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Batteries Plus Franchisee Builds Multi-Million Dollar Business, Leading the Charge in Battery Industry

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Former Flight Attendant Brenda Phipps Grows Three Successful Batteries Plus Stores in Florida to Over $3 Million in Sales

HARTLAND, Wis., March 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — What started as a personal search for a particular laptop battery, has turned into a thriving, multi-million dollar business for Batteries Plus franchise owner Brenda Phipps. After nearly two decades of franchising with the world’s leading consumer and business specialty battery retailer, Phipps now oversees three Florida stores to exceed $3 million in annual sales. As she takes on a larger leadership role within her own business, Phipps is proving that curiosity, dedications, and hands-on learning are the keys to success in the battery industry, regardless of background or gender.

Developing the right team to support you can make all the difference in helping your business be successful.

From Flight Attendant to Franchise Success
Phipps left her career as a flight attendant shortly after September 11, 2001. Around that time, she met her husband, Rick Phipps, a multi-unit automotive franchisee who had recently sold his business. During a frustrating search for a new laptop battery, the couple discovered Batteries Plus. Intrigued by the retailer’s supply of essential products and specialized niche, the Phippses decided it was time for a new business opportunity, opening their first Batteries Plus store in Lake Worth, FL in 2006.

What started as a 50-50 partnership between the couple has since evolved, with Brenda now leading operations as Rick transitions into retirement.

“In the beginning, Rick and I worked side-by-side, but now I’ve taken on more responsibility as he’s taken a step back,” said Phipps. “Running a business in a male-dominated industry was a challenge; I didn’t have a background in batteries or business ownership. But upon diving in, I quickly learned that developing the right team to support you can make all the difference in helping your business be successful, and I want other women to know they can do this, too.”

Achieving Sales Excellence
Phipps’ stores have been recognized with Sales Achievement honors for two consecutive years, consistently hitting revenue milestones within the Batteries Plus franchise system.

While her stores serve a diverse customer base, Phipps holds a special expertise in commercial sales, particularly within the marine industry along Florida’s East Coast. In fact, one of her stores is just three miles from the ocean, serving as the go-to resource of specialty batteries to power everything from deep-sea fishing boats to luxurious yachts.

Advice for Aspiring Franchise Owners
With nearly two decades in the business and a successful track record of growth, Phipps credits much of her success to a willingness to learn and adapt.

“Don’t miss out on an opportunity just because you don’t know anything yet,” said Phipps. “When we started, I didn’t know much about batteries, but I learned one product at a time. First wheelchair batteries, and then light bulbs, device repairs, key fobs, you name it. It’s all about evolving with the business. The best way to learn is by doing.”

As she continues to grow her business, Phipps hopes her story will inspire more women to pursue entrepreneurship, especially in industries where they’re underrepresented.

To learn more about franchising with Batteries Plus, please visit batteriesplusfranchise.com.

ABOUT BATTERIES PLUS:
Batteries Plus, founded in 1988 and headquartered in Hartland, WI, is a leading omnichannel retailer of batteries, specialty light bulbs and phone repair services for the direct-to-consumer and commercial channels. The retailer also offers key programming, replacement and cutting services. Through a nationwide network of stores, the company offers a differentiated value proposition of unrivaled product selection, in-stock availability and customer service. Batteries Plus is owned by Freeman Spogli, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles and New York City. To learn more about one of Forbes®’ Best Franchises to Buy in America, visit https://www.batteriesplusfranchise.com.

Media Contact: Meg Ryan, Fishman Public Relations, mryan@fishmanpr.com or 847.945.1300 ext. 264

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SOURCE Batteries Plus

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OPPORTUNITY ZONE HOME PRICE GROWTH LARGELY TRACKS OTHER AREAS

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Median home prices grew year-over-year in 48.9 percent of Opportunity Zone census tracts, compared to 51.6 percent of tracts outside the zones.

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ATTOM, the leading provider of property data, AI-powered intelligence, and real estate analytics solutions, today released its third-quarter 2026 report analyzing qualified low-income Opportunity Zones targeted by Congress for economic redevelopment in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (see full methodology below). In this report, ATTOM looked at 3,805 census tracts in Opportunity Zones around the United States with sufficient data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the third quarter of the year.

Median single-family home and condo prices rose quarter-over-quarter in 48.1 percent (1,651) of the 3,431 Opportunity Zone tracts with sufficient data in both the second and third quarter. Year-over-year, home prices rose in 48.9 percent (1,598) of the 3,265 tracts with sufficient data in the third quarters of 2025 and 2026.

Typical home prices rose year-over-year in 51.6 percent (28,212) of the 54,704 census tracts outside of Opportunity Zones with sufficient data in both quarters to be included in the analysis, meaning that price growth was more common outside the targeted economic development zones than inside them.

In 9.4 percent (357) of Opportunity Zone census tracts, the third quarter of 2026 marked the highest median home value since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008 and 27.1 percent of the Opportunity Zone census tracts experienced double-digit growth in home values year-over-year.

“Opportunity Zones remain a notably lower-cost segment of the housing market, with nearly 80 percent of these areas posting median home prices below the national median,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “Even so, home values were only slightly less likely to rise in these areas in the third quarter, suggesting that many of these communities are still moving broadly with the market.”

The national median home sales price in the third quarter was $368,000. Inside Opportunity Zones, 79.5 percent of census tracts in ATTOM’s analysis had typical home prices below the national median. Outside the zones, only 50.4 percent of census tracts in the analysis had typical prices below the national median.

Due to the small number of sales in many Opportunity Zone census tracts, median price measurements can be volatile. The typical median sales price rose or fell by more than 5 percent quarter-over-quarter in 79.1 percent of the 3,431 tracts with sufficient data in the second and third quarters.

Major findings from the report:

Median single-family home and condo prices rose quarter-over-quarter in 48.1 percent (1,651) of the 3,431 Opportunity Zone census tracts with sufficient data in both the second and third quarter.Year-over-year, home prices rose in 48.9 percent (1,598) of the 3,265 Opportunity Zone census tracts with sufficient data in the third quarters of 2025 and 2026.Year-over-year, median home prices rose in 51.6 percent (28,212) of the 54,704 census tracts outside of Opportunity Zones with sufficient data in both quarters.Inside Opportunity Zones, 27.1 percent of tracts included in the analysis saw median home prices grow by at least 10 percent. Outside the zones, 29.4 percent of included tracts experienced at least double-digit growth.Among states with at least 25 Opportunity Zone census tracts with sufficient data to analyze, Maine had the largest share that experienced year-over-year median home price growth (64 percent), followed by South Carolina (61.3 percent), Wisconsin (58.3 percent), Virginia (53 percent), and Oregon (52.3 percent).ATTOM’s report incorporates ResiScores, AI-derived neighborhood rankings based on projected home price appreciation. Inside Opportunity Zones, 76 of the census tracts included in ATTOM’s analysis had ResiScores of 100, indicating that their housing markets were projected to perform better than most other census tracts in their respective metro areas.

Conclusion
ATTOM’s third quarter 2026 Opportunity Zones report showed that areas outside the zones experienced median home price growth at a greater rate than areas inside the zones and were more likely to see double-digit median home price increases.

Report methodology
The ATTOM Opportunity Zones analysis is based on home sales price data derived from recorded sales deeds. Statistics for previous quarters are revised when each new report is issued as more deed data becomes available. ATTOM’s analysis compared median home prices in census tracts designated as Opportunity Zones by the Internal Revenue Service. Except where noted, tracts were used for the analysis if they had at least five sales in the third quarter of 2026. Median household income data for tracts and counties comes from surveys taken by the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov) from 2020 through 2024. The list of designated Qualified Opportunity Zones is located at U.S. Department of the Treasury. Regions are based on designations by the Census Bureau. Hawaii and Alaska, which the bureau designates as part of the Pacific region, were included in the West region for this report.

The report also included a ResiScore for each tract with sufficient data. The AI-powered scores combine housing market indicators including trends, appreciation, acceleration, forecast strength, and volatility into a single number between 0 and 100 that indicates the relative strength of a census tract’s housing market compared to other tracts in the same metropolitan area.

About ATTOM
ATTOM delivers AI-driven property intelligence built on the nation’s most trusted property data repository, covering 160+ million U.S. properties—99% of the population. Our engineered, multi-sourced, semantically rich real estate data spans property tax, deeds, mortgages, foreclosure, environmental risk, property conditions, natural hazards, neighborhood insights, and geospatial boundaries, rigorously validated for advanced analytics. ATTOM supports analytics, AI applications, and AI agents through flexible delivery options including APIs, bulk licensing, cloud delivery, and the MCP Server for AI-powered, agentic access to engineered property data, enabling organizations to automate analysis, power intelligent workflows, and scale property intelligence across industries.

Media Contact:
Megan Hunt
megan.hunt@attomdata.com

Data and Report Licensing:
949.502.8313
datareports@attomdata.com

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VSCO Reveals Final 25 Photographers in The Fifty, Brings Nationwide Photography Exhibition to the Streets of Miami Ahead of Art Basel

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Celebrating 50 photographers in 50 states, VSCO champions the people behind the images with billboards across the country, public installations and community events in Miami

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — VSCO, the photography platform millions use to edit, build a portfolio and grow their businesses, today announced the final 25 photographers selected for The Fifty, its nationwide project celebrating one photographer from every U.S. state through billboards and large-format public displays in their home markets.

VSCO champions photographers with billboards across the country, and public installations and community events in Miami

The final 25 photographers expand the breadth of The Fifty, representing a wide range of disciplines, backgrounds and career stages. Selected from more than 13,500 submissions, the largest open call in VSCO’s history, The Fifty honors the people, places and communities shaping photography across America today.

As Miami prepares for Art Basel Miami Beach in December, VSCO is bringing The Fifty to public spaces and community events across the city. Beginning Friday, November 6, a four-week wheatpaste poster exhibition across 20 locations will showcase the photographers and their work, complementing the campaign’s Florida billboard.

“For 15 years, VSCO has championed photographers, giving them the tools and community to develop their craft and help them grow,” said Eric Wittman, CEO of VSCO. “The Fifty takes that further by putting photographers and their work in front of potential clients and brands with the goal of turning visibility into real job opportunities that help them build the careers they desire.”

Visual Perspectives Across America

From established photographers working with some of the world’s biggest brands to emerging photographers developing their own visual language, The Fifty reflects the many ways photography documents the world around us. Changing traditions, migration and belonging, environmental challenges and extraordinary moments found in everyday life.

Among the newly selected photographers, Bob Miller’s The Last Generation spotlights generational knowledge disappearing from family farms and in Pennsylvania, Cielito Mercado explores how food and family recipes preserve cultural identity. Indiana-based Jingyin Che stages self-portraiture to explore belonging within American institutions, while wedding photographer Emma Bostwick explores movement and nostalgia with her intimate images.

“It is an honor to be a part of this awesome project that celebrates photography, and that I can represent the great state of New Jersey, and share my personal work with the world,” said Ed Kashi, who photographed agricultural workers harvesting crops as part of a larger project examining climate change and labor.

The first 25 photographers were announced in September and their work is now appearing on billboards throughout the country since October, including on NYSE’s digital billboard in New York City’s Times Square.

“A billboard in California, my home state, and now a billboard in Times Square is truly an experience I will never forget and one I am immensely proud of,” said California photographer  Lin Bvtcher. “I never imagined that my little project featuring women and their cars would take me here but alas, it has. I am still in shock, quite frankly.”

VSCO Takes Over Miami

As The Fifty continues its nationwide rollout, VSCO’s Miami activation begins November 6 through a series of public wheatpasting installations and community events.

On Saturday, November 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., VSCO will host a free community event featuring local photographer Nat Segebre who was selected to represent Florida in The Fifty, together with photographers Melina Deya and Deun Ivory. Representing different stages of their careers, the three speakers will discuss their journeys from hobby to profession, the challenges they’ve faced and their defining “I made it” moments. The conversation will be moderated by Miami-based Paul Weaver, founder of The Freelance Photographer, VSCO’s professional education platform.

On Monday, November 9, from 7 to 10 p.m., VSCO will host The Fifty Exhibition Party, bringing photographers and the creative community together to celebrate the people behind the images.

The Final 25 Photographers

Explore all 50 photographers and follow the nationwide rollout at vsco.co/50. The final 25 photographers are:

State

Name

Alabama

Bob Miller

Alaska

Marlena Sloss

Arizona

Natalie Carrasco

Arkansas

William J. Hilliard

Connecticut

Peter Mendelson

Hawaii

Isaiah Thompson

Indiana

Jingyin Che

Kentucky

Maddie McCuddy

Louisiana

ShabazzBorn

Maine

Savannah Daras  

Maryland

Carina Laventure

Montana

Emily Brown

Nebraska

Amber Baesler

Nevada

Mikayla Whitmore

New Jersey

Ed Kashi

North Carolina

Robert Carl Swann

North Dakota

Chase Evert

Oklahoma

Alex Eischeid

Oregon

Bang Nguyen

Pennsylvania

Cielito Mercado

South Dakota

Carter Nelson

Texas

Megan Sumpton

Vermont

Emma Bostwick

Wisconsin

Julie Grace

Wyoming

Tony Cross

About VSCO

VSCO, the Visual Supply Company, is a complete photography platform—editing tools, portfolio sites, client workflows and community—that helps photographers hone their craft, grow their network, and build a photography business on their terms. Whether they’re landing their first paid gig or growing an established practice, VSCO champions photographers at every stage of the journey. Our mission is simple: to close the gap between the creative life photographers want and the confidence, tools and community they need to make it real.

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Harbinger Raises $240 Million Series D Funding Round, Led by Tiger Global

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Fidelity Management & Research Company, Capricorn, Greycroft, Ridgeline, and PanaceaVC also participated in the round

The new funds will support Harbinger’s growth as a manufacturing platform powering the AI economy and electrification across mobility, defense and autonomy

GARDEN GROVE, Calif., Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Harbinger, an American industrial technology platform company, today announced that they have raised $240 million in Series D funding to help fuel the company’s next phase of growth. The funding round was co-led by Tiger Global, Capricorn‘s Technology Impact Fund and Ridgeline. Additional investors in the round include crossover investors Fidelity Management & Research Company; Squarepoint Capital and Xantium; returning investors Maniv and Greycroft, Australian Gulf Capital, PanaceaVC, ArcTern Ventures, and Leitmotif; and strategic investors in mobility FedEx and THOR Industries through TechNexus, as well as BuildGroup in data centers; among others.

The new funding will support Harbinger’s further expansion across multiple verticals, spanning commercial vehicles, energy storage systems, power generation, autonomy software and defense applications, as well as the continued ramp up of its medium-duty platform manufacturing capacity. With the new financing, Harbinger has raised over $650 million since its founding in 2021.

“Harbinger exists to challenge what industry has learned to accept, and reinvent the critical systems the world depends on,” said John Harris, Co-Founder and CEO of Harbinger. “By rethinking critical systems from first principles, we aim to unlock better performance, greater reliability, safer operations, and more room to grow. Electrification is at the core of everything we do, and increasingly, electrification is at the core of industry, defense, mobility, and AI. Harbinger’s role is not simply to give customers another option. It is to reset expectations for what critical systems should deliver.”

The critical industrial systems that serve the United States have long been constrained by outdated technology and accepted compromises. These are the essential systems that are depended upon to move goods, power infrastructure, protect people and enable autonomy. Rather than optimizing existing products, Harbinger engineers systems from first principles, using deep vertical integration to control product development, performance, cost and scale. This approach, first demonstrated through its medium-duty electric vehicle platform, is now being applied across industries, enabling Harbinger to address longstanding challenges and raise the standard for what customers should expect.

“Harbinger excels at electrification, and electrification has become one of the most pressing bottlenecks of the AI era,” said Griffin Schroeder, Partner, Tiger Global. “We led this financing because we see tremendous value in bringing Harbinger’s technical expertise and manufacturing capabilities to new markets.”

Harbinger recently announced that FedEx Senior Vice President of Safety and Transportation Paul Melander has joined Harbinger’s Board of Directors, to support Harbinger’s focus on enhanced driver safety, delivery quality, and enabling outstanding customer execution. FedEx recently placed an order for 2,000 all-electric Harbinger trucks valued at more than $300 million.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley served as placement agents on the financing round.

About Harbinger
Harbinger is an American industrial technology platform company reinventing the critical systems the world depends on across transportation, power, defense, autonomy and components. The company develops advanced electrification technologies, including all-electric and hybrid medium-duty vehicle platforms, battery and drivetrain systems, energy storage and auxiliary power solutions, autonomous driving technology and defense applications.

Harbinger engineers systems from first principles, using deep vertical integration to deliver safer, more reliable, more capable and more efficient solutions at economic parity. Its technologies serve a range of applications, including medium-duty trucks, recreational vehicles (RVs), mobile healthcare units, power infrastructure and defense vehicles. Harbinger’s mission is to solve the problems industry stopped questioning and raise the standard for what customers should expect.

Harbinger: Familiar Forms. Revolutionary Foundations.

To learn more about Harbinger, please visit www.harbingermotors.com. You can find the company newsroom HERE.

Harbinger Media Contact
Kylee Keskerian
PR Director
419-822-6417 | kylee@futuristacommunications.com

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