LR store among 80 Sears to shut down
Sears Holdings Corp. will close its only store in Little Rock this summer, one of almost 80 store closings the struggling retailer announced Thursday in a news release.
Sears said it will close 68 Kmart stores and 10 Sears stores, including the Sears at 600 S. University Ave., in an attempt to make the company profitable again.
All of the Sears stores and most of the targeted Kmart stores will close in late July. Two of the Kmart stores will close in mid-September, according to the news release.
Sears said it expects the sales of some of the properties to generate cash that can be used to meet its financial obligations.
Eligible employees at the stores will receive severance, the company said in the release.
-- Jessica Seaman
Work-linked injuries at Tyson fall to 8.4%
Tyson Inc. employees who missed one or two days of work in fiscal 2015 because of work-related injury or illness fell to 8.4 percent, the company said Thursday.
Tyson said the company has reduced the number of recordable injury incidents by 12 percent from fiscal 2013. This does not include the plants Tyson acquired in 2014 from Hillshire Brands Co.
The number of work-related injuries or illnesses for employees fell from 8.6 percent in fiscal 2014, not including the Hillshire plants.
The poultry industry has seen increased scrutiny regarding workplace injuries. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced an educational program about the risks of working in poultry plants.
In October, Tyson started a pilot program to increase workplace safety and provide more data on injuries and illnesses within the company.
-- Claire Williams
Arkansas Index slips 4.99; 16 stocks fall
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 4.99 to 327.07 Thursday.
"U.S. stocks got hit on Thursday after a pullback in crude and some disappointing [Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia] data," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. "The Arkansas Index moved lower as 16 stocks declined and two advanced."
Total volume for the index was 23.2 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 04/22/2016