Former Allens plant
in Wisconsin to shut
Del Monte Foods Inc., the new owners of Siloam Springs-based Sager Creek Vegetable Co., is closing a Sager Creek plant in Wisconsin.
Sager Creek Vegetable Co., formerly known as Allens Inc., was purchased in a $75 million cash deal earlier this month.
The plant closure leaves Sager Creek with production facilities in Siloam Springs and North Carolina. Production at the Wisconsin plant will be moved to Sager Creek and other Del Monte plants, according to a release Thursday.
The closure includes a processing facility in Pulaski, Wis., and labeling and warehousing facilities in Oconto Falls, Wis. The closing affects 27 full-time and 200 seasonal workers at the processing plant and 14 at the labeling operation.
Allens filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late October 2013. It has since been shifted to Chapter 7. In July, Allens Inc. was renamed Sager Creek Vegetable Co. by its new owners, who purchased the company at auction in a deal valued at $160 million.
-- John Magsam
FedEx's LR permits
show a $17.4M hub
FedEx Corp. has obtained three building permits in Little Rock totaling nearly $17.4 million for construction of a 303,000-square-foot distribution center and accompanying buildings at 8 Industrial Parkway. The total project cost is estimated at $50 million.
FedEx is erecting a single large distribution center near Mabelvale to replace two already in the area, executives have said.
The permit for the main building values the cost of construction at $16.88 million, a 5,200-square-foot maintenance garage at $281,000 and a 3,100-square-foot security gate and offices at $198,000. BC Construction Group LLC was contracted by FedEx to do the work.
The distribution center should be complete by August 2016 and will employ about 160 people, the company has said.
-- Cyd King
Index hits new high,
ends day down 1.07
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 1.07 to 402.02 Thursday.
The index hit an all-time high for the third-consecutive day, reaching 404.11 during the day.
"U.S. stocks ended mixed as both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrials finished lower while the Nasdaq pushed higher as another plunge in oil prices weighed on markets," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
Dillard's gained 1.7 percent in light trading.
Murphy Oil lost 5.1 percent in below-average trading.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 03/20/2015