Safe Foods to debut $15M headquarters
Safe Foods Corp., a North Little Rock company that exports food-safety products around the world, will hold the grand opening of its new $15 million international headquarters and innovation center Thursday.
The 120,000-square-foot facility on 22 acres at 1501 E. Eighth St. was acquired in November 2018 and underwent extensive renovations for almost a year.
The new facility helped add 35 jobs for Safe Foods, which now employs 130 people, and enables the company to increase efficiency by housing its operations under one roof, according to a news release. The location also provides convenient access to rail and interstates.
The grand opening coincides with Safe Foods' 20th anniversary. Safe Foods, which provides food-safety systems and management to combat food-borne pathogens to clients in the United States and nine other countries, grew out of a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences BioVentures program.
The 9 a.m. event will feature North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith and Chris Coleman, Safe Foods' chief executive officer. Facility tours will follow.
-- Noel Oman
Commercial-plane chief out at Boeing
Boeing is replacing the head of its commercial-airplanes division as it struggles with a crisis created by two deadly crashes of its newest airliner.
Boeing said Tuesday that Kevin McAllister is out as chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. He is being replaced by Stanley Deal, leader of Boeing's services division.
The shake-up in Boeing's top ranks comes just days after the release of internal communications that showed a senior test pilot experienced serious problems while testing flight-control software for the 737 Max on a simulator.
That software is at the center of investigations into two crashes that killed 346 people and led to grounding of the Max. Boeing is taking much longer than executives expected to change the software and get the plane flying again.
McAllister was recruited from General Electric Co.'s jet-engine operation to run Boeing's biggest division in 2016, just months before the 737 Max went into service. Boeing did not specify whether he quit or was fired.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. is scheduled to report its latest financial results today.
-- The Associated Press
Index rises by 2.62, ends day at 437.74
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Tuesday at 437.74, up 2.62.
"U.S. stocks closed slightly lower, giving back early gains after British lawmakers rejected the government's proposed timetable for passing legislation to ratify its deal to exit the European Union," said Chris Harkins, managing director at Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 10/23/2019