NEWS IN BRIEF

Thursday, November 29, 2012

— NYC-based L&R buys ex-USA Drug division

L&R Distributors Inc. of New York said Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire SAJ Distributors, a former division of USA Drug stores of Little Rock.

SAJ and USA Drug were owned by Stephen L.

LaFrance Holdings Inc. before they were sold to Walgreen Co. in July. L&R also will acquire SAJ’s private label Select Brand.

Art Walker, senior vice president at L&R, declined to disclose financial terms of the transaction.

L&R will operate the existing SAJ Distribution Center and offices in Pine Bluff, where Walker said he expects L&R to retain from 150 to 200 of SAJ’s employees. Nationwide, about 250 SAJ employees will be kept. Walker didn’t know how many people currently work for SAJ.

L&R will maintain SAJ delivery methods and inventory mix.

Pine Bluff will be L&R’s only center in the southcentral part of the country, Walker said. L&R also has distribution centers in New York and California.

L&R has annual revenue of about $200 million and distributes products to 7,000 stores across the country, Walker said. SAJ provided more than 22,000 products to more than 1,000 grocery, drug and discount stores.

IRS’ mileage rates to increase by 1 cent

The standard mileage rate used to calculate the tax-deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, medical or moving purposes will be increased by 1 cent for taxpayers next year, the Internal Revenue Service said.

The mileage-rate deduction allowed for business use will increase to 56.5 cents a mile, the IRS said.

The deduction for medical and moving related purposes will increase to 24 cents a mile. The rate for charitable purposes will remain at 14 cents a mile.

The standard mileage deduction for business is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile.

The rate for medical and moving purposes is based on the variable costs.

Taxpayers always have the option of calculating the actual costs of using their vehicle rather than using the standard mileage rates.

Optimism rules day, helps index add 1.33

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 1.33 to 245.49 Wednesday.

“U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday after positive comments from President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner on the pending fiscal cliff negotiation,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.

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 27 on 11/29/2012