BizSense Beat is a weekly collaboration between VPM News and Richmond BizSense that brings you the top business stories during NPR's Morning Edition on Fridays.
Here’s a recap of the top stories for the week of Nov. 10, 2023:
RVA 25 unveiled: See which company topped this year’s list with 1,238% growth
Reported by Richmond Bizsense
It took a three-year average growth rate of 1,238 percent to top this year’s RVA 25 list of the region’s fastest-growing companies.
That mark was achieved by Brandefy, a Henrico-based beauty products company that launched in 2018 and was crowned this year’s top company at Monday night’s sold-out awards ceremony.
Founder Meg Greenhalgh Pryde started Brandefy as an app connecting its users with alternatives to big-name cosmetics, and has since launched its own product line.
Former Richmond public official gets 27-month prison sentence in fraud case
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jonathan Spiers
A former senior manager with Richmond’s public works department will serve more than two years in prison for his role in a yearslong scheme that defrauded the city of over $600,000 in department contracts.
Michael Evins, 67, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised released after pleading guilty in July to conspiring to use his position to steer department contracts to straw companies created by at least three co-conspirators, including his wife, Samaria Evins.
Samaria, 52, also was sentenced Tuesday and received eight months’ home confinement and five years of probation.
Midlothian Chef’s Kitchen owner to open new French-inspired concept in nearby 19th century building
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jack Jacobs
Two years after leaving the kitchen at Quirk Hotel and striking out on his own in Midlothian, David Dunlap is readying another concept a couple miles away.
The owner of Midlothian Chef’s Kitchen is planning to open 1870, a French-inspired concept at 13310 Midlothian Turnpike.
“We’re going to go for a French-inspired steak-and-seafood house, with a heavy emphasis on French and Virginia wines,” said Dunlap.
The restaurant’s future home, Jewett-Bass Hall, is a two-story building that dates to the 19th century. The concept’s name is a reference to the year the structure was built.
Dunlap bought the 4,000-square-foot building and an adjacent parcel through an LLC for $850,000 in October.
WayGone Brewery opens for business on Patterson Ave. as region’s 46th brewery
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
The region’s 46th brewery and first in western Henrico has opened its door.
WayGone Brewery debuted last week at 10612 Patterson Ave. in the Canterbury Shopping Center.
Behind the brewery are married couples Tim and Nancy Powell, and Richard and Nicole Myers.
Though it’s been open for less than a week, WayGone’s roots date to 2015 when Tim and Richard met as neighbors on the nearby Goneway Drive, the street that would later inspire the brewery’s name.
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