New Business Update

Miss Lou’s Catering

Willie Smith, owner of Magic Services cleaning company, started a catering company with a cousin who’s been a chef for nine years.
Smith, a former MU basketball star, is handling the sales, and Walter Miller is doing the cooking. Miller’s experience includes work as the banquet chef at Boone Tavern restaurant and the sous chef and buffet chef for three casinos in Las Vegas, where Smith lived before coming to MU. Margaret Hickem, who ran Mama Bessie’s Cleaners, will coordinate the company’s activities.
Hickem and Miller provided the food for the community dinner at the Knights of Columbus that honored Darwin Hindman at the end of March; more than 500 people attended.
They specialize in Cajun cooking, with dishes including gumbo and jambalaya. “We want to bring a taste of New Orleans to Columbia,” Miller said. They’re renting a kitchen and looking for a space to locate the business. For more information, contact Smith at 573-673-1637.

Frank Fletcher Honda

1717 N. Providence Road

Arkansas-based Fletcher Auto Group bought Albert Honda in April and plans to move from the current location at 1717 N. Providence Road to a larger site in the near future. Mike Hodges, the general manager at a Fletcher Honda dealership in Bentonville, Ark., was hired at the GM, and Albert’s GM, Kevin Towns, is the general sales manager. Don Albert previously transferred the Buick and GMC franchises to Bob McCosh Chevrolet.

Datamax

2511 Broadway Bluffs Drive 442-9020
Branch Sales Manager Nancy McGee moved from a St. Louis branch of Datamax to open the Columbia office.

Columbia Surgical Associates

3220 Bluff Creek Drive 443-8773
The medical company, founded in Columbia in 1962, moved from East Broadway across from Boone Hospital Center to the location off Grindstone Parkway in January.