Business notebook: Hanisch bakes sweet success

Blending Hanisch apple pie with Knudsen’s caramels proved a winning combination for Hanisch Bakery and Coffee Shop.

Baker Rob Harding took first place in the best apple pie competition at Midwest Bakery Association annual convention at Treasure Island Resort & Casino. He had competition from 14 bakeries across Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota and Wisconsin.

He gave the local bakery’s traditional apple pie a twist, adding caramels from Knudsen’s Cheesecake and Caramels plus some cream cheese.

Harding also placed first in the King Cake Competition. He created the Chocolate Caramel Cream Cheese King Cake.

Robyn Hanisch competed in the regional qualifier for the Pillsbury National Cake Decorating Challenge. She had eight hours to complete nine cakes, including a three-tier wedding cake and a sculpture cake. She placed second and is the alternate in case the winner can't make the competition in Las Vegas for the national contest. Six decorators competed.

• David Anderson, associate executive director of the Red Wing Family YMCA, has announced he will retire effective July 15. He has been with the local Y since 1982.

• Don Grundman with RE/MAX Great River Country in Lake City earned the Executive Club Award, the fifth highest regional honor for sales in a single year for his achievements in 2012. RE/MAX North Central is the regional office for RE/MAX franchises throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin.

• Xcel Energy’s board of directors named Tim O’Connor senior vice president and chief nuclear officer.

O'Connor has been serving as acting chief nuclear officer since September, when he succeeded Dennis Koehl. O’Connor, who has more than 30 years of experience in the nuclear industry, joined Xcel Energy in 2007 as site vice president at Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant.

O’Connor will oversee operations at Xcel Energy’s three nuclear units in Minnesota: the single unit Monticello plant and the two unit Prairie Island nuclear plant. The plants provide about 30 percent of the power Xcel Energy supplies its customers in the Upper Midwest.

• The National Business Incubation Association chose to send the Red Wing Innovation Incubator’s John Becker to the International Conference on Business Incubation. The conference will take place in Boston in April.

Becker is one of five people from across the country who received a scholarship to attend the conference. Other scholarship recipients are from Texas, Oregon, Kansas and New Hampshire.

The three-day conference will cover topics including crowdfunding, social networking and techniques to make rural incubators successful.

• Valley Craft Industries has appointed Douglas Gates director of sales and marketing for the Lake City manufacturer of handling and storage equipment. He was previously director of business development for Aetrium, a maker of semiconductor test equipment.

• Lake City Tourism Bureau has new logo for its Minnesota South Shore campaign. The bureau is moving Lake City’s advertising efforts away from the Birthplace of Waterskiing tag and branding Lake City as a great vacation alternative to Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior.

Greg Schreck, bureau president, said Lake City is hours closer than the North Shore is for most Minnesotans and the community has a shore people can use: Lake Pepin offers warmer water, sandy beaches and camping and hiking along the shore at Hok-Si-La.

The tourism bureau also is promoting dining, lodging, shopping sailing, fishing and golfing.

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