News in brief

Tyson to shut down

3 plants, lay off 950

Tyson Foods is laying off 950 people and closing three facilities in New York, New Mexico and Iowa, according to a company news release Friday.

The company's Cherokee, Iowa, plant will close Sept. 27, while the company's Buffalo, N.Y., and Santa Teresa, N.M., plants are expected to cease operations during the first half of 2015.

"This is a very difficult decision since it affects the lives of our team members and their families," said Donnie King, president of prepared foods and customer and consumer solutions for Tyson. "However, these plants have been struggling financially. After long and careful consideration, we've concluded it no longer makes business sense to keep them open."

The release said the plants were older and less cost-efficient than more modern plants.

The announcement came in advance of Tyson's third quarter earnings conference call, scheduled for 7 a.m. Monday. Investors can listen to a live webcast of the call at ir.tyson.com or 888-455-8283. The pass code "Tyson Foods" is required to join the call.

-- Brian Fanney

$13 million bid OK'd

for I-430/I-30 work

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department on Friday approved a bid of $13,383,442.18 from McGeorge Contracting Co. of Pine Bluff to build the first phase of the reworking of the Interstate 430/Interstate 30 interchange.

The first phase is to be completed by Nov. 14. The penalty for missing that deadline would be $20,000 per day.

The bid was the only one received. Department public information officer Randy Ort said that work should start in a few weeks.

The interchange project was divided into two parts after bids received June 4 for the project were more than double the department's estimated cost.

The first phase involves adding a southbound ramp off I-430, widening the frontage road on I-30 westbound, closing the exit for Mabelvale Pike and Otter Creek Road on I-30 westbound, and creating an exit east of the interchange for westbound traffic on I-30.

-- Jack Weatherly

Arkansas Index falls

2.03 to end 353.68

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 2.03 to 353.68 Friday.

Twelve stocks fell, four rose and one was unchanged.

ArcBest slipped 2.6 percent and shares of America's Car-Mart and Acxiom each fell 1.5 percent.

Simmons First National rose 0.8 percent.

Windstream set a 52-week high. Acxiom dropped to a 52-week low.

For the week, nine stocks fell and eight gained ground.

USA Truck was up 6 percent for the week.

Total volume of the index was 13.5 million shares. The average daily volume for the week was 16.9 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 on 07/26/2014

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