various biz news stories 1999 2000

Change location » Little Rock, AR Weather: 32° F | Clear

A subscription is required to access daily content. Registration is free.

Search ArkansasOnlineStories Go

Delivery date : Sunday, January 02, 2011 7:46:36 pmUsername : kstar72 :: (Log out)Your query : kristal kuykendallCharge for this story: $1.95Publication: Arkansas Democrat-GazettePage(s): BM10Section: BM10Original Date: 11/07/1999

ENERGY Southwestern Energy hopes for gusher or two soonKRISTAL L. KUYKENDALL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE*NW EDITION* Despite being downgraded by two analysts in the past 10 days, and despite negativeearnings results for the third quarter, things aren't really so bad at Southwestern Energy Co. inFayetteville.The company's turnaround is just taking a little longer than expected, analysts say.When Harold Korell Jr. took over as chief executive officer in early 1998, his mission was clear: Turn the tide fora company that had been suffering from low energy prices and sagging demand for its utility services.Korell reorganized Southwestern's exploration and production division, cutting costs drastically and improvingthe efficiency of searching for new wells. He also cut personnel and put his own, handpicked top managers inplace.Although 1998 ended with dismal results -- the company lost $30.6 million -- Korell called it Southwestern's"turnaround year" and predicted better times in 1999.He was partly right, or partly wrong, depending on how you look at it.For the first quarter of 1999, Southwestern reported earnings of $9.13 million, or 37 cents a share, up slightlyfrom the same period a year earlier. But for the second quarter, the company lost $1.7 million, or 7 cents ashare, about the same as the second quarter last year.The third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, also resulted in negative numbers: Southwestern lost $1.9 million, or 8cents a share, on revenue of $60.4 million. It's not unusual for energy companies to suffer minor losses in thesummer and reap profits in the winter, but the net loss in the third quarter is bigger than that of last year's thirdquarter, despite having more revenue this time.Southwestern has continued to strengthen its focus on exploration and production, and its recent $32 millionsale of a small Missouri gas utility unit will allow it to pay down debt, company officials said.The company also benefited from an increase in revenue from its utility systems, which Southwestern officialsattributed to cost cutting and customer growth. The utility unit's net income for the first nine months of 1999 was$10.8 million, up from $10 million the same time last year.However, the results on the production side of the business were lackluster, analysts said. They spurred at leastone of the recent downgradings."Until the company demonstrates it can increase its [production] volumes, there is not any urgency to increaseholdings," explained David Garcia, utility analyst for First Union Securities Inc. Garcia reduced his Southwesternrecommendation from "strong buy" to "buy" Monday.In the third quarter, gas and oil production was 8 billion cubic feet, down from 8.6 billion cubic feet in the sameperiod last year and about the same as the production volume for this year's second quarter. And theyear-to-date production total fell behind last year's figures.Garcia called the recent results "spongy" when compared with the company's previous expectations. But he isn'tdown on Southwestern, he noted."There's a long time element in getting an exploration-production program off the ground," Garcia said. "They'vedone a credible job thus far, and the moves they've been making have made a lot of sense."Analyst Louis Gagliardi of Houston, Texas, investment firm John S. Harold Inc. agrees."The verdict is still out on Southwestern," he said, "but they've got very good management. They likely just needa little more time."Graph: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MATT JONES Energy fluctuations Slug Line: Energy 11/7This article was published on page BM10 of the Sunday, November 07, 1999 edition in the BM10section.

Home News Obituaries Business Entertainment Sports Photos Videos Features Classifieds Jobs Real Estate Autos

Arkansas Online Archives http://library.ardemgaz.com/ShowArchiveStory.asp?Path=ArD...

1 of 2 1/2/11 7:47 PM

Home | News | Daily Newspaper |Entertainment | Sports | Photos |

Videos | Weather | Classifieds | Auto |Real Estate | JobsArkansas | Help |

Terms of Use

NEWSArkansasToday's NewspaperExtrasObituariesOpinion / LettersReligionNationalPoliticsWorldOffbeatLiving GreenArchivesSister PapersE-mail UpdatesWeather

BUSINESSBusinessToday's NewspaperBusiness wireTech wire

SPORTSArkansas SportsToday's NewspaperRazorbacksLR MarathonHigh School NewsHigh School FootballRecruiting Guy BlogSubmit a Hole in OneAP SportsCollege FootballNFLNBA

MLBPGANASCARTennis

ENTERTAINMENTEntertainmentWeekendEvents CalendarMoviesMovie FinderMusicDining OutRestaurant FinderToday's NewspaperTravelEntertainment wireComicsOnline gamesSudokuTV listings

WEB EXTRASFixIt Pothole MapVideoPhotos for purchaseStaff GalleriesCommunity PhotosDatabasesBlogsPollsSupport Groups & ClubsArkansas LinksAP PhotosAP Videos

COMMUNITY NEWSTri-Lakes EditionRiver Valley & Ozark EditionThree Rivers Edition

SUBMISSIONSHonors & AchievementsBridal, engagements &

anniversariesCalendar EventsSupport & Club meetingsLetters to the EditorSubmit a Hole in OneNews Tips

SPECIAL FEATURESFeatures listInaugurationPrevious News FeaturesA Soldier's WifeWar CasualtiesCentral High: A Look BackDemocrat-Gazette History

CONTACTForgotten Password?Subscriber HelpFAQ/Contact UsAdvertisingSubmit AchievementsSubmit BridalSubmit EventsSubmit MeetingsSubmit LettersSubmit TipsCorporate

Newspaper StaffWebsite StaffNewspaper DeliveryFAQ

TARGETED PUBLICATIONSSyncTri LakesThree RiversRiver Valley & OzarkBridal PlannerArkansas LifeHerStyleSpecial SectionsTaking New PatientsWhere We LiveDowntown Little RockSpelling BeeCapture ArkansasEvents

PROMOTIONSBridal ShowContestsDemocrat-Gazette Store

CLASSIFIEDSClassifiedsJobsReal EstateAutoJobs with Us

ADVERTISINGAdvertise with us

Site Index

Copyright © 2010, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.All rights reserved.This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

Material from the Associated Press is Copyright © 2010, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, orredistributed. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcastor publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in acomputer except for personal and noncommercial use. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissionstherefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. All rightsreserved.


2 of 2 1/2/11 7:47 PM




Delivery date : Sunday, January 02, 2011 7:27:11 pmUsername : kstar72 :: (Log out)Your query : kristal kuykendallCharge for this story: $1.95Publication: Arkansas Democrat-GazettePage(s): D1Section: D1Original Date: 04/28/2000

StaffMark reports 70% decline in earningsKRISTAL L. KUYKENDALL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEFAYETTEVILLE -- StaffMark Inc. on Thursday reported a 70 percent drop in first-quarter earnings andsaid it will sell its Robert Walters finance-staffing unit to refocus on its Internet-solutions division.In addition, more changes are expected in the next few weeks that will bolster StaffMark's new strategy, thecompany said. StaffMark bought Robert Walters Plc, a London-based accounting and finance staffing firm, justtwo years ago.Though revenue for the period ended March 31 rose 5 percent to $294.3 million, StaffMark's earnings fell to $1.9million, or 7 cents a share, down from last year's $6.4 million, or 22 cents a share.StaffMark shares closed down 63 cents at $7.25 Thursday on the Nasdaq stock market.The poor results largely resulted from a slowdown in information-technology business due to year 2000computer issues, analysts said."We were supposed to see the first signs of business picking back up after [January] 2000, but it was still anugly quarter," said Matthew Roswell, an analyst for Legg Mason Wood Walker of Baltimore.Revenue at StaffMark's information-technology and professional segment, which includes Dallas-basedIntelliMark, fell 9 percent during the first quarter, the company said. However, revenue in the commercial staffingsegment grew 15 percent and jumped 47 percent at Edgewater Technology, StaffMark's Internet-services ande-solutions staffing unit.StaffMark Chairman Clete Brewer said the downward trend in the information-technology staffing industry isending, and "we remain cautiously optimistic that we will see growth in the second quarter."Analysts had predicted that after the freeze on computer work due to fears of the 2000 computer bug,information-technology business would pick back up strongly by March or April."But StaffMark is not alone in the Y2K hangover; overall there's been a very slow recovery in information-technology business, plus a market shift to more Internet-related skills as opposed to just traditional tech skills,"Roswell said. "Because of those things, just about every major information-technology company is havingdisappointing earnings in the first quarter."To keep up with that Internet market shift, StaffMark said it will sell Robert Walters through a public offering onthe London Stock Exchange and focus its growth efforts on Edgewater. Other spinoffs of StaffMark segmentsare possible in the future, the company said.Proceeds from the Robert Walters initial public offering, tentatively set for early in the third quarter, will be usedto pay down outstanding bank debt, StaffMark said. The company paid $178.8 million in stock to acquire RobertWalters in early 1998; the unit has been operated separately and has expanded into three more countries.Robert Walters has performed well over the last two years, pulling in $290 million in revenue last year comparedwith $260 million in 1998. Operating income last year totaled $20 million, up from $15 million the year before,StaffMark said. In the first quarter of this year, Robert Walters increased both revenue and income, the companysaid.StaffMark's announcements come eight months after the company hired investment bank Credit Suisse FirstBoston to help map a strategy for turning the company around and pushing up the stock price. Analysts guessedat the time that Credit Suisse might recommend splitting up the company, which had five divisions and 35,000employees at the time."This is a big strategic change for StaffMark. We want to focus on our e-solutions consulting business and investin that more," said Brewer, who also is chief executive. "This [Robert Walters sale] is the first step of severalsteps to maximize shareholder value."Last March the stock crashed after top StaffMark officials realized that IntelliMark, the company's highest-marginbusiness, had serious internal problems. The division was restructured, 12 branch offices were closed, and 80employees were either fired or reassigned.



1 of 2 1/2/11 7:29 PM



Terms of Use




MLBPGANASCARTennis













Site Index



Since then several outside board members have been added, and StaffMark hired a new chief operating officer,Steven Bova. The company as a whole has been realigning its segments since the fall, separating its staffingareas.After selling Robert Walters, StaffMark will have three segments remaining: Edgewater, Commercial Services,and Professional/IT services, which includes IntelliMark.Roswell, who rates StaffMark "outperform," said he suspects StaffMark might soon decide to spin off either theprofessional services unit with or without IntelliMark or the commercial services unit.Slug Line: bstaffmark28 1d for stateThis article was published on page D1 of the Friday, April 28, 2000 edition in the D1 section.


2 of 2 1/2/11 7:29 PM




Delivery date : Sunday, January 02, 2011 7:34:51 pmUsername : kstar72 :: (Log out)Your query : kristal kuykendallCharge for this story: $1.95Publication: Arkansas Democrat-GazettePage(s): A1Section: A1Original Date: 03/20/2000

Vendors beat path to Wal-Mart For suppliers, space on retailer's shelves isthe rainbow's endKRISTAL L. KUYKENDALL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEThey arrive nearly every day, dressed in their Sunday best, carrying their briefcases and samples --what they hope will be their secret weapons. They gather in the front lobby, chatting quietly and tryingnot to appear nervous in front of the others.A lot is at stake, and they all know it.They are vendors, the people from companies who sell, or hope to sell, their products at Wal-Mart. And whenthey enter this constantly crowded lobby at the Bentonville headquarters of the world's largest retailer, they arejust yards from the long hallway of plain little rooms where their mission begins: Convince a Wal-Mart buyer thattheir products are the best, the lowest-priced and the most appealing.If they succeed -- and only about a third will -- their products could be on the shelves of 2,800 U.S. Wal-Marts ina few months. The deal could be worth millions.In retail, there is no bigger jackpot than a deal with Wal-Mart. Time and again, companies have grown -- oftenexplosively -- after winning contracts with the retailer. Though it's not for everyone -- it's extremely competitive,and supplying Wal-Mart requires tremendous resources and flexibility -- companies that take the challenge saythe opportunity is priceless.The success stories range from small-town businesses to regional manufacturers, from candles to pillows tojewelry to T-shirts. Some still operate only regionally; others have become global operators. But they have onething in common: They got their jump-start at Wal-Mart."Wal-Mart really got two major parts of our company off the ground," said John McCloud, vice president fornational sales at Mohawk, the world's second-largest floor-covering maker. Those two parts, formerly AmericanRug and American Weavers, are now known as Mohawk Rug & Textile, the company's home-decor division. Itmakes throw and area rugs, pillows, chair pads, place mats and blankets.Fifteen years ago, Wal-Mart's buyers worked closely with American Rug and American Weavers to put togethera lineup that would make money for both parties. Since the first order, the two companies have grown about 30percent a year, McCloud said.And even though Wal-Mart never accounted for more than half of the two companies' sales, theBentonville-based retailer "had everything to do with our success," McCloud said. This year, Mohawk Rug &Textile will sell Wal-Mart more than $200 million in goods, but that's just 20 percent of the division's business.A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS Getting products onto the shelves of a local Wal-Mart isn't easy, but it's not as hardas some might think.A small bakery might believe its unique pies would sell at the local supercenter. The bakery's owner could meetwith the store's manager and convince him of potential demand for the pies, and the deal is practically done.Although approval is needed from the district manager and the home office buyer to purchase fresh-bakedgoods, store managers hold great sway over the decision.For potential national vendors, the buyer is in charge. To start as a national vendor, a company must have atleast six months of sales history elsewhere -- and it must win over the buyer with the product's consumerappeal."It is somewhat subjective, deciding which products get in," said Wal-Mart spokesman John Bisio. "But thepeople making these calls are those who are closest to our business. They have a real sense of what ourcustomers want, what they buy and how much they'll pay."Six months after a local vendor starts supplying Wal-Mart, the buyer and vendor will review the sales results anddecide the next move. If the vendor can handle increased demand, Wal-Mart may make it a national supplier.When a company goes national with Wal-Mart, it also might go national in other ways.Thanks to Wal-Mart, Hanna's Candle Co. in Fayetteville is a national supplier; revenue has doubled in the past



1 of 3 1/2/11 7:36 PM



Terms of Use

three years."We had been sending them samples of our candles for a while with no luck, but then in 1997 a buyer finallycalled us up. She said they were needing a 6-inch-by-6-inch three-wick candle that they couldn't find anywhere,"owner Burt Hanna recalled.So he came up with a way to make it, and for a price that suited both companies. "It was good for them, and itwas great for us. It just grew from there."Wal-Mart now buys "several million" candles from him a year, Hanna said. But the benefits are far more valuablethan a couple of million candles, he said."Working with Wal-Mart really helped me see the big picture, what these big retailers needed," Hanna said. "Theconfidence I got from the Wal-Mart contract, and that experience, helped me more than anything."Hanna soon struck deals to sell his candles to Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney and others. In the past three years,Hanna has doubled his staff to nearly 300, expanded his Fayetteville plant and made about $10 million in capitalimprovements, he said.CONSTANT CHALLENGES Supplying Wal-Mart is great for business, but it's not for everyone.For starters, there's always the possibility that someone else will come along with a better product or a lowerprice."That happens all the time," said Eric Scott, a Wal-Mart buyer for lamps and candles. "A potential supplier willquote us this unbelievably low price, below what we're already paying."But Wal-Mart takes a close look when that happens and determines whether the company really can deliver theproduct for that price, Scott said. Even if the offer looks legitimate, Wal-Mart won't necessarily just jump on it.Usually the buyer will ask the original supplier whether it can match the lower price. And sometimes Wal-Martwill promise bigger orders to help the original supplier afford the price cut and keep the deal, he said.But for many suppliers, price isn't the main concern.Demand is.Supplying one supercenter that rings up more than $1 million in sales a week can be a strain. Now imaginedoing it 3,000 times.It's one reason Jeb Dance, owner of Tennessee T-shirt maker Bacon & Co., is content to be a regional Wal-Martsupplier.Dance's company started selling his licensed collegiate-logo T-shirts to eight Wal-Marts in the Knoxville, Tenn.,area in 1996. Now he supplies about 20 stores with shirts from about 25 colleges. The company has grown alittle with the added Wal-Mart sales but not drastically."The focus of a supplier has to be extremely disciplined, and service levels have to be very high -- you have toalmost act like you have one account -- Wal-Mart," said retail analyst John Lawrence at Morgan Keegan inMemphis. "Part of that is just sheer volume. It requires another level of sophistication to be able to get theproduct order completed, shipped and to the stores on time. Wal-Mart's standards are pretty high."For those reasons, some national vendors at Wal-Mart say they probably couldn't start from scratch now likethey did years ago.Little Rock businessman Frank Fletcher, who also owns six car dealerships in central and Northwest Arkansas,sells lamps, picture frames and mirrors to Wal-Mart through his two manufacturing companies, CheyenneLamps and Silverwood Products."Anymore, you can't go borrow $10,000 and start supplying Wal-Mart like I did," Fletcher said. "If you reinventedthe Hula-Hoop, I would tell you to go to another company who's already supplying Wal-Mart and go intobusiness with them as a partner, so you'd have the resources to do it right."A HAND FROM MR. SAM Fletcher's history with Wal-Mart goes back almost to the beginning of the retaileritself.In the late 1960s, when founder Sam Walton had only two stores, Fletcher started selling to the company as arepresentative for other manufacturers.In 1980, Wal-Mart decided it was big enough to skip the middlemen and buy directly from the manufacturers.Walton warned Fletcher of the approaching change and advised him to get into manufacturing.Fletcher listened. He started Cheyenne, a lamp-making business, in a rented 10,000-square-foot building inLittle Rock. Although the venture was small at first, he immediately got orders from Wal-Mart. And Walton sawthe company's potential and helped Fletcher get a loan so Cheyenne could keep up with the retailer's demand."After that, it just kept growing," Fletcher said. "Our next order with Wal-Mart was 50,000 pieces, then 100,000. Itgrew rapidly, but only after we had help."Like his relationship with Wal-Mart, Fletcher's businesses are flourishing: The retailer buys 6.5 million pieces ayear from Cheyenne, which is now the nation's largest portable lamp company. And both Cheyenne andSilverwood supply nearly every other major retailer in the nation, Fletcher said."If it hadn't been for Wal-Mart, we certainly couldn't have grown these businesses," Fletcher said. "They havehelped us, like they've helped a lot of other companies, reach tremendous success."Slug Line: walmartwk for 1A w/ sidebarThis article was published on page A1 of the Monday, March 20, 2000 edition in the A1 section.


2 of 3 1/2/11 7:36 PM




MLBPGANASCARTennis













Site Index




3 of 3 1/2/11 7:36 PM




Delivery date : Sunday, January 02, 2011 7:39:50 pmUsername : kstar72 :: (Log out)Your query : kristal kuykendallCharge for this story: $1.95Publication: Arkansas Democrat-GazettePage(s): BM10Section: BM10Original Date: 01/30/2000

RETAIL At 70, Harps goes head to head with competitionKRISTAL L. KUYKENDALL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE*NW EDITION* Everything about Gerald Harp says "Good ol' country boy."His easy, laid-back manner; his quick, almost-crooked grin; his short, to-the-point sentences; and hisdown-to-earth vocabulary sans the typical business lingo all reveal a man who'd just as soon be sackinggroceries and chatting with customers as sitting in an office big enough for four pickup trucks, running thecompany that's selling the groceries.His company, Springdale-based Harps Food Stores, is celebrating its 70th year in business, and despite itsconspicuous home base -- numerous top national retailers have yet to venture into Wal-Mart's stomping ground-- the family-owned company is still kicking, still growing and making more money each year.Gerald Harp, 59, shrugs at the suggestion that Harps could be a textbook case for teaching small retailers howto compete with the world's largest retailer. More than half of Harps' 42 stores in Arkansas, Missouri andOklahoma are direct competitors of Wal-Mart Supercenters, and two of Wal-Mart's four Neighborhood Marketsare parking-lot-to-parking-lot with Harps stores."Good, strong independents are awfully hard to compete with," he notes, his brow furrowing as he concentrates."In these smaller communities, people tend to support the local guy more than the chain. And the local guy wasthere first, so he's usually got the better location."Don't get him wrong. Harps has felt the pressure. But the company hasn't given in or given up.Instead, it's bent over backward, learning to adapt to market changes and to transform itself into new forms atthe drop of a hat. The rewards have followed in the form of increasing sales -- from $100 million to more than$300 million annually in the past 11 years -- and rising profitability, the company says."A company will usually have a schedule in place to periodically update their stores, but Wal-Mart sets ourconstruction schedule, in a way," Harp said. "We're not going to sit back and wait to see what happens [whenthe new Wal-Mart opens]. We make sure we're ready for the new competition."Every time a new Wal-Mart arrives in a Harps market, the nearby Harps store will update its merchandise lines,or remodel the building, or add peripheral departments such as a pharmacy, or expand some such as the bakeryor the deli, or change the store name and format altogether to better define its customer niche in thatneighborhood. (The chain's Price Cutter stores tend to target the more cost-conscious consumers, while Harpsstores claim the full-service duty and tout better selection, quality and service.) The company's flexibility andwillingness to experiment -- one store battled a new Supercenter nearby by adding a doctor's office and adrop-off laundry -- have garnered it national attention within the retail industry. Often, the question comes: Howdo you make it against Wal-Mart?"I say, 'Good luck, baby, 'cause this is a chore,' " Harp said, only half kidding.Then, kidding aside, he continues. The golden rule of retail, Harp said, is know your customer. But there's muchmore than that."You've got to do a lot of things right," he said. "You gotta have good location, competitive prices, friendly people,clean stores, good perishable departments, and you have to be involved in the community so people know you."It also helps, Harp added, to belong to a grocery co-op, which allows independent retailers to pool theirresources and buy in bulk, lowering the prices per item.Harps fights many small battles in its wide war with Wal-Mart. In print advertising and on store signs, theregional chain meets Wal-Mart's promise to match prices. In TV commercials, Harps takes a swipe at Wal-Martfor not having butchers on hand to help customers in every store.Though you'd hardly know it from Gerald Harp's relaxed disposition, the competitive nature of the business isobvious to any Northwest Arkansas grocery shopper -- especially those visiting the Harps and NeighborhoodMarkets that sit across the street from each other, both in Springdale and Fayetteville.But it's not the all-too-neighborly 40,000-square-foot Markets that concern Harp the most, he said. It's the



1 of 2 1/2/11 7:40 PM



Terms of Use




MLBPGANASCARTennis













Site Index



Supercenters."A Neighborhood Market can't do anything we can't do," he said gruffly but surely. "It's the Supercenters weworry about. They're so much larger, so much more overwhelming."In 1930, when Gerald's parents, Harvard and Floy Harp, opened Harp's Cash Grocery with $500 they'd made inthe California orchards, a 4-acre superstore was unheard of and Sam Walton was only 12.Since that first 14,000-square-foot store at East Emma Avenue and Water Street in Springdale, a lot haschanged in the grocery business, said Gerald Harp, who took over the business in 1995 when his brother, Don,retired."I'd hate to count how many items we sell now that didn't even exist back then -- probably 80 percent of what wesell," he said. "And technology has changed everything, the way we unload trucks, mark cans [with prices], ringup groceries."A lot more will likely change in the years to come, but Harps will try to keep growing, its chief said."A lot of the future growth depends on opportunities that come up to buy existing stores," he said. "Usually thereisn't a need for new grocery stores in most areas, except in growth areas like Northwest Arkansas."In the meantime, Harps will continue work on its latest addition, a new location in east Springdale on U.S. 412,and on renovations at six locations. And the company will keep taking on Wal-Mart whenever necessary."I wouldn't say we're overjoyed" with the competition from Wal-Mart, Harp said, carefully picking his words. "Butwe're quite pleased with what we've accomplished."Slug Line: Harps 1/30This article was published on page BM10 of the Sunday, January 30, 2000 edition in the BM10section.


2 of 2 1/2/11 7:40 PM

various biz news stories 1999 2000

Documents