CBI Sunbelt: Business News

Mitsubishi to bring 400 jobs to Fort Chaffee

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:47:14 -0400

Mitsubishi to bring 400 jobs to Fort Chaffee:

Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas has announced it will build a $100 million wind turbine manufacturing plant on 90 acres at Fort Chaffee that will employ up to 400 once fully operational. Ivy Owen, executive director of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority (left), and Fort Smith City Administrator Dennis Kelly share a laugh prior to the start of a press conference detailing the decision by Mitsubishi to build a plant at Fort Chaffee. Construction on the 200,000-square-foot building is set to begin in early 2011. The company issued a press release around noon on Friday (Oct. 16), and officials with the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, city of Fort Smith, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority (FCRA) and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission gathered at 1 p.m. at the chamber for a press conference. “We are very excited to announce today the future MPSA Wind Turbine manufacturing site in Fort Smith, Arkansas,” Koji Hasegawa, president and CEO of MPSA, based in Lake Mary, Fla., said in the Mitsubishi statement “After an intensive site selection process conducted during the last fifteen months, we concluded that Fort Smith, Arkansas offers the most attractive site and community support for building and operating our wind turbine plant.”

Click to read more via The City Wire

Whirlpool: Recall of 150 workers possible

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:32:00 -0400

Whirlpool: Recall of 150 workers possible:

A few laid off Whirlpool workers and, indirectly, the area economy may have a financially brighter holiday season. Whirlpool Corp. confirmed Friday the possible recall of up to 150 workers to support increased refrigerator production planned at its Fort Smith plant for at least the remainder of 2009. Sources have told The City Wire that up to 200 could be recalled, and that seven previously scheduled plant shutdown days around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are now scheduled for production. Also, the sources said production is planned for seven Saturdays between Oct. 31 and Dec. 19. The only catch to the Whirlpool production increase is the ability of vendors to supply parts for the extra work. Suppliers to Whirlpool are not always able to bring back employees and ramp up production as fast as Whirlpool can generate the demand for parts.

Click to read more via The City Wire

SBA to Ease Limits on Loans for Buyouts

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:14:00 -0400

SBA to Ease Limits on Loans for Buyouts:

The Small Business Administration, after enduring a backlash from lenders and business appraisers, plans Oct. 1 to modify a restriction it had placed on loans used to finance acquisitions of small companies.

In March, the SBA, capped the guarantee it was willing to extend on “goodwill” financing, which is the amount of a loan used to purchase an existing business’s intangible assets, such as an established name, brand or customer base. The market price of a small business is based partly on its tangible assets, such as property, equipment and inventory, but often primarily on its goodwill. For some firms for sale, such as professional practices, Internet companies and service firms, the value of intangible assets can range between 55% and 95%.

FSM: Cap and trade bill will wreck U.S. economy

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:49:48 -0400

Former energy executive Claiborne Deming told a Friday lunch gathering of about 100 Fort Smith area business and civic leaders that the proposed federal cap and trade bill is “extraordinarily draconian,” will destroy the U.S. economy, and it was “hijacked” by environmental extremists in the Democrat Party. And those were the kind things he had to say.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, commonly referred to the cap and trade bill and the Waxman-Markey bill, was approved by the U.S House of Representatives on June 26 on a 219-212 vote. U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, was the only member of Arkansas’ delegation in the House to vote for the bill. It is now on the Senate calendar.

Among its numerous provisions, the proposed bill establishes a national energy production standard requiring 20% of retail electric sales to come from combined renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2020. The bill also establishes greenhouse cap and trade provisions that cover 85% of the overall economy, including electricity producers, oil refineries, natural gas suppliers, and energy-intensive industries like iron, steel, cement and paper manufacturers, according to the filing by Entergy Arkansas.

Read the full article at The City Wire

State's Jobless Rate Rises to 7.4 Percent

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:09:07 -0400

Arkansas’ unemployment rate rose to 7.4 percent in July, compared with 7.2 percent in June. The state’s jobless rate was 5 percent in July 2008 The U.S. rate for July fell slightly to 9.4 percent, compared with 9.5 percent in June. The nation’s unemployment rate in July 2008 was 5.8 percent. Arkansas’ civilian labor force decreased 5,200 in July, the state Department of Workforce Services said. “This unemployment rate increase was not unexpected, with nonfarm payroll jobs declining between June and July,” said Kimberly Friedman, communications director for the department. “Arkansas is still feeling the effects of the recession, though we continue to have a jobless rate lower than most other states.”

Read the full article at Arkansas Business

Financing your firm with a credit card? Bad idea!

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:15:10 -0400

Think twice before slapping down that credit card to cover costs at your new business.

The high cost of plastic credit can drag down growth at a young firm and increase the chance that it will fail in its first three years, according to a study conducted for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

For every $1,000 in unpaid credit card debt, a start-up business increases the probability that it will close by 2.2% on average compared with having no such debt, economics researcher Robert H. Scott said in a report released this month.

“Relying on credit card debt is very expensive and makes these businesses financially unstable,” said Scott, assistant professor of economics and finance at the Leon Hess School of Business at Monmouth University in New Jersey.

Yet almost 6 out of 10, or 57.9%, of the nearly 5,000 firms in the study used credit card debt to get started. The report looked at credit card use by the businesses in 2004, the year they all got going, through 2006.

The negative effect is probably higher today because credit card interest rates and fees have climbed dramatically while credit limits have been chopped. Even mainstream card companies are charging rates of 30% or more in some cases.

At the same time, more small-business owners are relying on plastic to start a business or fund an existing operation because other sources of money have dried up.

Read the full article at the LA Times

Tyson to pay 2 Million in Pollution settlement

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:05:30 -0400

Tyson will may more than two million dollars as a part of a settlement over pollution. Prosecutors say that the Tyson plant near dakota city, nebraska polluted the missouri river. Tyson says the company cooperated with state and federal regulators and made operational and equipment changes when it became aware of the wastewater issues.

Read the statement or watch the video: KNWA/Fox24

The good news: we can all move on from hearing this story!

Wall Street: Bailed out - Main Street: Can't get a loan

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:32:06 -0400

Where’s My Stimulus?

As the government throws billions at bailouts, Main Street is feeling left out.

During her four years as an entrepreneur, Trina Nelson has seen plenty of ups and downs. But nothing prepared her for the crisis last December, when the American economy lay in tatters and her Dallas-based catering business nearly collapsed.

“The phones stopped ringing,” says the founder of Par-T-Trayz Catering (motto: “From sushi to soul food”).

Unfortunately, Nelson, 38, has had a history of borrowing woes. In 2007 she needed a loan to stay afloat but was turned down by four banks because she didn’t have an established line of credit. (Like many startup founders, Nelson had used personal credit cards to fund her business; now her credit rating is “shot.”) Lenders said the amount she was seeking — $15,000 — was too small.

“They told me I wasn’t asking for enough money,” she recalls. “Why would I ask for more money than I needed?”

Read the full article at CNN Money

Whirlpool to slash 300 jobs

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:26:28 -0400

Whirlpool Corp. plans to cut as many as 50 salaried jobs by late August and about another 250 hourly positions in September at its Fort Smith plant. The factory manufactures side-by-side refrigerators and icemakers.

Company officials announced Thursday between 40 and 50 salaried jobs would be eliminated, Jill Saletta, Whirlpool spokeswoman, stated in an e-mail. Whirlpool will offer severance benefits and support service, including outplacement service to those employees.

“Yesterday’s announcement affects salaried positions only; however, we anticipate there will be an hourly layoff that will coincide with an anticipated schedule change in September, although no estimate of the number affected has been made yet,” she stated.

Read the full story via: Times Record

FORT SMITH : Proposed rule bans signs along city streets

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:14:00 -0400

BY DAVE HUGHES

FORT SMITH - The city’s enforcement against signs in rights of way has been so lacking that many people believe the practice is legal, a staff member told city directors Tuesday. Wally Bailey, director of planning, presented a draft ordinance to city directors Tuesday that would for the most part ban placement of signs next to city streets. Signs for businesses, real estate, schools and special events have proliferated in city rights of way to the point they could be an eyesore and distraction to motorists, Bailey said.

Read the full article @ Arkansas Democrat Gazette

"Questions continue about the possibility of Whirlpool Corp. losing its contract to manufacture..."

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:23:00 -0400

“Questions continue about the possibility of Whirlpool Corp. losing its contract to manufacture refrigerators for Sears, with Whirlpool officials continuing to manufacture vague answers to the questions. In February, Whirlpool employees told The City Wire they were told the Sears contract was in jeopardy. During a Feb. 12 series of meetings at Whirlpool’s Fort Smith plant, Whirlpool managers, including plant chief Ken Thompson, told Fort Smith employees that 2009 marks the last year of the refrigerator contract with Sears. Whirlpool spokesman Jill Saletta said in February that Whirlpool would continue to produce products for Sears but refused to say if that would include refrigerators. Whirlpool makes several products for Sears in addition to refrigerators. Now comes David MacGregor, a research analyst at Independence, Ohio-based Longbow Research, who asked Whirlpool officials during a July 22 second-quarter earnings conference call about the Sears contract. “I wonder if I could just get you to address a point that you didn’t cover in the call, and that is the Sears relationship and what happens with Kenmore in 2010? That’s probably the issue on most investor’s minds these days and just wondering if you could give us some sense of magnitude with respect to earnings and revenue impact,” MacGregor asked in this transcript from Seeking Alpha. Michael Todman, the president of Whirlpool-North America, said the “relationship with Sears is strong” but that the company does not have a contract in place for 2010.”

- Questions linger about Whirlpool, Sears relationship - The City Wire

Small business owners react to Obama Health Care Bill

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:34:00 -0400

Small business owners employee about 80% of the population!
Read more & send in your story! via: http://bit.ly/3×5Ygy

I am a restaurant owner, and I have had this restaurant for over 16 year. I have over 10 employees currently, some part-time, and some full time. It is not I don’t want to provide health care for my employee, I just can not afford. Obama’s health care plan will put me out of business. My business just does not have extra money pay for employees health care. With the minimum wage increase to $7.25, my business is going to under a lot of pressure. I really don’t know what else to do, I already work over 70 hour a week try to save some labor cost. I just want to Obama give our small business break. All small business owner work really hard to try to stay in business. I know a lot of small business owner don’t even have insurance for themselves.

National health plan will kill business.

Shirley

I work for a major health insurance company. We have already felt the effects of the economy on our company and are afraid we will not survive at all with Obamacare. We have a hiring freeze on right now. Many contractors that we use for projects have not had their contracts renewed. Many growth projects have been put on hold. Many fears layoffs will come. They have already told us they are looking at our retirement benefits and to expect change. Is this the change Obama promised? If we get national health care, this will probably force our health insurance company out of the private sector. Then I guess we won’t have to worry about the change in our retirement benefits because we also won’t have a job anymore. Thousands more people from a health insurance company, to boot, will be needing health insurance and a job. Yes, this is change we can believe in.

Linda

For us it is not a matter of hire/fire, but very much a matter of possibly dumping the health insurance we have for our managers (paid 100% by our company) because there’s no way we can afford to cover our p/t employees too. If coverage is mandated for everyone in the company we are better off taking the 8% payroll penalty, thus dumping everyone, including top brass (me,too) into the public health system. After seeing the rules today such as must pay 72% of employee’s cost AND pay 64% of dependent costs, it took me less than five minutes to do the math on that one.

Chris

I am President of a small (250 employees) directional drilling company. We are the embodiment of the American dream. Starting with seven employees in 2003 we worked hard and now provide good paying jobs and a nice benefit package, including health care for all of our 250 employees. Our future is in jeopardy because of the one two punch of Cap and Trade and Government Health Care reform. If corporate taxes are increased to pay for this anvil around our necks then I doubt that we will be able to survive much less compete with the giants in our industry (Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes). We have already reduced salaries, furloughed over 30 employees and are considering reducing the benefits we provide. Stimulus? What’s that? Obama is no friend to small business. The only decent jobs that will be left if Congress rolls over are government jobs. Those will be short lived because hard working schmucks like me won’t be feeding the pigs at the trough.

Mike

My partner and I are consultant engineers in the business jet aviation industry. As luxury items go in a recession, the current economy has taken a big hit on our business. Two of our employees have left our company and we have not replaced them. Instead, we use part-time contractors on an as needed basis. With that said, 2 full time employees could be hired. However, we will not be hiring anyone near term with the current economy, threat from Obamacare, and the threat of increase income taxes. We are going to wait to evaluate the economic outlook and additional government cost burden before making any new investment decisions.

David

Read more & send in your story! via: http://bit.ly/3×5Ygy