The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 31

Business Thk Dks Moinks Tui'ksdav. Ji 12, 9S US West in 'hiring blitz' to fill 40 jobs Business Roundup These employees will deal witjh service and billing inquiries from large, mostly commercial, customers, Gipple said. Applicants for those jobs should have at least two years', customer service and sales experience. Interested persons can schedule an interview by calling (800) 273- 3944. Job applicants will be interviewed at the US West building at 10th and High streets in downtown Dw Moines at the following times: p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m.

to 4 p.m.; they allow applicants to know in a matter of days, rather than weeks, whether they got the job. The Des Moines area currently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, 2.7 percent, and that has caused problems for some area employers. Gipple said she was not sure how the low unemployment rate might affect US West's blitz. She said, however, that the company had been running advertisements for the blitz all week, and "we've not had a lot of response to the ads yet." About half of the 40 jobs are sales This is the first time US West has used such a procedure to fill so many positions in the Des Moines area, Gipple said, although the company has done it in the past to fill operator positions in Waterloo. To make the blitz work, she said, US West is bringing in a group of hiring experts from all over its territory to interview applicants in Des Moines.

Since a restructuring a few years ago, US West hasn't hired people on-site in Des Moines, she said. Hiring blitzes have worked well in other areas, Gipple said, because Applicants can call to set up an interview today, Friday or Saturday. By DAVID ELBERT RkH.STKK Br.SINK.SS WRIftR US West is holding a "hiring blitz" today, Friday and Saturday in an effort to fill 40 inside customer sales and service positions. Most of the jobs are newly created, and some, with commissions, could pay from $40,000 to $60,000, said US West spokeswoman Lynn uippie. Games i Jan Lindberg, left, keeps her eye on the ground as she maneuvers through a course wiih Susan Miskanic in the "Meeting of the Minds" game Wednesday at the Golden Circle Games.

The ob- ject was to keep the ball pressed between their foreheads and not let it drop. The two women are employees of Brenton Bank. The games were held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Murdoch buying half of the Family Channel consultant positions that involve selling new telecommunications products, such as Caller ID, voice messaging and other products to residential customers, Gipple said. Those 20 people will be paid a combination of salary and commissions that could add up to $60,000 a year, depending on how well they sell, Gipple said.

Applicants should have at least six months' experience in sales, she said. The other 20 jobs will be hourly wage positions with top pay of about $36,000 a year. The title for those jobs is service delivery coordinator. 1 Hill NK1HK KGAl.lTlIK RttilSTKH said the tenor of the Family Channel would likely remain unchanged under the new owners at least for the time being. "We haven't really decided yet" on what, if any, programming changes would be made, he said.

The other half of Fox Kids is owned by Saban Entertainment the world's largest producer of children's television shows, including the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and "X-Man." The Fox Kids announcement came just hours after Murdoch abandoned plans to beam his TV programs into U.S. homes using his own satellites. News Corp. said Wednesday it would sell its American Sky. Broadcasting's U.S.

satellite assets to a rival, Primestar Partners. Though Murdoch gets a 30 percent, $1.1 billion equity stake in Primestar, he will have no voting control. The sale must pass muster with the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission. Critics immediately attacked the deal, saying it removes Murdoch as a potential competitor in the fledgling direct-broadcast satellite industry, which is providing cable television operators with their first real competition. Primestar Partners is in part an effort by the cable industry to deal with such competition.

It is owned by the nation's largest cable system operators, including Tele-Commun-ciations Inc. and Time Warner Inc. and serves mostly rural areas not able to get cable service. Pucks Faces Kristin Thieleke and Gina Keck have been promoted at the Equitable of Iowa Des Moines. Thieleke has been promoted to new business quality assurance coordinator, and Keck has been named assistant treasurer.

COMPILED BY KATHLEEN ENCLUND. Send information about new manna-em, promotions or other job rha noes to Markets Desk, The Des Moines Register, P.O. Box 957, Des Moines. Ia. 50,101.

Mv Krfttin Cln Thllek WWW Gold Silver Comex Spot Comex Spot p. mm I 'w Iowa IBP adding jobs at Columbus Junction IBP Inc. is adding about 80 jobs at its Columbus Junction plant, the company announced Wednesday. The development of several new product lines has created a need for production workers, the company said. The new products include fresh cuts of pork that are custom processed for customers in the Far East.

"Given the production cutbacks we made in early March, this is very good news," John Allis, assistant vice president, said in a statement. IBP indefinitely discontinued all second-shift carcass production at thfc Columbus Junction plant on March 3 as a result of declining hog supplies in the Midwest. The move resulted in the elimination of 400 of the plant's 1,500 jobs. More than 100 of affected workers have since transferred to other IBP plants. i Solid waste station to be built in C.R.

I Valley Transfer Systems said it plans to build a a solid waste transfer station in Cedar Rapids, and to have it operating by April 1998. The station will be located in the Prairie Valley Business Park. Valley Transfer Systems is a spjn-off company of Banner Valley Hauling, a major commercial solid waste hauler in Cedar Rapids. This is the first transfer station in the Linn County area, and would be the largest in Iowa, the company said. Valley Transfer also will be the first privately owned and managed dumping facility in the area.

Commercial haulers in the area would use the station as another option, to directly dumping at a landfill. Trash will be deposited at the station, compacted, and then trucked for dumping at remote landfill sites. Two Illinois landfill sites have been identified for receiving the transferred waste, in Milan and Morrison. National Late mortgage payments increase number of homeowners behind in their mortgage payments increased again in the January-March quarter and could continue to cliifcb through 1997, an industry group said Wednesday. nThe Mortgage Bankers Association said the seasonally adjusted delinquency rate on one- to four-unit homes was 4.36 percent, up from 4.32 percent in the October-December quarter, when overdue payments rose 1 2 basis points.

The back-to-back advances followed two quarterly declines but remained 1 1 basis points below the recent high of 4.47 percent in the first three months of 1996. A basis point is 0.01 percent. trucking executive new head of chamber Thomas J. Donohue, president of the American Trucking Association, on Wednesday was named president of the nation's biggest business organization and said he hoped to meet soon with his counterpart in labor. Donohue, 58, will assume the top operating post at the U.S.

Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 1, succeeding Richard L. Lesher, president since 1975. Lesher announced in February that he would leave to pursue other activities. Donohue, who earlier served as a senior official of the chamber, is known as an advocate of regulatory reform and an opponent of government mandates and higher taxes on the private sector.

Described by associates as firm and outspoken but not necessarily combative, Donohue announced that "labor union leaders, trial lawyers and extreme environmentalists should know they have a fight on their hands." Briefcase General Growth Properties has acquired a shopping mall in Mes-quite, Texas, near Dallas. General Growth bought 50 percent of the enclosed mall from Atlantic Freeholds II, a general partnership in Nevada state. General Growth moved its headquarters to Chicago from Des Moines about 1 lA years ago. The Dow Jones industrial average rolled to its fourth straight record as investors remained optimistic that mild inflation and strong corporate profits will further boost stock values. The Dow average rose 36.56 points to 7,575.83.

Light sweet crude oil for delivery in July fell 14 cents a barrel to $18.53 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Japan retains edge in auto i but Big 3 gain in I It takes Nissan the equivalent of 2.23 workers to assemble one vehicle in eight hours. Detroit, Mich. (AP) Japanese-owned auto plants remain the most productive in North America, but cm gincering improvements by the U.S. Big Three continue to narrow the productivity gap, according to study released Wednesday.

For the fourth consecutive year, Nissan Motor plant in Smyrna, was rated the most productive in The Harbour Report, an annual study of auto plants by the consulting firm Harbour and Assocj; ateslnc. North American assembly plants operated by Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. also averaged among the most productive of the major automakers. Ford Motor Co.

had the highest ratings among the Big Three, fbl-lowed by Chrysler Corp. and General Motors Corp. GM, the biggest automaker, again posted the largest inv provement among all automakers. The study measures plant productivity based on the number of workers per vehicle produced. The benchmark set by the Smyrna plant is workers per vehicle, which means it took Nissan the equivalent of 2.23 workers to assemble one vehicle in eight hours.

Honda's two Ohio plants ranked second at an average of 2.51 workers per vehicle, followed by the joint-venture Toyota-GM plant in Fremont, at 2.65, and Toyota's two wholly owned plants at 2.67. The Big Three Ford's plants were next at 3.09. Chrysler averaged 3.29 and GM came in at 3.47. The figures include only labor at the assembly plants, not the work that goes into parts made elsewhere. While the productivity ratings for Japan's major automakers and Ford have been relatively steady for the past several years, GM and Chrysler have made significant gains to help close the gap.

Since 1992, for example, GM has cut its rating by one worker per vehicle. That's largely because GM's redesigned vehicles require fewer parts and are better engineered for ease pf assembly, said James E. Harbour, founder of the study, which the industry uses as a performance measure, i While the differences between highest and lowest ratings do not appear great, their effect on the companies' balance sheets is significant. Harbour estimates that if GM's plants operated as efficiently Nissan's Smyrna plant, GM woujd save nearly $3.53 billion a year. Expressed another way, GM spends $700 more than Nissan in labor costs for each vehicle it builds.

And that does not even take into consideration Nissan's lower, nonunion wage rates. Most Profitable Productivity, of course, does nfrt guarantee profitability. The study estimates Nissan had an after-tax loss of $332 per vehicle it built worldwide last year. The automaker has been struggling for the past few years with heavy debt and excess capacity. Chrysler, meanwhile, was again the most profitable of all automakers with an after-tax gain of 1 ,076 a vehicle, up from $628 in 1995.

Toyota was second at $540 per vehi-cle'on a worldwide basis. Ford made an estimated $534 a vehicle in North America, up from $415 a year earlier. GM earned only $242, down from $431. Without the cost of several strikes, GM would have earned about $450, Harbour said. Chrysler is the most profitable in large part because it has the lowest product-development costs, $540 a vehicle compared with $1,080 at Toyota, $1,025 at Ford and $983 at GM.

Harbour estimates. "They wipe out the productivity penalty by having product develo-ment costs that are half of those at Tovota." he said. 1 Head Ralph Lauren His stock eagerly awaited cheap from the start." Proceeds from the offering, which are expected to top $848 million, will be used to pay dividends and repay debt from a recent reorganization. The company also plans to use the money to broaden its brands and product categories and expand its international and retail store presence. The company said each share of the Class A common stock carries one vote for the shareholder while Class shares, all held by Lauren family members, carry 10 votes.

It's been 30 years since Bronx, N.Y.-born Ralph Lauren entered the retail business as a tie maker. His merchandise can now be found in the most upscale country clubs and corporate boardrooms as well as on the streets of urban centers around the world. While best known for his signature Polo shirts with the small horse on the breast, Lauren's name also appears on furniture, fragrances and home furnishings including bedding and paint. in the soft drink business." Beverage Digest, a trade newsletter, said prices at supermarkets for leading soft drink brands fell an average of 3 percent to 4 percent in the 1 2 weeks ended May 4. Jennifer Solomon, who follows the industry for the investment firm Salomon Brothers, said the government's estimate of soft drink prices for April was down 2.5 percent from a year ago and the lowest for the month since 1994.

But she said "the lowest soft drink prices in years" are inconsistent with an economy that is growing and joblessness that is at the lowest rate in 20 years. "I don't see any reason why the industry needs to use aggressive pricing," she said. Sicher obtained the Coca-Cola Enterprises memo dated June 5 and reported on it in this week's edition. Coca-Cola Enterprises handles 58 I I 1 a Ralph Lauren stock to hit market today New York, N.Y. (AP) The hottest fashion on Wall Street this week isn't a new summer suit or floral dress.

Ralph Lauren is expected to begin selling shares of his retailing empire today in a much-awaited public offering that's catching the eye of many interested investors. "Ralph Lauren embodies a way of life, one of wealth, leisure and sophistication," said Kurt Barnard, a retail consultant and president of Barnard's Retail Marketing Report. "Now he's offering stock, and everyone wants to be part of this way of life." Lauren unveiled in April his plans for the public offering of Polo Ralph Lauren the parent company of the fashion conglomerate whose brands include Ralph Lauren, Chaps and Polo Sport. The company's offering of 29.5 million shares, which will trade on the New York Stock Exchange, was priced Wednesday at $26, higher than Lauren's expectations of $22 to $25. Shares will be sold by both the company and Ralph Lauren and family-Analysts already expect the stock to open around $30 when trading begins and could go much higher in coming days.

"This company has a proper capital structure and a good balance of management," said Manish Shah of IPO Maven, which reviews coming offerings on Wall Street. "The chances are this stock won't be By MIKE MILLS Washington Post Rupert Murdoch's News which brought such edgy fare as "The Simpsons" and "Married With Children" to television, said Wednesday it will buy half of the Family Channel, a cable TV network founded by Christian evangelist and political commentator Pat Robertson. Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. plans to buy Robertson's International Family Entertainment Inc. for about $1.9 billion, the companies announced.

Fox Kids is half-owned by News Corp. International Family produces the Family Channel, which is available in the homes of about 68 million people in the United States. Robertson has largely kept religion out of its core programming, loading the lineup with re-runs such as "Gunsmoke" and "Hawaii Five-0." Its main religious show is "The 700 Club," a talk show and fund-raising vehicle for Robertson. Under the deal, Robertson will continue to host "The 700 Club" for at least five years and will remain on as co-chairman of International Family. "We expect to continue to benefit from The Family Channel's growing family entertainment franchise," Robertson said in a statement.

Robertson owns roughly 3.6 million shares of International Family, which he will sell to Fox Kids for $35 a share netting 1 26 million. Fox Kids spokesman Mel Woods be ending percent of Coca-Cola soft drink volume in the United States. The memo didn't say how much of a price increase may be proposed, and Coca-Cola Enterprises spokeswoman Laura Asman said "we wouldn't speculate." In the memo, company executives said they were concerned that "the current pricing environment has begun to erode customer profitability and thus the long-term success of our brands." Chief executive Summerfield Johnston Jr. and president Henry Schimberg wrote that the bottler companv already had its pricing set for the July 4 holiday but would try to boost prices afterward. They warned, however, that "if the competition views this as an opportunity to gain share through predatory pricing, we will, as we have in the past, respond Soda pop price war may New York, N.Y.

(AP) A heated price war in the soft drink industry could cool off after the Fourth of July. The biggest bottler of Coca-Cola products, Coca-Cola Enterprises, recently told its field managers that it will "attempt to increase prices" after the midsummer holiday. That was seen by some industry watchers as a peace offering to rival Pepsi-Cola whose executives recently complained to analysts that Coca-Cola bottlers' retail pricing had fallen to an "irrational" level. Industry watchers say it is unclear who started the price war but they blame unusually cool weather, pursuit of market share and executive ego for keeping it going. "Soft drink pricing has gotten ferocious." said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest.

"It has not only been ferociously low for Coke and Pepsi but for everyone else.