NEWS IN BRIEF

UA team’s business plan wins top honor

BioBotic Solutions, an undergraduate business plan competition team from the University of Arkansas, took the $25,000 grand prize over the weekend at the Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures Business Plan Competition at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

BioBotic Solutions built a business plan around a container and robot that automate tissue handling for lab tests. The concept decreases lab errors from 1 percent to .005 percent.

Carol Reeves, the Cecil & Gwendolyn Cupp applied professor in entrepreneurship at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and vice provost for entrepreneurship at UA, said the team faced competition from nearly 30 teams.

At the recent Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan competition in Little Rock, BioBotic Solutions took home $22,000 in prizes, including $15,000 for second place in the undergraduate division.

  • John Magsam

In ad, group asks Wal-Mart for raises

The union-backed group OUR Walmart (Organization United for Respect at Walmart) placed a full-page ad in Tuesday’s Benton County Daily Record asking Wal-Mart Stores Inc. president and Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon for more help in getting higher wages for Wal-Mart employees and to increase staffing at Wal-Mart stores.

Last week, Wal-Mart announced completion of an initiative that allows employees to go online and reserve open shifts at all of Wal-Mart’s 4,000 U.S. stores.

“But much more is needed,” the ad said.

OUR Walmart wants the company to “publicly commit to raise pay and give all associates access to full-time positions, enabling us to earn a minimum of $25,000 a year.” Wal-Mart calls its employees associates.

“For more than 50 years Wal-Mart has listened to our associates every day to meet their needs, help them develop professionally and build better lives,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg.

  • Cyd King

State index rises; 13 stocks climb

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.11 to 327.82 Tuesday.

Thirteen stocks advanced and four declined.

Shares of P.A.M. Transportation Services rose 4 percent in light trading.

Murphy Oil gained 2.8 percent on average volume.

Bank of the Ozarks fell 3.2 percent a day after beating analysts’ earnings estimates by 4 cents.

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 04/16/2014

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