LITTLE ROCK — Coleman Dairy to be rebranded as Hiland
The Coleman Dairy brand name will be phased out next year in a cost saving move, Mike Flagg, Coleman’s general manager, said Monday.
Coleman products will be sold under the Hiland brand next year, Flagg said.
Coleman is a subsidiary of Hiland Dairy of Springfield, Mo.
Hiland, which has plants in Fort Smith and Fayetteville, already sells its products in much of Arkansas, while Coleman-branded products are sold in Little Rock and south Arkansas, Flagg said. Having only the Hiland name for the dairy products will make it more economical, Flagg said.
The Coleman name has been in existence for 150 years, Flagg said.
The family-owned Coleman Dairy was sold in 1996 to a local farmers cooperative, Flagg said. In 2006, farmer-owned Prairie Farms of Carlinville, Ill., which owns Hiland, bought the business, making Coleman a division of Hiland.
None of Coleman’s 210 employees will be affected by the change, Flagg said.
- David Smith
Bookstore’s owner negotiating its sale
Mary Gay Shipley, owner of That Bookstore in Blytheville, confirmed on Monday that she is in negotiations to sell the store.
Shipley said in September that if she did not find a buyer by the end of the year she would close the shop that is widely known for her early championing of authors such as John Grisham, author of legal thrillers such as The Firm; Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help; and Rebecca Wells, who wrote Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
She opened the bookstore 36 years ago.
The prospective buyer is Grant Hill, 22, of Mountain Home, Shipley said. Hill is working with Southern Bancorp and the Greater Blytheville Chamber of Commerce on a loan.
Shipley said she expects the formal announcement this week.
Grisham has written a piece about the shop in a new book about authors’ favorite bookstores. There will be a reading of the Grisham piece today at 5 p.m at the store.
- Jack Weatherly
Day finishes up 0.17 on Arkansas Index
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, was up 0.17 to 242.59 on Monday.
Winners and losers were evenly divided.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services rose 2.4 percent on below-average volume.
First Federal Banc shares lost 5 percent in light trading.
Volume was 34.2 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 24.1 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 21 on 11/13/2012