Walmart boosts tobacco limit to 21

Walmart will increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21, effective July 1.

The retailer will also discontinue the sale of fruit- and dessert flavored nicotine products. The company made the announcement in a letter to the Food and Drug Administration this week.

Walmart will also implement more severe penalties for cashiers who don’t follow the policies, saying employees who fail secret shopper checks “will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”

“We unequivocally acknowledge that even a single sale of a tobacco product to a minor is one too many, and we take seriously our responsibilities in this regard,” John Scudder, Walmart’s ethics and compliance officer, said in a prepared statement.

The move comes amid increased Congressional pressure to force retailers to raise the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21.

Going northwest

Mary Freda, who has served as a freelance reporter for The Commercial Review, started a new position Monday as a copy editor for The Times of Northwest Indiana. She will also write breaking news.

Freda, who graduated May 4 from Ball State University, served as a freelance reporter for The CR from October 2017 through last month. She covered Dunkirk City Council.

She is the second CR alum to continue her career at The Times in as many years. Allie Kirkman, who served as both an intern and freelancer for The Commercial Review, works as a reporter for Munster-based newspaper.

The Times is the second-largest publication in the state, trailing only The Indianapolis Star.

Wine for one

Ardagh Group has partnered with GPS Global Brands to develop a new 187 ml, single-serve wine bottle.

The bottle, which will be available to multiple brands, reflects changes in wine consumption.

“Luxury single-serve gives premium brands a new opportunity to connect with customers in the vital by-the-glass space, while providing a range of new sales channels,” Matt Wood of GPS Global Brands told Packaging World. 

“Our customers are drinking less, but better. 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 USA.”

Ardagh is the parent of glass container manufacturing plants in Dunkirk and Winchester.

“Enhancing the appeal of the bottle’s convenient format design is the glass bottle’s status as a 100% infinitely recyclable package,” Packaging World said.

Recall expanded

Tyson Foods Inc., parent of Tyson Mexican Original of Portland, has expanded a March recall of about 69,000 pounds of its frozen ready-to-eat chicken strip products to include an additional 11.76 million pounds, making it the third-largest Food Safety and Inspection Service recall since 2012.

No CEO

The chief executive officer of Gannett retired Tuesday, just days before a shareholder meeting that could have a major impact on the future of the newspaper publishing company.

The Washington Business Journal reported that interim chief operating officer Barbara Wall has been appointed as principal executive officer following the retirement of Robert Dickey.

Gannett has been facing a potential takeover by MNG Enterprises, also known as Digital First Media, which is majority owned by New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital LLC.

Wind farms banned

Tippecanoe County Commissioners have approved a zoning ordinance that bans wind turbines taller than 140 feet, The Lafayette Journal and Courier reported this week.

The ban effectively shuts out commercial turbines, which run from 300 to 600 feet, from rural land around Lafayette and West Lafayette.

The move drew protests from environmental groups.

“When you’re in a community hosting Purdue University, an education institution renowned worldwide in engineering, here our county commissioners are going to vote to accept a ban limiting innovation (and) growth,” Derek Reuters, a Lafayette resident, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

“If we want to send a message around the world that Purdue’s a great institution, if we want to send a message that we’re a community that accepts innovation and growth in renewable, safe, healthy energy production, and we want to be a community that looks out after our future generations, I think you should vote no,” Reuters said.

Supporters of the ban maintained it had nothing to do with alternative energy but was abut “proper siting of power plants.”

“The commissioners’ vote effectively put the ordinance on the books for all unincorporated areas of Tippecanoe County, outside Lafayette, West Lafayette, Battle Ground, Dayton and Clarks Hill,” The Journal and Courier reported.

Leaves Lutheran

Mike Poore has resigned as chief executive officer and regional president of Lutheran Health, Fort Wayne, which maintains Lutheran Air at Portland Municipal Airport.

Poore took the post in August 2017 after the firing of  Brian Bauer and a contentious period in the regional health care organization’s history.

Broin honored

Jeff Broin, chief executive officer of POET Biorefining, received the Global Bioeconomy Leadership Award last month from Biofuels Digest and Nuu for his “conspicuous leadership in the development and deployment of new technology.” Broin received the award during the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference at the Mayflower Marriott Hotel in Washington.

Broin is the third recipient of the Global Bioeconomy Leadership Award. The two previous recipients were former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.