June 3, 2016 at 8:22 p.m.
Ardagh HQ moving to Fishers
Business Roundup
Ardagh Group, which has glass container plants in Dunkirk, Winchester, and Marion, is moving its regional headquarters to Fishers from its current location in Muncie.
The Luxembourg-based glass and metal container company has 19,000 employees globally and operates 15 glass plants and seven metal manufacturing plants in the U.S. It has four regional headquarters in the U.S.
The move from Muncie will involve 200 employees now working out of offices on South Macedonia Street. It’s expected that the Muncie office will close by the end of the year.
Ardagh, which traces its roots to a bottle-making company in Ireland, has grown dramatically over the past several years by acquisitions.
It acquired the Dunkirk plant, which had been part of Saint-Goblin’s Verallia North America division, in 2013. About a year earlier, it acquired the Winchester plant, which had been part of Anchor Glass. Those acquisitions were delayed for some months by federal regulators concerned about whether the growth would reduce competition in the glass container busines in the U.S.
This spring the company announced plans to issue $4.5 billion in so-called “junk bonds” to help finance the acquisition of several can manufacturing plants in Europe.
Ardagh operates in 89 countries and reports annual revenue of 4.7 billion Euros.
Meeker’s remarks
Jay County native Mary Meeker this week released her closely-watched and highly-anticipated Internet Trends report, an annual look at the tech industry that has become something of a ritual for stock analysts and tech investors.
Meeker, a DePauw University graduate and Jay County High School alumna, is a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
Meeker said growth of internet users worldwide is essentially flat and smartphone growth is also slowing. She issued her first Internet Report in 1995 when she was with Morgan Stanley and was quickly dubbed Queen of the Internet for her insights.
The highlights of her report can be found here: http://qz.com/697050/mary-meekers-2016-internet-trends-report-all-the-slides-plus-highlights/.
In spotlight
Continuing efforts by POET to develop cellulosic ethanol are the focus of an article in the May issue of Scientific American.
POET, parent company of POET Biorefining-Portland, has been at the forefront of Project Liberty, which has invested hundreds of millions of private and public funds in hopes of developing advanced biofuels.
Jeff Broin, chief executive officer of POET, told the magazine he’s still optimistic about the project. “We’re processing about 770 tons a day of corn stover — basically the leftovers from the cornfield — into ethanol (at Emmetsburg, Iowa). (It’s) one of the first plants in the world to do that, so we’re pretty excited.”
To date, Project Liberty has required an investment of an estimated $275 million by POET, its Dutch partner Royal DSM, the Department of Energy, and the state of Iowa.
“One big secret to making it all work is the advanced biofuel refinery’s location right next to a conventional corn ethanol plant, which makes ethanol from the starch in corn kernels. That facility is roughly half the size of its cellulosic fuel neighbor, costs less than half as much to build and run, and produces twice as much ethanol. It can use the leftover lignin and biodigested methane from the cellulosic facility as fuel for distillation and other processes,” wrote Scientific American’s David Biello.
New stores
Walmart plans to open between 135 and 155 new stores in the U.S. this fiscal year. That includes 50 to 60 Supercenters and 85 to 95 Neighborhood Market stores, Supermarket News reported this week.
Breakfast speaker
Dunkirk Police Chief Dane Mumbower will be the featured speaker at the Jay County Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 8, at the West Jay Community Center.
Mumbower will be speaking on how to detect shoplifting and what to do about it. Reservations for the breakfast must be made by noon Monday by
See Business page 6
Continued from page 5
contacting the chamber at [email protected] or by calling (260) 726-4481. Cost of the breakfast is $5.
Headquarter move?
McDonald’s may be moving its corporate headquarters to the former site of Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, Crain’s Chicago Business reported this week.
Its current corporate headquarters is in suburban Oak Park, Illinois.
A solar plant
Indiana Michigan Power has broken ground for its first solar plant in Michigan, a 35-acre site east of Watervliet.
The plant will have more than 50,000 solar panels and generate up to 4.6 megawatts of emission-free energy, I&M said. That’s enough to power about 650 homes annually.
“This solar power plant is part of a pilot project that will play a significant role in I&M’s use of the sun to provide energy,” said Paul Chodak III, president and chief operating officer of I&M, in a prepared statement. “I&M already uses wind, water and nuclear energy to generate half our power.”
The new plant is one of four being developed by I&M. The Deer Creek plant near Marion has been in operation since 2015, and work has already begun on plants at Twin Branch and Olive, both in St. Joseph County, Indiana.
Together the four plants will have the ability to power 2,000 home.
The Luxembourg-based glass and metal container company has 19,000 employees globally and operates 15 glass plants and seven metal manufacturing plants in the U.S. It has four regional headquarters in the U.S.
The move from Muncie will involve 200 employees now working out of offices on South Macedonia Street. It’s expected that the Muncie office will close by the end of the year.
Ardagh, which traces its roots to a bottle-making company in Ireland, has grown dramatically over the past several years by acquisitions.
It acquired the Dunkirk plant, which had been part of Saint-Goblin’s Verallia North America division, in 2013. About a year earlier, it acquired the Winchester plant, which had been part of Anchor Glass. Those acquisitions were delayed for some months by federal regulators concerned about whether the growth would reduce competition in the glass container busines in the U.S.
This spring the company announced plans to issue $4.5 billion in so-called “junk bonds” to help finance the acquisition of several can manufacturing plants in Europe.
Ardagh operates in 89 countries and reports annual revenue of 4.7 billion Euros.
Meeker’s remarks
Jay County native Mary Meeker this week released her closely-watched and highly-anticipated Internet Trends report, an annual look at the tech industry that has become something of a ritual for stock analysts and tech investors.
Meeker, a DePauw University graduate and Jay County High School alumna, is a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
Meeker said growth of internet users worldwide is essentially flat and smartphone growth is also slowing. She issued her first Internet Report in 1995 when she was with Morgan Stanley and was quickly dubbed Queen of the Internet for her insights.
The highlights of her report can be found here: http://qz.com/697050/mary-meekers-2016-internet-trends-report-all-the-slides-plus-highlights/.
In spotlight
Continuing efforts by POET to develop cellulosic ethanol are the focus of an article in the May issue of Scientific American.
POET, parent company of POET Biorefining-Portland, has been at the forefront of Project Liberty, which has invested hundreds of millions of private and public funds in hopes of developing advanced biofuels.
Jeff Broin, chief executive officer of POET, told the magazine he’s still optimistic about the project. “We’re processing about 770 tons a day of corn stover — basically the leftovers from the cornfield — into ethanol (at Emmetsburg, Iowa). (It’s) one of the first plants in the world to do that, so we’re pretty excited.”
To date, Project Liberty has required an investment of an estimated $275 million by POET, its Dutch partner Royal DSM, the Department of Energy, and the state of Iowa.
“One big secret to making it all work is the advanced biofuel refinery’s location right next to a conventional corn ethanol plant, which makes ethanol from the starch in corn kernels. That facility is roughly half the size of its cellulosic fuel neighbor, costs less than half as much to build and run, and produces twice as much ethanol. It can use the leftover lignin and biodigested methane from the cellulosic facility as fuel for distillation and other processes,” wrote Scientific American’s David Biello.
New stores
Walmart plans to open between 135 and 155 new stores in the U.S. this fiscal year. That includes 50 to 60 Supercenters and 85 to 95 Neighborhood Market stores, Supermarket News reported this week.
Breakfast speaker
Dunkirk Police Chief Dane Mumbower will be the featured speaker at the Jay County Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 8, at the West Jay Community Center.
Mumbower will be speaking on how to detect shoplifting and what to do about it. Reservations for the breakfast must be made by noon Monday by
See Business page 6
Continued from page 5
contacting the chamber at [email protected] or by calling (260) 726-4481. Cost of the breakfast is $5.
Headquarter move?
McDonald’s may be moving its corporate headquarters to the former site of Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, Crain’s Chicago Business reported this week.
Its current corporate headquarters is in suburban Oak Park, Illinois.
A solar plant
Indiana Michigan Power has broken ground for its first solar plant in Michigan, a 35-acre site east of Watervliet.
The plant will have more than 50,000 solar panels and generate up to 4.6 megawatts of emission-free energy, I&M said. That’s enough to power about 650 homes annually.
“This solar power plant is part of a pilot project that will play a significant role in I&M’s use of the sun to provide energy,” said Paul Chodak III, president and chief operating officer of I&M, in a prepared statement. “I&M already uses wind, water and nuclear energy to generate half our power.”
The new plant is one of four being developed by I&M. The Deer Creek plant near Marion has been in operation since 2015, and work has already begun on plants at Twin Branch and Olive, both in St. Joseph County, Indiana.
Together the four plants will have the ability to power 2,000 home.
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