Tyson plans to keep growing

Tyson Foods may have another acquisition in mind.

CNBC reported last week that the food company, parent of Tyson Mexican Original of Portland, has held talks about buying privately-owned California-based Foster Farms for roughly $2 billion.

The possible acquisition comes only months after Tyson acquired Keystone Foods, the meat supplier for McDonalds.

CNBC said no agreement has been reached on a price with Foster Farms and the deal could still fall apart.

Foster Farms was founded in 1939 and owns farms in California and Louisiana.  It also works with 30 family-owned farms in Washington and Oregon. 

Store bought

The former Elder-Beerman building in downtown Richmond has been bought by the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County, The Palladium-Item reported last week.

The EDC bought the property for $300,000.

Elder-Beerman’s Richmond store opened in 1974 and closed its doors Aug. 26 when its parent Bon-Ton went out of business. It was one of 10 Bon-Ton stores to be closed.

Funds for the purchase come from economic development income tax revenues.

“Gaining control of the building is the first step," Wayne County Commissioner Ken Paust told the newspaper. "Now the real work begins, and it will take the city, county and community leaders to continue to work together to move this project forward, with the end goal to partner with a private developer to get this back on the tax rolls.”

Paust spearheaded the effort to acquire the building.

Strike continues

A strike by faculty members at Wright State University — including its Lake Campus in Mercer County — entered its third week Tuesday, and the university has started advertising for “long term” adjunct professors, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported.

“The administration and the faculty union view the ad from opposite vantage points. According to the university, the search for adjuncts is a way to ensure that Wright State serves its students even as the strike becomes the longest in the history of Ohio higher education. But according to some leaders of the union, which is a branch of the American Association of University Professors, it’s a scare tactic meant to intimidate the strikers,” said the Chronicle.

The strike began in late January.

Tariff impact

A Pennsylvania stainless steel plant that’s a joint venture between Allegheny Technologies Inc. and a Chinese company lost $4 million during the last three months of 2018 due to U.S. tariffs that forced operations to be scaled back, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Allegheny Technologies is the parent company of Portland Forge.

The newspaper reported that ATI also paid $18 in tariffs to import stainless steel slabs from Indonesia.

“The operating loss highlighted the financial strain for ATI, which restarted the mill last year with China’s Tsingshan Group, the world’s largest stainless steel producer. At the time, ATI expected to create more than 100 jobs with the venture. Then came the 25 percent tariffs on steel imports,” the newspaper reported.

Coming down

A former motel in Celina will be razed unless its owner brings it up to code within the next 30 days, The Daily Standard reported.

The former Celina Motel is now an apartment complex but has been judged to be an unsafe building in violation of Ohio code. It was targeted for demolition, but the owner was granted an extension.

Tenants are still living in some of the units in the building.

New boss

Yum Brands, the Louisville-based parent of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell KFC, has promoted its chief financial officer David Gibbs to president and chief operating officer.

Gibbs joined the company 30 years ago, rising through the ranks in global strategy, finance, general management, operations and real estate. He was considered the chief architect of Yum’s financial, re-franchising and restaurant development strategy shift the company to less capital-intensive franchiser. About 97 percent of Yum’s restaurants are owned by franchisees.

The company posted nearly $6 billion in sales  in 2017, has over 48,000 restaurant in more than 140 countries, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

New bottle

Ardagh Group Glass-North America has expanded its single-serve portfolio with the launch of a 187ml glass wine bottle.

The company has worked collaboratively with business development company GPS Global Brands and its team to design and develop the new wine bottle.

The bottles are available in 24-pack cases and can be used for multiple brands under the single-serve category.

“Our customers are drinking less, but better,” said GPS chief executive Matt Wood in a prepared statement. “Since glass is the only vessel for fine wine, we went to the leading glass manufacturer for wine bottles – Ardagh Group. Their professional design team helped us bring our patent-pending format to life and allowed us to proudly make it right here in the U.S.” 

The company is offering the glass wine bottles for vintners in the US through its Buy Our Bottles platform online.