FieldTurf seeking 40 for Calhoun plant
The Georgia Department of Labor will help synthetic turf maker FieldTurf recruit about 40 full-time workers Friday for its Calhoun, Ga., manufacturing plant.
Recruitment for the company that makes turf for athletic fields will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Gordon County Agricultural Center, 1282 Highway 53 Spur in Calhoun.
The company will be recruiting coater operators, forklift drivers, tufting crew leaders, tufting machine operators and warehouse inventory clerks. While some positions require no previous work experience, others require as much as two years. Salaries range from $10 an hour to $17 an hour, depending on the position.
Amanda Mashburn, who heads human resources for FieldTurf, said the company is looking for seasonal workers who’ll start about mid-March and work to September. The best of those employees may be asked to continue, she said.
The company has about 140 employees year-round, Mashburn said. Job seekers planning to attend the recruitment are encouraged to visit www.employgeorgia.com to create an account and upload or create a resume.
January new-home sales drop 9.2%
Americans stepped back from buying new homes in January, as purchases plunged sharply in Western states where prices typically are higher.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new-home sales fell 9.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 494,000. Most of the decline stemmed for a 32.1 drop in sales in the West. Sales also slipped in the Midwest, while edging up in the Northeast and South.
The pace of buying new homes last month slipped below last year’s sales total of 501,000, a possible sign of mounting price pressures despite low mortgage rates and job gains that have pushed the unemployment rate down to 4.9 percent. But new-home sales also tend to be a volatile government report with revisions and large swings on a monthly basis.
“With inventory still very tight, prices will continue to firm, though the short-term numbers are so volatile that the trend is hard to spot,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Bayer taps strategy chief as CEO
Pharmaceutical company Bayer says strategy chief Werner Baumann will succeed CEO Marijn Dekkers on May 1.
A statement from the German company Wednesday said Dekkers requested that his contract end ahead of its expiration at year-end so Baumann could take over after the company’s annual shareholder meeting April 30.
Baumann, 53, joined Bayer in 1988 in the corporate finance department and served in Barcelona, Spain, and Tarrytown, N.Y. He was chief financial officer before taking over the strategy job overseeing mergers and acquisitions. Dekkers, 58, became CEO in 2010. He leaves after overseeing a stock market offering for the company’s plastics and polymers division, now known as Covestro.
Bayer AG, based in Leverkusen, Germany, makes prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines and pest control products for farmers.
Honda plans no Takata rescue
Honda’s president is sticking to its stance that the Japanese automaker plans no independent financial bailout for supplier Takata, which is embroiled in a massive recall crisis over air-bag inflators that may explode.
Takahiro Hachigo, Honda Motor Co. president and chief executive, told reporters Wednesday it plans no rescue for Takata Corp., and its priority is finding the cause of the problem. Although Honda is Takata’s biggest customer, the recall involves many other automakers.
Takata is recalling 50 million air-bag inflators globally, which may cause air bags to inflate with too much force and hurl shrapnel at drivers and passengers. Takata air bags have caused at least 10 deaths and 139 injuries worldwide.
Hachigo declined comment on Tuesday’s findings by the Independent Testing Coalition, the scientists hired by the auto industry, including Honda, which determined that multiple factors, including moisture and high humidity, were to blame.
“How to respond is not a matter of just our company,” Hachigo said when asked if Honda planned to take a leadership role.