By Roby Brock
Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke told a northwest Arkansas audience on Wednesday that he’s worried about an economic rebound being delayed well into 2010.
Speaking to a United Way audience in Rogers, Duke said the recession “is not something that we will get a quick fix and bounce back and have a great Christmas.”
Experts in the retail and trucking sectors are also expressing anxiety in regards to the holiday shopping season.
Wal-Mart to initiate green database, labeling system
Wal-Mart unveiled a new environmental program that will force its suppliers to disclose the environmental costs in the manufacturing of its products. As part of the initiative, Wal-Mart will develop an eco-rating system for shoppers, who will be able to compare products on a sustainability scale.
Wal-Mart will introduce the initiative in three phases, beginning with a survey of its more than 100,000 suppliers around the world. The retailer will ask its top tier U.S. suppliers to complete the survey by Oct. 1.
J.B. Hunt earnings plummet
J.B. Hunt’s earnings were sliced in half as the Lowell-based trucking firm took a large one-time charge and saw its business pounded like many others in the recession economy.
J.B. Hunt reported second quarter earnings of $24 million, down from $50.6 million in last year’s comparable period. Revenues fell 21 percent to $770 million from $977 million one year ago.
The company disclosed a $10.3 million one-time charge related to the estimated value of a group of tractors it is seeking to sell.
USA Truck swings to second quarter loss
USA Truck posted a second quarter loss of $1.1 million. One year ago, the Van Buren-based trucking firm recorded net income of $2.1 million. Revenues topped $81.2 million for the quarter compared to $103.8 million in the second quarter of 2008.
Soft freight demand contributed to the rough quarter and USA Truck CEO Clif Beckham was pessimistic about prospects for a turnaround this year. “We do not anticipate a meaningful recovery in freight demand during the remainder of 2009,” he said.
Regulatory requirement impacts Simmons net income
Simmons First National Corp. announced earnings of $5.5 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, down from nearly $6 million in net income one year ago.
During the second quarter, the Pine Bluff-based financial institution said its deposit insurance expense increased by $2.4 million as a result of the FDIC’s industry-wide special assessment and an increase in its general assessment. The after-tax impact to quarterly earnings was a reduction of $1.5 million, Simmons’ officials said.
Home Bancshares sees earnings dip slightly
Home Bancshares, the holding company for the newly renamed Centennial Bank, posted second quarter earnings of $5.4 million, down slightly from one year ago when the financial institution recorded profits of $5.7 million.
The company had one-time charges of nearly $900,000 related to merger expenses. Home Bancshares also disclosed that it spent $1.2 million for an upcoming FDIC special assessment.
Another big quarter for Bank of the Ozarks
Bank of the Ozarks posted net income of $9.5 million, up 10.4 percent from a year ago when the Little Rock-based bank holding company reported earnings of $8.6 million. It was the fifth straight quarter of record earnings, according to bank officials.
Bank of the Ozarks’ CEO George Gleason said that mortgage income was the “best since 2003.” Deposits, however, fell 7.6 percent during the quarter to $2.13 billion.
The bank set aside $21.1 million in loan loss provisions in the quarter, which included a $10.5 million charge-off related to Fayetteville developer Gary Combs and unsold subdivision lots in Goshen and Prairie Grove.
Tyson Foods downsizing pork group
Tyson Foods said Tuesday that its wholly-owned subsidiary, the Tyson Pork Group, will sell five company-owned hog farms in Arkansas and Missouri, resulting in the loss of 76 jobs in the next three months.
Affected employees have been notified and are being encouraged to apply for other job openings within the company, according to Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson.
Families managing the farms and living on site will have to move, but severance packages were given, the company said. The farms being sold are located in Benton and Washington counties as well as McDonald County, Missouri.
Film commissioner sees ‘Immediate’ impact from rebates
State film commissioner Christopher Crane says Arkansas is “now playing” in the world of film and digital production. New tax rebates passed in the last legislative session are now in effect.
Crane said the state is targeting feature film productions, smaller commercial projects and sustained productions, like a television series.
Crane said he has seen a 10 to 20 percent increase in inquiries and added, “We will have projects in the state immediately.”
Verizon-Alltel transition complete
Verizon Wireless says its $28.1 billion merger with Alltel is complete.
The company closed on its purchase of Alltel in January and has spent the past six months integrating networks, preparing to convert billing systems, upgrading high-speed wireless broadband service, and re-merchandising stores to transition former Alltel customers in Arkansas to Verizon Wireless. Similar transition activities have occurred in the
other southern markets Verizon acquired from Alltel.
Verizon says it spent $11.2 million in state during the transition process, which culminated last weekend with a billing conversion.
UAMS scores largest research grant to date
UAMS has been awarded nearly $20 million – its largest ever research grant – by the National Institutes of Health.
UAMS received the Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Center for Research Resources, which aims to translate basic science discoveries into speedier treatments and cures for patients.
The $19.9 million award will bolster research collaborations with UAMS partners such as Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, and the National Center for Toxicological Research.
New president at P.A.M. transportation
P.A.M. Transportation Services, the Tontitown-based trucking firm, has a new president. Daniel Cushman has been appointed to the position.
He worked previously for Roadway Express, Triple Crown Services, Werner Enterprises and most recently CRST.
In a prepared statement, P.A.M. thanked outgoing President Robert Weaver whose contract ends later this month. He will consult with the firm on a contractual basis in the future.
Lincoln raises $1.2 million in second quarter
Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln, who is standing for re-election in 2010, reported that her campaign raised $1,270,667 in the second quarter of 2009. Lincoln had approximately $3.2 million in cash on hand at the end of June for her re-election campaign.
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Roby Brock, a freelance journalist based in Little Rock, writes weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau. His weekly television program airs at 10 p.m. Sundays in Central and Northwest Arkansas. His e-mail address is roby@talkbusiness.net; his Web site address is www.talkbusiness.net.
July 18th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
People in America need to realize jus what got America in this shape…”cheap” yes so-call cheap items from a foreign land.
quote*Wal-Mart firmly believes in local procurement. We recognize that by purchasing quality products, we can generate more job opportunities, support local manufacturing and boost economic development. Over 95% of the merchandise in our stores in China is sourced locally. We have established partnerships with nearly 20,000 suppliers in China. *end quote!
Now! if there be 182 country’s making items for the world to buy and they have only 5% of the pie in China…duh! This company makes the nice people of China support their currency(yuan) by keeping it in their country working for the people there…. but with the “yuan” going up in value and the US dollar going down…all the foreign items that the American consumer buys thinking it is cheap has went up in price.
People…its all about the currency and to keep a currency strong you got to keep it floating around the country you live in so it can work for you. For the past 12 years all them US dollars are being shipped overseas to a foreign bank and with the American worker not making anything for the foreigner to buy the “we the people” have to turn to the “second” largest employer in America(Uncle Sam) to sell “we the people” debt in order to get all them dollars back!
50 years ago a foreigner would had given their left nut for a US dollar or a Hershey’s chocolate bar and today the same foreigner has got Uncle Sam and the American consumer by both all the while Hershey is moving the chocolate factory to Mexico. Wake up! America and think “MADE IN AMERICA.”
quote*”Considering that there are over 30,000 ships at sea this morning,” writes James Carlton, director of the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program, in an e-mail, “the total number of organisms and species in this global ‘bioflow’ on the morning your readers read your piece could be staggering – billions of individuals, and thousands of species.”
Indeed, scientists have long considered ballast water the primary way invasive aquatic organisms are introduced. From the zebra mussel’s arrival in the Great Lakes, to an American jellyfish severely disrupting Black Sea fisheries, the potential costs of accidental introduction of a species to new homes can be tremendous. Aquatic invasives cost the US $9 billion yearly, according to estimates by David Pimentel, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Zebra and quagga mussels (a cousin to the zebra) alone cost the $1 billion annually.*end quote!
tat is $9 billion a year in hidden taxes to all Americans…
cheap ain’t chic and it cost America…………jobs!
“Now let us look at Wal-Mart again; you buy a product there, 6% goes to the employees, 10-18% is profit to the company, 25% goes to other costs and 50% goes to re-stock or the cost of goods sold. Of the 50% about 20-25% goes to China, a guess, but you get the point. Now then, how long will it take at 433 Billion dollars at year for China to have all of our money, leaving no money flow for us to circulate? At a 17 Trillion dollar economy less than 40-years minus the 1/6 they buy from us. Some say that if we keep putting money into our economy, it would take forever, but if we do not then eventually all the money flow will go. If China buys our debt then eventually they own us, no need to worry about a war, they are buying America, due in part to our own mismanaged trade, so whose fault is that? Not necessarily China, as they are doing what’s in the best interests, and we should make sure that trade is not only free, but fair too.”
http://www.worldthinktank.net/pdfs/TheFlowofTrade.pdf
and when it comes to all them ther turnips in D. C. ….they all need to red…oops! read George Washington’s farewell address after only eight years of serving his country…
Retail makes nothing! ….and until the American people get off their lazy @ss and start to demand…”made in America”….all the retail jobs will be sitting in a foreign land.
The dang government makes only debt…like all it knows is spend…spend…spend. The turnips ain’t never past a dang “saving” bill. They go up on tat big hill and play banker with my dang tax dollars and every dang one of them is one sandwich shot of a picnic when it comes to balancing their dang check book.
National Debt from 1776 to 1910 wus only $2.6 billion and tat wus without a income tax. After the stiff-shirt “my sh!! don’t stink” bankers met in 1910 at Jekyll Island tat debt wus put in high gear in 1913 and even with a income tax and now a tax for every dang thig a person touches…even the air he/she breaths tat debt has mushroom to over $10 trillion in 2008.
Now….we the people in the past 7 months has taken on another $1 trillion and tat person in tat big white house is saying the car is going to slow…well…maybe he needs to get out off the dang thig and walk.
http://dailybail.com/home/the-national-debt-road-trip-video-warning-not-for-the-faint.html?lastPage=true#comment4859693
And with America being over $57 trillion in debt….a little walking wouldn’t hurt them either. People….it ain’t no place in the Constitution tat states the government is suppose to take care of you….not one dang sentence. The word “cheap” ain’t no place to be found either. If you don’t buy American made…you don’t have jobs cause RETAIL makes nothing.
Quit thinking in terms of a jack@ss and elephant….they the ones tat put US in tis mess….think in terms of character, faith in God, love of Country, your State, your town, your family and your dang job. Spend a month…maybe two red…oops! reading Michael Hodges “Grandfather Economic Report” series learn learn how the people from above has pull the wool over the eyes of “we the people” for the past 96 years.
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.” – John Quincy Adams, 6th President of USA.
“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.” – Thomas Jefferson
“No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence.” – George Washington to James Madison 1789.
“support your town…shop around.” – madmilker