News in brief

350 TeleTech jobs

set for Morrilton

TeleTech will create at least 350 jobs this summer at a customer-service center in Morrilton, the city and the company said Tuesday.

TeleTech, based in Englewood, Colo., will be located in Morrilton at 1535 E. Harding Ave. in the Riverland Shopping Center.

TeleTech already has a customer -service center in Sherwood. The Morrilton location will serve as a satellite of the Sherwood center, supporting customers for TeleTech's health care clients.

TeleTech is hiring sales trainers, an insurance-licensing coordinator and a director of sales operations. In the coming weeks, TeleTech will begin hiring customer-service representatives, licensed insurance agents and agents interested in obtaining their insurance license. For more information, go to www.teletechjobs.com.

The jobs will make a significant impact on the Morrilton economy, said Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

"This lays the groundwork for additional economic growth," Preston said.

-- David Smith

Tyson's Macon hub

to distribute growing

Tyson Foods Inc. is spending $59 million to expand its distribution center in Macon, Ga., where it will add more than 100 new jobs.

The 152,000-square-foot expansion is to begin this summer and be finished by late 2018. The distribution center serves customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

The expansion will allow Tyson to ship its entire portfolio of branded products from one centrally located distribution center, said Gregg Uecker, Tyson senior vice president of network planning and integration, in a news release.

The added jobs will raise total employment at the center to almost 240.

"We are the hub city of Middle Georgia," said Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert, in a statement. "And it's becoming apparent to business and industry that we serve as one for this entire region of the United States."

-- Nathan Owens

State index joins sag

of market, falls 4.62

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 4.62 to 333.79 Tuesday.

"The major averages closed lower as oil prices slid to their lowest levels since November," said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Simmons First Investment Group Inc. in Little Rock.

All but four stocks in the index lost ground.

Windstream fell 6.7 percent in heavy trading.

Total volume for the index was 15.1 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business on 06/21/2017

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