LITTLE ROCK — Nestle incentives for jobs created
Nestle USA will not have to repay any incentives it received from the state when the company cuts production and eliminates 70 jobs at its Jonesboro plant next month.
Nestle, which has received $4.4 million in incentives through 2011, only received money for the jobs it created and not for the 1,000 jobs it projected in 2001 to fill, said Joe Holmes, spokesman for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
Last week, the company announced that it would cut the Jonesboro plant’s work week from six days to four days and cut 70 full time positions on Feb. 11.
The company, which received a 3.9 percent payroll rebate for new jobs it created, employed 680 people at the end of 2012. The incentive, signed in 2003, was for 10 years, Holmes said.
“Our company continues to respond to the economic challenges affecting the food industry,” said Dan Braswell, factory manager for Nestle, in a prepared statement.
Plant employees work 10-hour shifts, making frozen prepared meals under the Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s brand, Nestle spokesman Roz O’Hearn said.
- Jessica Seaman
Fayetteville firm gets study grant
Fayetteville-based Ozark Integrated Circuits has obtained a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the use of silicon carbide-based electronics for applications in extreme conditions.
Silicon carbide electronics are high-temperature, high-voltage electronics and can operate beyond 572 degrees and down to minus 193 degrees, according to a release. They can also function in areas of intense radiation.
Ozark Integrated Circuits is part of the University of Arkansas’ Genesis Technology Incubator and was founded in 2011.
The National Science Foundation grant is part of the Small Business Innovation Research Program.
- John Magsam
State stocks slip 0.13; Acxiom up
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, slipped 0.13 to 260.52 Monday.
“Stocks finished with mixed results in a choppy session as investors interpreted mixed economic and corporate earnings reports,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.
Acxiom rose 2.8 percent and Bank of the Ozarks fell almost 1 percent, Williams said.
Volume was 19.6 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 22.9 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 21 on 01/29/2013