The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11 have forced some Inland Northwest businesses to trim their expectations, while others have seen few ill effects.


Two publicly traded Inland Northwest companies have reported revenue declines that they say are severe enough to prompt reconsideration of their projected earnings.


One, Coldwater Creek Inc., a Sandpoint, Idaho-based retailer of clothing, accessories, and other items, says that sales declined sharply during the week of the terrorist attacks and have remained below expected levels. Consequently, the company expects to report third-quarter earnings between 42 cents and 47 cents per share, rather than previously forecasted earnings of 67 cents per share. Still, Coldwater Creek plans to move forward with four new retail stores yet this year.


The other, WestCoast Hospitality Corp., a Spokane-based hotel operator, said it expects earnings per share to fall below the 30-cent-to-34-cent range forecasted previously. It hasnt projected yet precisely how severely it expects earnings to be reduced.


At least one company has decided to hold off on a previously planned expansion here. Ron Enevold, franchisee of a Bostons The Gourmet Pizza restaurant that recently opened near the Spokane Valley Mall, had said in late August that he intended to open four additional Bostons restaurants in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area. Enevold now says that he has put those plans on hold due to economic uncertainties caused by the attacks.


Meanwhile, Lifestream Technologies Inc., the Post Falls-based maker of health-care diagnostic devices, warned in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of potential adverse effects from the terrorist attacks.


In a statement that could become a more common caveat in public filings, Lifestream says it might face interruptions of production and services due to increased security measures taken in response to terrorism. The company also says it might experience an increase in transportation, security, and insurance costs because of the attacks, or potential future attacks.


International trade


Despite such concerns, Roberta Brooke, executive director of the International Trade Alliance here, says Spokane-area companies involved in international trade are back to doing business overseas, and for the most part arent reporting delays in orders or shipments, aside from right after the attacks.


Weve just noticed people starting to gear up again now, she says.


Mima Scarpelli, spokeswoman for Itron Inc., the Spokane-based maker of automated meter-reading equipment, says the attacks effects on that companys productivity have been virtually none, and Itron is operating at full force.


Still, she says, the company has tempered its expectations for business overseas and expects international sales to be flat next year. Those forecasts are based on unpredictability in the world market in recent months, rather than on any changes in international sales trends thus far after the attacks, Scarpelli says. International sales account for about 10 percent of Itrons total revenues, she says. Its international customers are located in the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and a few othermostly Europeancountries.


Dennis Medina, spokesman for longtime Spokane industrial manufacturer Rahco International Inc., says its hard to determine whether Rahcos customers hesitancy is based on current events or adverse market conditions that were in play before the attacks. Rahco makes equipment for mining companies, among others, and low metals prices already had given some of its customers pause, Medina says. Still, he says, the company has picked up some engineering-design work that has offset any potential slowdowns, and shipping schedules havent been affected.


To continue doing business, Rahco has relied more heavily on some of its communications capabilities than it had previously. For example, Rahco had scheduled in late September a key preliminary engineering meeting for a major project that businesspeople from Great Britain, Alaska, and Spokane needed to attend, but hadnt decided before the terrorist attacks where to hold the session. Finding a rendezvous point that all parties could reach easily was going to be difficult, so Rahco held the meeting via a conference call while all of the parties looked at schematics on an Intranet that Rahco had established previously.


We havent discovered new technology; were just using technology that we hadnt thought to use before Sept. 11, Medina says.


All parties were satisfied with the results of the meeting, he says, and the project stayed on schedule.


Providing a note of optimism, Shredfast Inc., a maker of mobile document-shredding equipment here, is following through on plans to brave overseas markets for the first time.


In June, Shredfast finalized a sale of one of its units to an Israeli company after courting that prospect for about 18 months, says Mark Carpenter, operations manager at Shredfast. It began building the unit shortly thereafter.


Despite the terrorist attacks, the customer still wanted the machine, and Shredfast shipped the unit earlier this month. Carpenter says the Spokane company hasnt suffered any shipping delays, and the truck-mounted shredding unit currently is on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean thats scheduled to arrive in Israel in a couple of weeks.


Meanwhile, the company has agreed to make four units for customers in Great Britain, and Carpenter says Shredfast expects those sales to segue into other European markets.


Were definitely in a security-conscious industry, Carpenter says. Businesswise, an increased sense of security is going to create awareness about data-destruction products, such as those made by Shredfast.


Security policies


Meanwhile, its expected that efforts by federal officials to beef up security will affect businesses here. For example, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said recently that while 8,000 Border Patrol agents watch over the U.S.s 2,000-mile border with Mexico, just 300 Border Patrol agents cover the U.S.s 4,000-mile border with Canadawhich some of the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks crossed. Both the U.S. Customs Service and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service moved to staff up the northern border.


The trade alliances Brooke says that while such steps are essential, they could slow commercial traffic between the U.S. and Canada, which is of keen interest to many Spokane-area businesses. Also, Brooke says, additional transportation taxes to pay for increased security measures, which could take a toll on the trucking industry, have been discussed.


In another security-related development, restrictions could be imminent on the issuing of visas that companiesoften high-technology companiesseek to bring certain workers into the U.S. Those visas, called H1B visas, can be used to gain access for employees with hard-to-find skills. If the number of H1B visas issued is restricted, some Spokane-area companies might have a harder time filling high-tech positions, Brooke says.


Security concerns have had a major impact at Argus Services Inc., a security company that enjoyed a 60 percent surge in business as calls flooded in for security guards right after the attacks.


Since then, Jim Schoenleber, Argus owner, says the company has taken steps to protect its own employees, as well as the employees and property of its customers.


Now, Argus workers who sort mail are required to wear rubber gloves while doing so, due to the recent anthrax cases reported in other parts of the country, Schoenleber says.


For the benefit of its clients as well as its employees, Argus has issued 80 biohazard-handling kits to security personnel who are patrolling offices, dams, and other sites for federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Schoenleber says. He plans to order several hundred additional biohazard-handling kits for guards at numerous private posts.


Were a security company, so we better set some tough standards, in-house and out, Schoenleber says.


Travel businesses were hit hard right after the attacks. To boost that industry, the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau has developed a short-term marketing plan that concentrates on drawing travelers from areas within a days drive of Spokane, says John Brewer, president and CEO of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau. The plan includes a series of simultaneous promotions hopeful of drawing people from other cities in Washington, as well as in Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.


As travel waned, Spokane International Airport reported a 26 percent drop in total arriving and departing airline passengers in September, compared with the year-earlier month. Alaska Air Group Inc., whose subsidiaries, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, carry about one-third of the airline passengers here, announced that its September passenger traffic count companywide decreased 18 percent.


In a move to deter hijackers, Alaska claimed it was the first air carrier in the nation to begin installing in its airliners impenetrable, bulletproof cockpit doors, made of Kevlar with kickproof grilles. It said the retrofit would cost $1.2 million, and it would be eligible for reimbursement under federal guidelines.


Nationally, small-business optimism tumbled to its lowest point since 1993, the National Federation of Independent Business, a small-business advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., said on Oct. 3. It proclaimed that, the Main Street economy has become a casualty of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and that a study it had done showed that fewer small businesses plan to hire additional employees, spend more money on capital improvements, or expect better business conditions in the next six months.


To help small businesses deal with some military call-ups of personnel, the U.S. Small Business Administration called attention to low-interest Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loans that it offers.


The loans are available to small businesses that employ military reservists who are called to active duty, provided that the employees are essential to the businesses day-to-day operations.


After the attacks altered the geopolitical lineup, with Russia President Vladimir Putin offering a notably high level of cooperation to the U.S., one of the quirkier pieces of post-attack news occurred. In that development, the U.S. Commerce Department announced after a post-attack trade trip to Russia that Frito-Lay, the Plano, Texas-based snack food giant, would build a $40 million plant in Russias Kashira region. Frito-Lay said it would make potato chips and other snacks for its Russian distribution system, which it had developed at a cost of $20 million to reach 70 percent of that vast country.