December 16, 2017 at 4:15 a.m.
Cooney elected to Graphic board
Business Roundup
Ray Cooney, editor of The Commercial Review, has been elected to the board of directors of the Graphic Printing Co. Inc., publishers of The CR, The News and Sun and The Circulator. The company is a commercial printer and also publishes The Home Guide in Jay and Randolph counties.
Cooney joined The CR in March 2001 as sports editor and became editor in November of 2014. He has won numerous awards from the Hoosier State Press Association for his reporting and photography.
Other directors of the corporation include Louise Ronald, Frank Snyder, Steve Arnold, Don Hanlin, Linda Ronald, Craig Luginbill and Jack Ronald, who is the company’s president and chairman of the board.
Expanding
Berne Apparel will be expanding its operation in Ossian with a $2.2 million, 60,000-square-foot warehouse expansion.
The company received approval from the Ossian Town Council for a tax abatement request on Monday.
The company, which makes work clothes, hunting clothes and casual wear, already has a building in Ossian Industrial Park of about 135,000 square feet. The expansion is expected to create up to eight new jobs.
Revolving credit
Ardagh Group, parent company of glass container plants in Dunkirk and Winchester, announced this week that it has closed on a five-year asset-based revolving credit line of $850 million with a consortium of banks.
The new revolving credit will provide funding for working capital and general corporate purposes, Ardagh said in a press release.
The banks involved include Citi, Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ING, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, and others.
Meatless
Tyson Foods Inc., parent company of Tyson Mexican Original of Portland, is increasing its ownership stake in Beyond Meat, Forbes reported this week.
Beyond Meat, based in California, makes a burger designed to taste like beef but made from plants.
Investors in the plant-based venture include Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former McDonald’s chief executive officer Don Thompson.
The company said in a press release that it would use the funds to triple the size of its production.
The company’s burgers are now sold in more than 5,000 stores, including Whole Foods, Kroger and Albertsons. Beyond Meat has also been added to menus at nearly 4,000 restaurants.
In spotlight
National Public Radio has focused on the growth of Dollar General in rural America in a recent feature story.
“The retail economy in rural America has been rough for decades. But where thousands of stores have closed in recent years, Dollar General is thriving, sometimes at the expense of local shops. Dollar Generals are discount stores that sell goods from hand tools to hot dogs. They're reshaping the retail landscape in small towns. And making lots of friends — and enemies — in the process,” NPR told its listeners.
Dollar General plans to open 1,000 new stores this year — one is under construction in Redkey — for a total of more than 14,000. At that point, it will have more stores than McDonald's has restaurants in the U.S.
On menu
After a series of test-runs, the McVegan is ready to go onto the permanent menu of McDonald’s in Finland and Sweden on Dec. 28.
The soy-based burger patty was developed by Anamma, a Swedish food producer. It was test marketed in Finland in October and November, and the response from consumers was extremely positive.
“The test in Finland blew all the expectations out of the water,” Staffan Ekstam, Head of Food Strategy at McDonald’s in Sweden, said in a press release.
“We can now offer our guests a vegan burger developed in Sweden. Our ambition is that there should be something on our menu for all of the 400,000 guests who visit us every day," he said.
There are currently no plans to market the McVegan in other countries.
Want control
The City of Fishers wants some say over development of two former Marsh Supermarket sites and a Kroger location that will be closing soon, The Indianapolis Business Journal reported this week.
The IBJ said Fishers wants to establish an “overlay zone” on the properties that would limit first uses to grocery stores only.
Marsh closed its stores at 8766 E. 96 St. and 12520 E. 116th St. when it filed for bankruptcy this year. Kroger is planning to close its store at 7272 Fishers Crossing Drive and will move to a new location that is under construction at Allisonville Road and 116th Street.
Try, try again
Greg Creed, chief executive officer of Yum Brands, told Fortune magazine this month that he’s a big believer in trying new things, even if those experiments end in failure.
Yum is the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut.
“You can try something in one restaurant. We’ve got 44,000 restaurants. So even if it doesn’t go well in one restaurant, it’s not going to impact the business.” he told Fortune in a recent interview.
“Innovation can’t be what you do on a Thursday,” he said. “You can’t say, ‘Oh, we’re going to innovate on Thursday and the other days we’ll run the business.’ Innovation has to be in the spirit of the organization.”
Smart meters
Vectren, a natural gas distributor that serves a portion of western Jay County, will be installing new “smart meter” technology in 2018.
The company said the new technology should give customers more control over their energy use and also allow Vectren to respond better to power outages.
Customers who have natural gas meters will be equipped with a new encoder receiver transmitter, which will communicate with the electric gas meter. The gas meter will send usage data to the electric smart meter for transmission to Vectren.
Closing stores
Fort Wayne’s Vera Bradley has taken serious steps to close stores and cut jobs, The Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly reported this week.
The restructuring took place during the third quarter of its fiscal year, which ended Oct. 28.
The company took a $3.4 million charge for severance expenses in that quarter.
“We took action to right-size our corporate infrastructure to better align with the reduced size of our business,” CEO Robert Wallstrom told the business weekly
The company reported third quarter net income of $400,000, or 1 cent per share, after charges totaling $7.9 million for store impairment, severance, strategic planning and inventory adjustments.
Revenues of $114.1 million were in line with expectations, but fell short of the $126.7 million in revenues for the same quarter a year ago.
Cooney joined The CR in March 2001 as sports editor and became editor in November of 2014. He has won numerous awards from the Hoosier State Press Association for his reporting and photography.
Other directors of the corporation include Louise Ronald, Frank Snyder, Steve Arnold, Don Hanlin, Linda Ronald, Craig Luginbill and Jack Ronald, who is the company’s president and chairman of the board.
Expanding
Berne Apparel will be expanding its operation in Ossian with a $2.2 million, 60,000-square-foot warehouse expansion.
The company received approval from the Ossian Town Council for a tax abatement request on Monday.
The company, which makes work clothes, hunting clothes and casual wear, already has a building in Ossian Industrial Park of about 135,000 square feet. The expansion is expected to create up to eight new jobs.
Revolving credit
Ardagh Group, parent company of glass container plants in Dunkirk and Winchester, announced this week that it has closed on a five-year asset-based revolving credit line of $850 million with a consortium of banks.
The new revolving credit will provide funding for working capital and general corporate purposes, Ardagh said in a press release.
The banks involved include Citi, Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ING, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, and others.
Meatless
Tyson Foods Inc., parent company of Tyson Mexican Original of Portland, is increasing its ownership stake in Beyond Meat, Forbes reported this week.
Beyond Meat, based in California, makes a burger designed to taste like beef but made from plants.
Investors in the plant-based venture include Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former McDonald’s chief executive officer Don Thompson.
The company said in a press release that it would use the funds to triple the size of its production.
The company’s burgers are now sold in more than 5,000 stores, including Whole Foods, Kroger and Albertsons. Beyond Meat has also been added to menus at nearly 4,000 restaurants.
In spotlight
National Public Radio has focused on the growth of Dollar General in rural America in a recent feature story.
“The retail economy in rural America has been rough for decades. But where thousands of stores have closed in recent years, Dollar General is thriving, sometimes at the expense of local shops. Dollar Generals are discount stores that sell goods from hand tools to hot dogs. They're reshaping the retail landscape in small towns. And making lots of friends — and enemies — in the process,” NPR told its listeners.
Dollar General plans to open 1,000 new stores this year — one is under construction in Redkey — for a total of more than 14,000. At that point, it will have more stores than McDonald's has restaurants in the U.S.
On menu
After a series of test-runs, the McVegan is ready to go onto the permanent menu of McDonald’s in Finland and Sweden on Dec. 28.
The soy-based burger patty was developed by Anamma, a Swedish food producer. It was test marketed in Finland in October and November, and the response from consumers was extremely positive.
“The test in Finland blew all the expectations out of the water,” Staffan Ekstam, Head of Food Strategy at McDonald’s in Sweden, said in a press release.
“We can now offer our guests a vegan burger developed in Sweden. Our ambition is that there should be something on our menu for all of the 400,000 guests who visit us every day," he said.
There are currently no plans to market the McVegan in other countries.
Want control
The City of Fishers wants some say over development of two former Marsh Supermarket sites and a Kroger location that will be closing soon, The Indianapolis Business Journal reported this week.
The IBJ said Fishers wants to establish an “overlay zone” on the properties that would limit first uses to grocery stores only.
Marsh closed its stores at 8766 E. 96 St. and 12520 E. 116th St. when it filed for bankruptcy this year. Kroger is planning to close its store at 7272 Fishers Crossing Drive and will move to a new location that is under construction at Allisonville Road and 116th Street.
Try, try again
Greg Creed, chief executive officer of Yum Brands, told Fortune magazine this month that he’s a big believer in trying new things, even if those experiments end in failure.
Yum is the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut.
“You can try something in one restaurant. We’ve got 44,000 restaurants. So even if it doesn’t go well in one restaurant, it’s not going to impact the business.” he told Fortune in a recent interview.
“Innovation can’t be what you do on a Thursday,” he said. “You can’t say, ‘Oh, we’re going to innovate on Thursday and the other days we’ll run the business.’ Innovation has to be in the spirit of the organization.”
Smart meters
Vectren, a natural gas distributor that serves a portion of western Jay County, will be installing new “smart meter” technology in 2018.
The company said the new technology should give customers more control over their energy use and also allow Vectren to respond better to power outages.
Customers who have natural gas meters will be equipped with a new encoder receiver transmitter, which will communicate with the electric gas meter. The gas meter will send usage data to the electric smart meter for transmission to Vectren.
Closing stores
Fort Wayne’s Vera Bradley has taken serious steps to close stores and cut jobs, The Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly reported this week.
The restructuring took place during the third quarter of its fiscal year, which ended Oct. 28.
The company took a $3.4 million charge for severance expenses in that quarter.
“We took action to right-size our corporate infrastructure to better align with the reduced size of our business,” CEO Robert Wallstrom told the business weekly
The company reported third quarter net income of $400,000, or 1 cent per share, after charges totaling $7.9 million for store impairment, severance, strategic planning and inventory adjustments.
Revenues of $114.1 million were in line with expectations, but fell short of the $126.7 million in revenues for the same quarter a year ago.
Top Stories
9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit
Chartwells marketing
September 17, 2024 7:36 a.m.
Events
250 X 250 AD