LOCAL BUSINESS
Bridgestone changes NFL deal
Bridgestone Corp.’s North American unit announced Tuesday that it will continue a sponsorship agreement with the National Football League through March 31, 2016.
However, the tire company with Akron operations will no longer sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show.
Bridgestone said it will have a presence at the NFL Combine, as well as the Super Bowl. The combine is a camp where incoming players demonstrate their skills.
Bridgestone said it will remain the “Official Tire of the National Football League,” continuing a relationship that began in 2007.
Dollar General rebuilds
A Dollar General store will be torn down, with a new, bigger one built in its place.
Akron City Council on Monday approved plans for the new store at 2084 Mogadore Road, near Verdun Drive.
The Zaremba Group, based in Lakewood, is handling the project, which is expected to cost about $700,000. The new building will be about 9,100 square feet, compared to the current store, which has about 7,500 square feet.
The company acquired additional property from Wendy’s, which has a restaurant to the west on Mogadore Road. Dollar General has operated at the current location for 10 years.
No one spoke against the project during two public hearings that council held Monday.
RPM expands in Brazil
RPM International Inc. of Medina said it acquired Viapol Ltda., a Brazilian manufacturer and marketer of building materials and construction products with sales of about $85 million. Terms were not disclosed. The company has more than 300 employees and two plants in Brazil.
WALL STREET
Dow rises 95 points
Stocks rose sharply on Wall Street Tuesday as traders latched onto recent signals from the Federal Reserve that the central bank could reveal plans to stimulate the economy at the end of its two-day meeting today.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 12,837.33, up 95.51. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 13.20 to 1,357.98 and the Nasdaq composite index was up 34.43 to 2,929.76.
Microsoft was one of the biggest gainers in the Dow. The stock jumped 3 percent after the company announced a new tablet computer called Surface to compete with the immensely popular iPad from Apple.
AUTO INDUSTRY
More Chrysler jobs?
Chrysler Group LLC could create up to 300 more jobs than the automaker announced when it unveiled plans for a second shift at the Toledo plant that makes Jeep Libertys, union officials said. The final count probably is still more than a week away, but Dan Henneman, Jeep unit chairman for UAW Local 12, said it should be good news for Toledo. “We could be looking at up to 1,400 jobs,” Henneman said.
When Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive officer of Chrysler and its parent company Fiat SpA of Italy, visited Toledo last November to officially announce Chrysler’s plan to put $500 million into the Toledo Assembly complex, he said the second shift would bring about 1,100 new jobs to the city. New hires start at $15.78 an hour, with increases up to $19.28 an hour by the end of the agreement.
Chrysler now has about 1,800 hourly employees at the plant, which builds the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Liberty. An addition of 1,400 would increase that number to about 3,200.
commodities
Lower costs for tire makers?
Rubber shortages are about to turn into a flood as China, the biggest consumer of the commodity, grows at the slowest pace in three years, driving prices paid by Bridgestone Corp. and other tire makers to the lowest since 2009. This quarter’s 22 percent decline is the worst since the global financial crisis in 2008 and exceeds a 16 percent retreat in commodities.
Shares of Tokyo-based Bridgestone will advance 33 percent in the next 12 months, the average of 11 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows.
ACQUISITIONS
Walgreen buys stake
Walgreen Co. will pay $6.7 billion in cash and stock to buy a stake in European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots, a deal that would give global clout to a U.S. drugstore chain struggling with slipping sales in its home market. The combination would create the largest single purchaser of prescription drugs in the world and give Walgreen access to emerging markets like China and Egypt.
Compiled from staff and wire reports
