Local Allstate agency earns top state honors

The Jeffrey Andrews Agency has been recognized by Allstate Insurance Company’s Southern Region for high standards in customer satisfaction, customer retention and profitability.

The Meridian agency was recently named Mississippi’s Top Agency for automobile insurance policy sales.

“It’s a tremendous honor to receive this recognition,” said Jeffrey Andrews. “My agency’s commitment is to serve customers and we’re pleased that the company has acknowledged our efforts.”

— special to The Star



Meridian Cycles honored for superior performance

Meridian Cycles is riding high now that they have been honored with one of Honda’s top awards.

The motorcycle dealership was recently recognized as a 2005 Council of Excellence winner, meaning Meridian Cycles was one of the top 10 percent of Honda motorcycle dealers in the country. The dealership sold 680 Honda motorcycles last year.

“I think it’s a great achievement to be considered one of the top 100 dealerships in the nation,” said Mike Boswell, sales manager at Meridian Cycles.

Boswell said their success comes from simply treating people right.

“We offer a quality product at a fair price and offer them service after the sale,” Boswell said. “We try and please the customer and take care of them. That’s the No. 1 thing. We make them feel wanted when they come in.”

— Stewart Smith, staff writer



Veterans group seeks business partners

John Simmons would like to see more businesses partner with the American Veterans Education Foundation Inc.

Simmons is part of the veterans group, which will hold its next meeting Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the boardroom of the Meridian Public School District’s Central Office, 1019 25th Ave.

The newly-formed organization has met with educators and some business leaders already.

“We’re looking at satisfying the needs of new businesses,” Simmons said. “We need business people to be represented at that meeting. We want to discuss what schools can do to meet business requirements to help the economy.”

Possible partnership programs, Simmons said, could be geared toward ensuring a greater number of students graduate from post-secondary and higher educational institutions, and ensuring that effective workforce training programs exist to train or retain residents for an employment sector that Simmons said is continually evolving.

— Steve Gillespie, assistant editor



American Business Women’s Association hosts conference

The American Business Women’s Association will present a professional development conference March 18 at the Pearl River Resort/Silver Star, on the Choctaw reservation near Philadelphia.

Designed for the modern career professional, manager, entrepreneur and businesswoman, the event will feature the Management Certificate Series course, “Making Sense of IT: Insights for the Non-Techie.”

The program, which will be presented by faculty of the University of Kansas School of Business, is one of a series of four such programs that will be available at each of ABWA’s spring conferences.

The Saturday conference, including professional development seminars, networking opportunities and luncheon is $225 for members, $250 for nonmembers.

For more information or to register, call ABWA at (800) 228-0007 or visit www.abwa.org and click on “2006 ABWA Regional Spring Conferences.”

— special to The Star