By Lorie Hailey
Associate Editor
Ferm Solutions, a Danville company responsible for scientific discoveries impacting both biofuels and beer is expanding its home base, and the owners believe they are poised for innovation in some new areas, reports the Danville (Ky.) Advocate-Messenger.
Late last year, the company announced plans to invest $1 million in a new 3,750-square-foot technology center for research and development, as well as training for companies that make biofuel. The company also received a $75,000 forgivable loan from the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority and a grant of up to $25,000 in economic development bond money.
The $100,000 is contingent on the company adding at least five new jobs to its 12-member staff in Danville and 16 total across the country, the Advocate-Messenger says.
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Ceradyne, which manufactures body armor in Lexington, saw sales and profit drop dramatically in its first quarter because its solar business struggled, reports the Herald-Leader.
In its first-quarter earnings report, the California-based company said sales fell 29 percent, to $106.3 million, in the quarter compared to the same period a year earlier. Net income fell 84 percent, to $3.8 million, or 16 cents a share, from $23.6 million, or 94 cents a share, a year ago.
New orders of products in the period were $80.8 million, a decline of 65 percent from $231.7 million a year ago, the Herald-Leader reports.
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Madison County’s top official warned residents Tuesday to beware of “storm-chasing” contractors, according to the Richmond (Ky.) Register.
Judge/Executive Kent Clark said contractors without proper credentials have been preying on residents, and his office has received a lot of complaints about shoddy roofing work done by contractors who can’t be reached by phone or are no longer located in the county.
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The Fitch Ratings agency lifted Ford’s credit rating from junk status to investment grade Tuesday, a sign that the company’s recovery from near collapse is almost complete, reports the Associated Press.
But Ford Motor Co. needs another agency, either Standard & Poor’s or Moody’s, to make the same upgrade before it can get its blue oval logo, factories and other assets out of hock.
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The movement by U.S. food corporations toward more humane treatment of animals experienced a whopper of a shift Wednesday when Burger King announced that all of its eggs and pork will come from cage-free chickens and pigs by 2017, the Associated Press reports.
The decision by Burger King, which uses hundreds of millions of eggs and tens of millions of pounds of pork annually, could represent a game-change in the egg and pork supply business as a huge new market has opened up for humanely raised food animals. Already 9 percent of the company’s eggs and 20 percent of its pork are cage-free, according to the AP.
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