C/A WINS OK FOR NEW $35M EXETER HEADQUARTERS

Defense contractor C/A Design Inc. has site plan approval for the construction of a 40,000-square-foot addition to a former industrial building in Exeter. The company is investing $35 million into refurbishing that building, and the addition will expand it to a 115,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, the Portsmouth Herald reported.

The facility will be used for making cooling systems used in aircraft systems and military defense.

The company expects to add as many as 200 new jobs to the Seacoast over the next several years, the newspaper said.

The company is still working out of its Dover location, and it is expected to continue there until the Exeter facility is complete.

SECURITIES BUREAU SETTLES MERRILL LYNCH TELEMARKETING CASE

The NH Bureau of Securities Regulation has announced settlement of its case against Merrill Lynch for violating telemarketing restrictions.

Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay administrative penalties of $650,000 and an additional $50,000 for the investigation.

According to the bureau, New Hampshire has the highest number of active registrations per capita on the National Do Not Call Registry, with 1,296,000 active registrations. A violation of Do Not Call occurs when a telemarketing call is placed to a Do Not Call number without the recipient’s consent.

Following an investigation in 2022, the bureau determined that Merrill Lynch violated Financial Industry Regulatory Authority telemarketing restrictions in 2019 and 2020.

Merrill Lynch has not admitted to nor denied the allegations.

The bureau previously cited Merrill Lynch in 2014 for violating Do Not Call restrictions.

RESTAURANTS BACK ONLINE AFTER RANSOMWARE ATTACK

The string of New Hampshire restaurants that were affected by a ransomware attack on NCR’s Aloha point-of-sale system are back online after some three weeks of leaving them unable to redeem gift cards and log purchases in its rewards program for about three weeks.

The attack affected more than 100,000 restaurants nationwide.

In a release announcing the attack last week, Attorney General John Formella said affected restaurants included The Copper Door, T-Bones, CJ’s Great West Grill and Cactus Jack’s – all owned by the Great NH Restaurants group – as well as The Beach Plum, 110 Grill, Giuseppe’s Pizzeria & Ristorante and The Galley Hatch.

NH’S GREEN STREETS USA ACQUIRED BY N.J. FIRM

Jersey City, N.J.-based Imperial Dade, a national distributor of food service packaging and janitorial supplies, has announced the acquisition of Green Streets USA Inc. of Nashua.

Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.

The transaction is the 63rd acquisition for Imperial Dade under the leadership of Robert and Jason Tillis, chair and CEO, respectively, of Imperial Dade.

NH CHRISTMAS TREE SHOPS TO REMAIN OPEN

Discount retailer Christmas Tree Shops, which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month, has announced the locations of the 10 stores it said it would be closing, and none of them are in New Hampshire.

The chain, which has about 80 stores nationwide, said the stores would be shuttered by June 30. Among the stores, two are in Massachusetts — in Sagamore and Falmouth — two are in New York, two are in Pennsylvania, one is in Virginia, one in Michigan, one in Georgia and one in Florida.

The four Christmas Tree shops in New Hampshire — in Nashua, Salem, Portsmouth and North Conway — all will be remaining open, the company said.