POET develops low-fat option

The parent company of POET Biorefining, Portland, is targeting the dairy feed market with a new low-fat dried distillers grain with solubles under its Dakota Gold label.
Dakota Gold Low Fat DDGS has a fat content of 5 percent, which allows for more use in dairy cows. In the past, DDGS fat content was a factor in causing milk fat depression issues, according to POET officials.
Dakota Gold DDGS is a byproduct of POET’s 27 ethanol plants. The company is one of the world’s largest ethanol producers, with a production capacity of more than 1.6 billion gallons of ethanol and 9 billion pounds of high-protein animal feed.

Changing its name
Meridian Services, which provides mental health and counseling services in Jay County and the rest of east central Indiana, is changing its name to Meridian Health Services.
The change reflects an integration of primary medical care, behavioral health care, and human services.
Meridian Health Services has 10 locations in 20 Indiana counties, providing primary medical care, programs for children and families, hospital psychiatric services, residential living, and a child advocacy center.

Dunham’s coming
Dunham’s Sports plans to open a sporting goods store in late June in the former Celina, Ohio, Walmart site.
Dunham’s will use about half of the former Walmart building and employ 35 full-time and part-time workers.
The company was founded in 1937 as a bait and tackle store. It now has 160 sporting goods stores in 12 states.

Budd in India
E. Roy Budd, president of Energize-ECI Inc., has returned from a 14-day business development mission to India, where he met with business leaders in five cities.
Budd’s efforts are related to the EB-5 Visa Regional Center, which uses foreign investments to create jobs in east central Indiana while speeding the process of obtaining a U.S. green card and a path to U.S. citizenship.
His trip was paid for by Energize-ECI, which provides economic development support services to Jay, Blackford, Delaware, Fayette, Grant, Henry, Madison, Randolph, and Rush counties.

Declares dividend
Franklin Electric, formerly based in Bluffton, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 13.5 cents per share payable Feb. 23 to shareholders of record on Feb. 9.

Focusing on Ohio
Park National Corporation has announced that it’s going to be focusing on its 11 community banking divisions in Ohio, including Second National Bank.
The company’s year-end financial reports note the impact of losses at Park’s Florida-based subsidiary, Vision Bank.
Excluding Vision Bank, the company reported net income of $104.7 million for the year 2011, compared to $103.5 million for the same period in 2010.
“Ohio’s results continue to be exceptional,” Park chairman C. Daniel DeLawder said in a prepared statement. “The  pending sale of the Vision Bank operations, which we expect to conclude in the first quarter of 2012, allows us to concentrate fully on our operations in Ohio.”

Attends seminar
Dr. Steven DeGroff, who has offices in Berne and Winchester, attended an all-day seminar this week on new medications to treat eye diseases.[[In-content Ad]]