LOCAL BUSINESS
Rubbermaid plant closing
Newell Rubbermaid Inc. on Tuesday filed the legally required notice of the closing of its Wooster distribution facility, one of the last ties to the town where Rubbermaid was founded.
Newell Rubbermaid, the maker of food storage containers and other consumer products, said nearly a year ago that it planned to shut down the Wooster operation, replacing it with a new 800,000-square-foot distribution center that is being built in the Tallmadge-Brimfield Township joint economic development district in Brimfield.
The company said that 62 employees will be laid off between Dec. 21 and March 28, according to the notice.
Newell Rubbermaid spokeswoman Hannah Van Malssen said via an email Tuesday that about 175 employees are slated to work at the new facility in Brimfield. She said that all Wooster employees who wanted to work at the new center have been accommodated. It was unclear how many Wooster employees chose to take jobs in Brimfield, 42 miles from the Wooster center. Van Malssen said employees losing their jobs will be provided with “transition assistance,” including separation pay.
Newell Rubbermaid wanted distribution closer to its Mogadore plant to “increase efficiency, reduce freight costs and improve customer service,” Van Malssen said.
Newell purchased the former Wooster-based Rubbermaid in 1999. In 2004, Newell Rubbermaid shut down its main Wooster plant and moved the headquarters to Atlanta.
Davis-Besse unit complete
FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. in Akron (NYSE: FE), said it completed construction of what is called an Emergency Operations Facility for its Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. Cost of the project was not disclosed.
Located in Lindsey, Ohio, FirstEnergy said the new 12,000-square-foot facility will address public health and safety concerns if there is an emergency situation. The facility also will be used by Davis-Besse for quarterly training drills and biannual events “evaluated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
It replaces an existing facility located on site.
RETAIL
Temp agencies sue Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is named in a lawsuit that claims that the world’s largest retailer and its staffing agencies broke federal minimum wage and overtime laws by requiring temporary workers to appear early for work, stay late to complete work and work through lunches and breaks without compensation.
According to the proposed class-action suit that was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of Illinois Eastern Division, Labor Ready and QPS, two of the staffing agencies that the discounter used in the Chicago area, failed to provide workers assigned to the Wal-Mart stores with required employment information.
The suit also claims that Wal-Mart itself failed to keep accurate records of workers’ time.
EARNINGS
DuPont to cut 1,500 jobs
DuPont Co. said it will eliminate 1,500 jobs after posting a smaller-than-estimated third-quarter profit and cutting its forecast on declining demand for paint pigment and solar cells.
Net income dropped to $10 million, or 1 cent a share, from $452 million, or 48 cents, a year earlier, Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont said. Profit excluding earnings from the auto paint unit and one-time items was 32 cents a share, trailing the 47-cent average of 14 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company plans to save $450 million with the job cuts and other actions as a weak global economy challenged its 12 percent profit growth target. About half the reductions are tied to the auto-paint business, which DuPont previously agreed to sell to Carlyle Group LP for $4.9 billion. Profit in the performance-chemicals unit declined.
UPS lowers profit forecast
United Parcel Service Inc. narrowed its 2012 profit forecast after posting third-quarter earnings that matched analysts’ estimates, buoyed by higher export volumes in Asia and a gain in U.S. package volumes.
UPS said full-year profit will be $4.55 to $4.65 a share. That compared with the Atlanta company’s previous projection of $4.50 to $4.70 a share, and the $4.55 average estimate of analysts. Profit excluding some costs was $1.06 a share, UPS said.
That matched the average of 16 analysts. Net income fell 56 percent to $469 million, or 48 cents a share, from $1.07 billion, or $1.09, a year earlier. Sales slid 0.7 percent to $13.1 billion, the first quarterly drop since the final three months of 2009.
Compiled from staff and wire reports