to a diverse range of minority- and women-owned businesses that are in the first stages of development.

“There’s simply no replacement for a student seeing someone who looks like them succeeding in business,” said Jason Campbell, Junior Achievement Board Member and VP of Operations and Ops
System Support for FedEx Custom Critical. “FedEx continues to invest in small, minority- and women-owned businesses in the region — and that includes doubling down on our investment in local youth through our strategic support of JA.”

Located in Junior Achievement’s new experiential learning center at 516 Tillman in Binghampton, the program will act as a “storefront” within Junior Achievement’s BizTown, where students partner with well-known businesses that are big parts of the global economy. Startup Park will aim to teach children the basics of starting a business, and how to engage partners that can help the business thrive.

“Children can’t be what they can’t see,” said Leigh Mansberg, president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South. “FedEx has been collaborating with us and, with their generous support, we’re excited to transform the narrative for thousands of future Black, brown, and women entrepreneurs across the 25-county area JA serves.

“Our long-term goals are to lay the foundation for a pipeline to entrepreneurship through high school and beyond,” continued Mansberg, “and also to see evidence that participants in Startup Park by FedEx are developing tangible, age-appropriate entrepreneurial ideas and solutions that can be supported within the local youth entrepreneur ecosystem.”

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Fred Smith to Step Down as FedEx CEO

Fred Smith (Credit: FedEx Corp.)

One of Memphis’ most famous companies is about to have a new leader at the helm. In a press release Monday, FedEx announced that, effective June 1, 2022, founder, CEO, and chairman Frederick W. Smith will step down from his position as CEO. He will be succeeded by FedEx president and COO Raj Subramaniam.

“FedEx has changed the world by connecting people and possibilities for the last 50 years,” Smith said. “As we look toward what’s next, I have a great sense of satisfaction that a leader of the caliber of Raj Subramaniam will take FedEx into a very successful future. In my role as Executive Chairman, I look forward to focusing on Board governance as well as issues of global importance, including sustainability, innovation, and public policy.”

Prior to his role as president and COO, Subramaniam was the president and CEO of FedEx Express, and has held plenty of other positions within the organization since joining in 1991.

“Fred is a visionary leader and a legend of the business world,” Subramaniam said. “He founded one of the world’s greatest and most admired companies, and it is my honor and privilege to step into this role and build upon what he has created. As we continue to transform as a company and reimagine what’s next, we will keep our people-service-profit philosophy at our core. I am immensely proud of our 600,000 team members around the world. Together we’ve set into motion ideas that have changed the world for the better, and together we will unlock new value for our people, customers, and shareholders.”

Raj Subramaniam (Credit: FedEx Corp.)

Since helping incorporate the business in 1971, Smith has spent the majority of his career as chairman and CEO of FedEx, turning it into a titan of the transportation and delivery industry. He will remain with the company as executive chairman.

Greater Memphis Chamber president and CEO Beverly Robertson also paid tribute to the longtime business leader.

“From a college class to a global brand, Fred Smith took the kernel of an idea and made it resonate around the world,” Robertson said in a statement Monday. “I feel a deep sense of civic pride every time I fly into Memphis and see row upon row of FedEx airplanes. Because of his profound vision, he’s leaving a powerful legacy that has forever changed the trajectory of this company and this city. We will continue to owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude for his contributions to Memphis.

“Fred Smith couldn’t leave his legacy in better hands than those of his successor. We look forward to seeing Raj Subramaniam continue to build on the solid foundation laid by Fred Smith, whose impact will be felt in Memphis for generations to come.”

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Report: MEM Busiest Cargo Airport In the World

FedEx aircraft at Memphis International Airport. Photo by Jon W. Sparks

Memphis International Airport (MEM) is back atop the rankings as the world’s busiest cargo airport. 

More than 4.6 million metric tonnes of cargo came through the airport last year, up 6.7 percent over 2019. It was enough to put MEM back on top of the ranking by Airports Council International (ACI), edging out Hong Kong International Airport, which earned the top slot in 2019. The last time MEM ranked first on the list was 2009.

Airports Council International

The FedEx Express World Hub at MEM is responsible for about 99 percent of the overall cargo handled at MEM. The hub sees about 450 combined arrivals and departures per day.

Global passenger traffic at the world’s airports decreased by 64.6 percent in 2020, according to ACI, as travel was reduced due to COVID-19 concerns. However, air cargo volumes decreased by only 8.9 percent. 

Air cargo volumes in ACI’s top 10 airports grew by 3 percent in 2020. The agency says the gain can be attributed to the increase in demand for online consumer goods, pharmaceutical products, and personal protective equipment. 

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: COVID-19 Vaccines Arrive, Tigers at Target, and the McRib

Wheels down

The first COVID-19 vaccines arrived here Sunday. FedEX Corp. captured this historic moment in a tweet that could not have come soon enough.

Positive 2020?

University of Memphis president Dr. David Rudd tweeted a bold statement last week. “One thing got much better in 2020.”

McRib Vaccine

E. Parkway McDonalds is still going strong on Twitter even though the restaurant there is not (it closed years ago). The account captured this gross but weirdly accurate moment in time last week as the mysterious McRib sandwich reappeared.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Icing on the Cake: Sugar Avenue Bakery Continues to Grow

CREDIT: Libby Green

Ed Crenshaw’s Sugar Avenue Bakery will launch its Gooey Cake Bite cakes November 11th in Tops Bar-B-Q restaurants.

That’s about two weeks after Crenshaw introduced the Memphis Bourbon Caramel Cake, a collaboration with Old Dominick Distillery.

“I love to tell everybody I’m an accidental baker,” Crenshaw says. “It’s a total accident that I ended up in this business.”

He got into the food business when he worked as a sales rep for D. Canale Food Services when the Tunica casinos opened in 1991. “I met a baker along the way and we started selling fresh baked cakes to the casinos. He had worked for one of the casinos, and I had a little money. We bought an oven and started selling cakes. We were doing iced layer cakes delivered daily.”

Libby Green

Ed Crenshaw and his daughter, Miller Cowan, the bakery’s creative director

Crenshaw then went to work for Associated Wholesale Grocers, where he supplied cream cakes and pound cakes to local Piggly Wiggly and Big Star grocery stores.

He and his baker had parted ways. “I had actually learned to bake by then. Baking is pretty simple if you know how to follow directions.”

A Sock It to Me cream cake was his first effort. “It was pretty dadgum easy.” And, he says, “I’m assuming it was good. The first year we made them, we sold a truck load. I ended up selling cakes from Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Miami, Florida.”

After he outgrew his first bakery, Crenshaw moved Downtown to an old cotton warehouse, which they converted into a bakery. “It was called The Butcher and the Baker. We were selling cakes and ham from Fineberg Packing Company. The grocery store business got really big, but it’s competitive, so I ended up in the restaurant business, selling to Germantown Commissary, Central BBQ, and Miss Cordelia’s.”

Almost 20 years later, Crenshaw moved to his present location at 5041 Summer. He began doing “higher-end cakes made with high-end buttercream icing,” along with more affordable cakes.

About four years ago, he changed the business name to Sugar Avenue. “We were selling wholesale only to restaurants. And COVID hit. My daughter, Miller Cowan, came to us and said, ‘We need to be online.'”

Thus, sugaravenue.com was born. Their cakes “get delivered straight to your house. We are a Memphis-based company. We only use FedEx. We use NexAir for our dry ice.”

Their first order was for a strawberry cake, which was shipped to North Carolina. They now offer cakes that range from 6-inch, which they call Baby Cakes, to 8 inches. They offer nine flavors.

They’re now “covered up with orders” for the Memphis Bourbon Caramel Cake. Knowing “everybody loves a rum cake” during the holidays, Crenshaw reached out to Old Dominick Distillery. “I just made a cold call. We were the first food item that they have partnered with.”

The cake was a collaboration between Crenshaw and master distiller Alex Castle. “The cake is four layers. Each layer is literally soaked in a bourbon caramel sauce — our caramel icing we make from scratch.”

The bourbon also is added to the icing. “It is not overpowering at all. You’re not going to get drunk eating the cake, but it has such a great hint of oakiness that comes with the Old Dominick bourbon flavor.”

They plan to introduce an Old Dominick caramel sauce before the holidays.

Sugar Avenue recently was picked up by Performance Food Group in Little Rock. “They saw our website and came to us and wanted to sell our high-end cakes to customers. Now they’re selling our cakes in six states.”

Business is great. “We’re probably doing 1,000 cakes a week.”

And Crenshaw still is in the kitchen. “I was in the kitchen today working on recipes for my cinnamon walnut coffee cake. Every day I’m here working the mixer, working the oven. I’m a hands-on operator.”

But Crenshaw doesn’t make the cake icing. “I cannot ice a cake. I’ve never done that. I can only bake the layers.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Crusonia on the Delta Celebrates Memphis’ Agricultural Innovation

CREDIT: David Mark/Pixabay

Curious how healthy food gets to your table? There are plenty of ways, and these days, Memphis seems to be at the center of them all.

In recent times, the Mississippi Delta has been a hotbed of new trends in the fields of agriculture, food, and health. While many companies are blazing new trails, a changing global landscape has pressed many into a constant stream of innovation. To celebrate how local organizations have become leaders in such practices, Crusonia on the Delta (formerly known as Davos on the Delta) is hosting its fourth annual summit to recognize how cities like Memphis are thriving in the agricultural sector.

This year’s virtual Food Is Health forum marks Crusonia’s fourth annual summit. Discussions and conversations will be centered around how cities like Memphis have pursued new growing methods in response to issues like climate change, cost, and resource availability. Other topics include the effect of processed food on health, food transparency & sustainability during COVID-19, and how agricultural innovation is centered around Memphis.

Many of Memphis’ innovations have been boosted by large entities like Agricenter International, while companies like The Seam and Indigo Ag are making huge strides in creating more efficient agricultural technology.

Some notable local speakers include Rob Carter (FedEx), Barry Knight (Indigo Ag), and M. David Rudd (president of University of Memphis). To reach a broader audience, this year’s virtual summit is free and open to the public.

Crusonia on the Delta’s Food Is Health forum takes place Wednesday, September 30th, from noon-6 p.m.

For more information on Crusonia and registration, visit crusoniaonthedelta.org.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: NCRM at NASCAR, Mask Up Memphis

NCRM Shines at NASCAR (Yes, NaSCAR)

Denny Hamlin’s #11 FedEx Camry had a new look when he took to the Talladega track last weekend. The all-black paint scheme carried but one logo on the hood: the National Civil Rights Museum.

“I promised to listen and that’s what I’m doing,” Hamlin said in a tweet. “Today you will see my #11 car will not carry the traditional paint scheme that you usually see. @FedEx and myself instead want to give that voice to the @NCRMuseum.”

The tweet came along with photos of Hamlin inside the Memphis museum.

The move came a week after NASCAR banned Confederate flags from events. The steps forward came with a huge move back as a noose was found in the Talladega garage of Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s first black driver.

Mask Up Memphis

A new website went live last week in an effort to distribute preventative literature and masks to the “underprivileged.” Mask Up and Live comes largely from the work of Rep. Karen Camper and Senator Raumesh Akbari “to dispel misinformation about wearing masks to help flatten the curve of COVID-19 among African Americans.”

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‘Pork Report’ Takes Aim at FedEx, Wiseacre, Wharton, Bluff City Law

CREDIT: Beacon Center of Tennessee

Beacon Center of Tennessee

The Bacon Center, a Nashville-based, free-market think tank lambasted several Memphis and Shelby County projects in the group’s annual Pork Report.

The 2019 report is the 14th from Beacon seeks to expose ”government waste, fraud, and abuse.”

”While the Pork Report is a fun and creative outlet for our team to expose the top 25 most ridiculous instances of government spending in the past year, it is also a call to action to the state and local governments to cut the waste from their budgets,” reads the report. “After all, it is state and local taxpayers who are funding all of the ’pork’ found in this year’s report.”

Below are the top examples of Memphis-area “pork” Beacon cited this year:

FedExcellent at Taking Tax Dollars

LRK/FedEx Logistics

“The Memphis-Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) board, the entity formed to bring business into the city, instead continues to redistribute the tax dollars of hard-working Memphians to enormous corporations.

In one of its worst moves ever (which is really saying something if you have seen its other handouts), EDGE is giving FedEx $2 million to move its company’s headquarters from one part of Memphis to another. This is in addition to the $10 million from the state and $1 million from the Center City Development Board.

So in total, FedEx got $14 million of taxpayer money to move a few miles. The point of economic development is supposedly to bring new companies to the area, not give hard-earned tax dollars to huge corporations to move down the street.”

Bluff City Naw
Jake Giles Netter/NBC

Going straight — Caitlin McGee (left) and Jimmy Smits play father-daughter attorney duo at the Strait Law Firm.

What do you think about forking over $4.25 million of your hard-earned money to Hollywood?

We’re not bluffing. After spending more than $50 million on the canceled “Nashville” TV show, the government continues to pump money into the TV business. This year’s feature is “Bluff City Law,” a new NBC series based in Memphis.

Study after study shows that film and TV incentives have a horrendous return on investment, bringing in as little as seven cents for every dollar spent. This is a fairytale for Hollywood elites, as the overwhelming majority of tax dollars spent on these incentives wind up in their pockets, not local workers’.

At least temporarily, because most of these shows don’t last very long. “Bluff City Law” only filmed 10 episodes before pumping the brakes this fall.

Memphis Tax Dollars are Leaving the Building

In another example of a company holding a city hostage and leaving taxpayers all shook up, the Memphis City Council authorized $75 million in incentives for Graceland, Elvis’ historic mansion.

This came on the heels of veiled threats by the management company to actually move Graceland brick by brick from Memphis. The council’s only stipulation was that Graceland couldn’t build an auditorium or theater to compete with the city’s other taxpayer-funded arena, FedExForum. Apparently, they have to draw the line on giving away taxpayer money somewhere!

This isn’t even the first time that Graceland has pocketed taxpayer money. It received $21 million back in 2015. When will Memphis taxpayers realize their leaders ain’t no friend of theirs and call for fiscal restraint?


The Next Round is on Memphis Taxpayers

Wiseacre Brewing Co.

Wiseacre’s soon-to-be Downtown location rises from the ground along B.B. King.

Lots of guys love to brew their own beer. It’s like a science experiment at home that you can drink!

While it’s not a very labor-intensive hobby, it sure can get expensive. Between equipment and ingredients, it can add up quick. Too bad most didn’t think to get a $1.7 million property tax subsidy like Wiseacre Brewing Co. did from Memphis.

Sure, most of us don’t brew professionally, but here’s the problem: many others in Memphis do. Do a quick search and you’ll find a handful of microbreweries that now have to pay higher property taxes to subsidize their competition.

Everybody loves the guy who brings free beer to the party. Too bad Memphis taxpayers will have to pay even more money to try the beer they already paid for.

Enemies in High Places

Garth Brooks sang about his appreciation for friends in low places, yet Memphis resident Kareema McCloud probably never thought about having enemies in high places.

But that is exactly what happened when her neighbor, former mayor of both Memphis and Shelby County, A.C. Wharton, found out she was legally renting out rooms in her home through Airbnb.

Interactions caught on McCloud’s security camera showed Wharton and a barrage of government officials from at least six agencies showing up at her home day after day to hassle her. This included a three-day police stakeout at McCloud’s home on the unfounded claim that she was not running an Airbnb, but a brothel.

While a Memphis spokesman stated that anyone can call and complain about a neighbor, it is hard to dismiss that Wharton’s political connections brought about more scrutiny — and more wasted tax dollars — than the average citizen’s complaint. Let’s hope this political, taxpayer-funded bullying has been put to bed.

State Pork DepART- ment

Tennessee Arts Commission

Another year, another multi-million- dollar check written for the Tennessee Arts Commission. This year brought over $6.5 million in tax dollars for the Arts Commission to increase participation in all areas of the arts, including music.

However, with Memphis and Nashville as two of the main cities where everyone from aspiring musicians to incredibly successful artists move to, it begs the question as to why state government continues to fund music awareness through the Arts Commission.

If you speak to anyone from Tennessee, chances are they personally know a musician. Speak to someone from the Tennessee Arts Commission, you’ll probably hear about their large budget. Even in a state with amazing artistic talent, wasted tax dollars will always be a sour note.

How Much Does It Cost to Start a Podcast?
 Shelby County Commission

At the Beacon Center, we are pretty familiar with what it takes to get a podcast started.

Do you know what it doesn’t take? Over $100,000. Apparently Shelby County didn’t get that memo. County officials approved a $109,800 contract to produce a podcast where they talk about county commission meetings. But commission meetings themselves are already streamed live online, so why the need for more?

It’s hard to imagine people wanting to hear play-by-play coverage enough to justify that expense. Hey Shelby County, if you’re looking for a great podcast to fund, check out Beacon’s “Decaf” podcast. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?

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U of M to Launch Commercial Aviation Program This Fall

CREDIT: CIT

CIT

Crew Training International instructor working with students

The University of Memphis will begin training pilots this fall with a new commercial aviation program.

The university is partnering with Millington’s Crew Training International (CTI) Professional Flight Training to offer a Bachelor of Science in Commercial Aviation degree.

David Rudd, U of M president said the Commercial Aviation program is meant to prepare students for 21st-century jobs and better position them for opportunities at companies like Fedex Express.

“There will be ample demand for qualified, well-trained pilots in the coming decades, and this program and partnership will help U of M students become top candidates for these careers,” Rudd said.

Students in the program will receive 61 credit hours of professional aviation training, and 59 hours of classroom instruction including courses in business and management. The degree is meant to prepare graduates for careers in corporate and general aviation, other aviation-related businesses, airport operations, and government regulation of aviation.

With a bachelor’s degree in aviation, a graduate’s required number of flight hours to become a commercial pilot decreases by 500.

The program also gives veterans an opportunity to use post-9/11 benefits for flight training costs, now that the U of M is partnering with CTI. Additionally, high school students in the Aviation Study program at T-STEM Academy East High School are expected to “naturally and locally progress into the U of M’s program.”

This will create an “exciting local path that has a global impact,” Jim Bowman, senior vice president of flight operations for Fedex said.

The program will be “uniquely positioned” to support the needs of the local community and address the “looming” pilot shortage. The U of M reports that more than 42 percent of active U.S. airline pilots will retire over the next 10 years. Boeing estimates that in the next 20 years, North American airlines need 117,000 new pilots.

Bowman said as the aviation industry evolves, aviators have to be more tech savvy and better prepared academically than before.

“I’m excited that the University of Memphis is now part of the path to a successful career in the aviation industry, and I congratulate the university’s leadership for having the foresight to create this program,” Bowman said.