Blue Bell plans to build a $2 million distribution and sales facility in Cary, the Texas-based ice cream company announced last week.

The 12,000-square-foot building will employ as many as 30 additional employees and is expected to open by early fall 2014.

Blue Bell, the third best-selling ice cream in the country, became available in a number of Triangle locations in March. Its products are sold in Kroger, Lowe’s Foods and Walmart, and at some independent grocery stores, drugstores and convenience stores.

Blue Bell plans also to open a smaller distribution facility in Wilmington. The company expects eventually to expand into Wilmington, Greenville, New Bern, Jacksonville, Rocky Mount and Wilson.

Staff writer David Bracken

Area No. 5 among ‘tech hot spots’

Forbes magazine has rated the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan statistical area No. 5 among the nation’s “tech hot spots.”

The magazine’s ranking is based on the growth of science, technology, engineering and math-related jobs from 2001 to 2012.

STEM employment in the Raleigh-Cary area was up 17.9 percent during that span.

By contrast, San Jose – the heart of the Silicon Valley – saw a 12.6 percent decline in STEM jobs. The nation’s largest cities – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – all lost STEM jobs.

The Durham-Chapel Hill MSA didn’t make the list, which included only the top 10 tech hot spots.

Staff writer David Ranii

HP bests Lenovo in PC shipments

There’s a new undisputed leader in the worldwide computer market – but it’s not Lenovo.

Research firm Gartner last week issued data for fourth-quarter PC shipments that showed Lenovo falling from the No. 1 ranking it achieved in the third quarter. Lenovo was bested by rival HP in the latest quarter even though its shipments rose 8.2 percent from a year ago, compared with an overall 4.9 percent decline in the global market.

HP likely sacrificed profit margins to gain market share, Gartner reported.

Gartner’s fourth-quarter rankings echo the results issued recently by IDC, the other major research firm that tracks PC shipments. That alignment contrasts with their third-quarter results, in which IDC ranked Lenovo No. 2 but Gartner showed Lenovo at the top of the rankings for the first time ever.

Lenovo’s considerable sales momentum, fueled by aggressive pricing and solid products, triggered speculation that it could become the undisputed worldwide leader in the fourth quarter.

“Lenovo remains confident that our strategy, products, and execution will ultimately enable us to achieve clear leadership in PCs,” spokesman Ray Gorman said in an email message. “The recent data shows that Lenovo continues to grow faster than all our competitors, and our focus remains on profitable, sustainable growth.”

Lenovo is based in China but employs about 2,000 workers at its executive headquarters in Morrisville. The company’s PC shipments have been far outpacing the overall market for more than three years, enabling it to move up from No. 7 four years ago.

In the U.S. market, Lenovo is ranked No. 4 by both IDC and Gartner. Gartner reported that Lenovo’s U.S. shipments rose 9.7 percent, but HP’s shipments rose even more – 12.6 percent. The overall U.S. market fell by 2.1 percent.

Lenovo’s shipments outpaced the market in North America, Asia and Europe, Middle East and Africa, but its performance in Latin America and Japan was subpar, Gartner said.

Gartner said the PC market is undergoing a “structural shift” as tablets continue to gain in popularity.

“Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by ‘cannibalizing’ PC sales but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs,” analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in the report.

Staff writer David Ranii