Muncie site to produce zinc

A company affiliated with U.S. Aggregates and Milestone has announced a new venture in Muncie that will make use of the former Borg Warner plant on Kilgore Avenue.

Waelz Sustainable Products LLP is a joint venture between Indianapolis-based Heritage Environmental and Monterrey, Mexico-based Zinc Nacional.

Heritage Environmental is a part of Indianapolis-based Heritage Group, as are U.S. Aggregates and Milestone, which have operations in Portland.

The new joint venture will make use of Waelz kiln technology to reclaim zinc from a byproduct of the electric arc furnaces operated by steel mini-mills. 

Zinc is widely-used in numerous applications such as galvanizing steel, tire and rubber, ceramics, lubricants, motor oil, ointments and more.

The company plans to invest $75 million over two phases to build a 30-acre Waelz kiln facility. Demolition of the Borg Warner plant is already underway.

It’s expected that 90 jobs will be created over the next several years by the kiln operation.

At full capacity, the plant will be able to process 100,000 tons of materials annually, producing zinc oxide.

"We are thrilled to be partnering with Zinc Nacional, one of the most respected leaders in zinc manufacturing," Jeff Laborsky, president and chief executive officer of Heritage Environmental, said in a prepared statement. "As an Indiana-based family business, we are proud to revitalize a brownfield property and bring more opportunity to the City of Muncie."

The Waelz kiln is part of a longer-term, major redevelopment being led by Heritage Environmental to repurpose the former Borg Warner site. 

The Borg Warner plant closed in 2009.

Finishes training

Peter Schmidt, vice president and information security officer for First Bank of Berne, recently completed the FBI’s Chief Information Security Officer Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Joins co-op

Julie Marchal has joined Midwest Electric as the Ohio electric cooperative’s member service representative.

A graduate of Fort Recovery High School, she earned an associate degree in financial management at Wright State University-Lake Campus. For 17 years, she has worked as customer service manager at Wabash Mutual Telephone. She has also been a licensed realtor with Lakeshore Realtors in Celina, Ohio.

She and her family reside in Coldwater, Ohio.

Reopening

A former Tyson Foods plant in Cherokee County, Iowa, is going to reopen under the ownership of Iowa Food Group, it was announced last week.

The plant was closed by Tyson, parent of Tyson Mexican Original in Portland, in 2014.

Several Iowa media outlets reported the plant is expected to offer further processing of meat such as hamburger patties, steaks and ground pork that are sold into retail and foodservice. It is expected to reopen in the next month. 

About 450 jobs were lost when the plant closed, and officials said 400 applications have already been received.

The company has not said how many jobs will return to Cherokee County, Iowa.

Buy and close

CVS is buying a 20-store pharmacy chain in northeast Ohio and will close all but three of them, The Columbus Dispatch reported this week.

Ritzman Pharmacy stores in Akron and Berlin, Ohio, will continue operating but under the CVS name.

But Ritzman pharmacies in Rittman, Shreve, Sugarcreek, Wooster, Medina River Styx, Millersburg, Barberton, Wadsworth, Norton, Seville, Green, Ashland, Orrville, Medina Forest Meadows, Dover and Jackson will be closed.

Ritzman had been in business since 1950.

Pushes sale

An activist hedge fund is urging Dollar Tree to sell off its Family Dollar chain.

In a letter to Dollar Tree, Jeffrey Smith, chief executive officer of Starboard Value LP, said that Dollar Tree “significantly overpaid” for Family Dollar, and that it has been a major drag on Dollar Tree’s business ever since, The Charlotte Observer reported.

But Dollar Tree told the newspaper it remains “strongly committed to Family Dollar.” 

Dollar Tree spokesman Randy Guiler told the newspaper in an email, “In fact, in late November, we announced our plans to invest in more than 1,000 Family Dollar store renovations during 2019 … Our Family Dollar leadership team is fully engaged in improving the productivity across the entire store base.”

Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar for $9.1 billion in July 2015.

Branch closing

First Merchants Bank will close its branch in Nashville, Indiana, The Brown County Democrat reported this week.

The closing comes just days after the Muncie-based banking company announced that it will close its branches in Albany and Eaton.