BY DOUGLAS WATSON
MANAGING EDITOR
EcoQuest International, the company formerly based in Greeneville that was moved last year to Bristol Va., has had its name changed to Vollara.
The action was announced Wednesday by a spokesperson for DBG Group Investments, LLC, the company that owns the former Greeneville manufacturer and marketer.
Kathy Greene, director of human resources for the renamed company, said Wednesday that EcoQuest's name was changed last weekend in Dallas at the headquarters of DBG Group Investments and its parent company, Aerus Holdings, LLC.
Greene said Vollara comes from a Latin verb that means "to fly."
She said it had been decided by the company's new owners that EcoQuest needed a new name.
MARCH 2009 SALE
EcoQuest International, a maker of air and water purifiers, was sold at the end of March 2009. The company shortly thereafter ceased operations here.
DBG Group Investments, a subsidiary of Aerus Holdings, LLC, of Dallas, acquired a majority of the assets of the Greeneville company.
DBG announced at the time of the sale it would be consolidating manufacturing and operations of the business into Aerus Holdings' 400,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Bristol, Va., and at its world headquarters in Dallas.
The March 2009 announcement said, "The business will be operated as an independent network marketing organization of DBG and will be separate and distinct from the other businesses in the Aerus Holdings portfolio.
Joseph P. Urso, of Dallas, is both chairman and CEO of DBG and Aerus Holdings.
Mike Jackson, of Greeneville, had been the head of EcoQuest.
EcoQuest International, which had called itself the "Healthy Living Company," provided air and water purification products, energy management systems and nutritional supplements to consumers and businesses through network marketing.
Jackson said at the time of the sale that EcoQuest's total number of employees had dropped to about 200 from a high of about 500.
DBG said then that it would offer 105 EcoQuest employees in Greeneville jobs at Bristol and provide bus transportation for them to and from Greeneville.
Greene said Wednesday that 75 to 80 former EcoQuest employees continue to commute daily to their jobs in Bristol at the company that has been renamed Vollara.
