Packaging-products maker sets 31 hires
A packaging-products manufacturing plant in Fordyce will hire 31 workers in the next 12 months, a move that also affects its operations in Sheridan and Benton, the company said Thursday.
Signode Industrial Group LLC of Glenview, Ill., has 218 employees now at its operations in the three cities, it said in a release put out by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. The company said products now being produced in Sheridan eventually will be produced in Fordyce while other product lines will be added to the Sheridan operations.
The 23 employees at Signode's facility in Benton "will have the opportunity to transfer" to the Sheridan plant, the company said. The Benton plant produces a packaging material called Angleboard.
A development commission spokeswoman said Thursday that the Benton facility will be closed but that the 23 workers who could transfer to Sheridan are in addition to the 31 new jobs in Fordyce.
The expansion plans make Signode eligible for a $200,000 commission grant and a state income-tax credit of 4% of new payroll for five years.
-- Stephen Steed
Libbey plans to shut Shreveport factory
SHREVEPORT -- An Ohio company that bills itself as one of the world's largest glass tableware manufacturers says it wants to shut down its Louisiana plant by the end of the year.
Libbey Inc. of Toledo, Ohio, will negotiate with unions representing the 450 workers at the plant in Shreveport before making a final decision, the company said Wednesday in a news release.
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Demand has been declining and the coronavirus pandemic has made things worse, Chief Executive Officer Mike Bauer said.
The company has one other U.S. plant, in Toledo, and factories in Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal and China.
Libbey and its U.S. subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on June 1. The bankruptcy court action doesn't include international subsidiaries in Canada, China, Mexico, the Netherlands and Portugal.
The company has about 5,872 employees, about 70% of them outside the U.S., according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
-- The Associated Press
State stocks fall off; index declines 5.26
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Thursday at 382.11, down 5.26.
"Rising virus concerns appeared to drive an increased divergence between the technology-laden Nasdaq, which closed at a record high, and the S&P 500 Index, which failed to recover from a morning swoon, with the energy and financials sectors underperforming," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.