Southwest Missouri News

Branson

Hospitality Expo held Aug. 28

The sixth annual Midwest Hospitality Expo takes place Aug. 28 at Chateau on the Lake near Branson. The event, a showcase of products and services related to the hospitality industry, brings together buyers and suppliers in the ho-tel, theater and resort businesses.

The main event will be preceded by the Midwest Hospitality Golf Tourn-ament, held Aug. 27 at Pointe Royale.

The Branson Lakes Area Lodging Association is host for the expo, which is cosponsored by the Missouri Hotel & Motel Association, along with major sponsors Ozark Mountain Bank, Hotel and Travel Index, the Branson Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, Pippin Wholesale Company and Carrier.

"This is the only event in the Midwest that we have found targeting the hospitality industry," said Chris Myer, a member of the Branson Lakes Area Lodging Association and an organizer of the event. "Each year the trade show improves. The feedback we receive helps us to continue to try new ideas and suggestions to increase the quality of the experience for both suppliers and buyers."

The expo will include two educational/motivational seminars a morning program with Dr. Dale Henry and an afternoon program, "Loyalty to the Brand," presented by Robert Joe Van-dygriff.

For more information, contact the Branson Lakes Area Lodging Associa-tion.

Joplin

Empire revamps Web site

Empire District Electric Co. has re-vamped its Web site to better meet its customers' needs.

"We have redesigned our Web site to provide our customers and shareholders the information and services they tell us they need," said Myron McKinney, president of Empire. "We will continue to evaluate the site and make changes and further offerings as they become available."

The site, which can be found at www.empiredistrict.com, has been di-vided into several main categories where visitors can find customer information, apply for a job, get corporate reports and obtain other information.

Empire, based in Joplin, serves 150,000 customers in southwest Mis-souri, southeast Kansas, northeast Okla-homa and northwest Arkansas.

Freeman workers donate $35,000

Freeman Health System employees donated a total of $35,000 in their annual employee-giving program.

This year the employees chose to fund the Freeman Health System Screen Team. The screen Team provides free health screening services throughout the four-states.

In 2000, the Screen Team assisted more than 24,000 people and provided more than 5,400 various tests, such cholesterol and glucose testing, blood pressure monitoring, body fat analysis, and colorectal kits for detection of colon cancer.

The Freeman Screen Team has been providing these free screening services since 1997.

MACTE recognizes Franklin Center

The Missouri Association for Career and Technical Education recently recognized Franklin Technology Center in Joplin for promoting the benefits of career and technical education.

The center received awards for Career and Technical Education Week activities, marketing and recognition activities, student recruitment activities, and community service activities.

Chamber launches TV program

A new television program airing on KGCS-TV highlights news and activities of the Joplin Area Chamber of Com-merce. "Chamber Chat," hosted and produced by Kim Lester, chamber operations director, features interviews focusing on the Joplin chamber.

The first program includes interviews with Ginger LeMar, concerning chamber membership, and Melinda Bayless, discussing chamber education programs.

"Chamber Chat" is produced and aired on a quarterly basis. The air dates for the current quarter are 7 p.m. Sept. 5 and Sept. 9. Additional airings may occur as the local program schedule permits.

"We're glad to be able to extend our programming services to the Joplin community," said Judy Stiles, general manager of KGCS. "Coverage of the chamber news ties in well with our existing programming focusing on the city of Joplin and the Joplin R-VIII School District."

KGCS-TV can be seen on UHF channel 57 and cable Channel 7 in the Joplin-Webb City area.

Lamar

Ordinances placed on Web site

The Lamar City Council has authorized Municipal Code Corp. to put the city's ordinance book on a Web site to provide the public with better access.

The cost to the city will be $300 a year.

The site is located at www.municode.com. Twenty-seven cities, including Joplin and Kansas City, currently have their ordinances on the Web.

Neosho

La-Z-Boy reports drop in sales

The slowing economy continues to plague La-Z-Boy, which reported a drop in sales and a drop in earnings for its first quarter.

Net sales for the company's first quarter, which ended June 28, came to $459 million, down 11 percent from sales of $517 million reported during the same period one year earlier.

Income for the quarter came to $2.8 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with $13 million, or 21 cents per share, a year ago.

With a plant in Neosho, La-Z-Boy employs more than 1,300 people, making it one of the area's largest employers.

Jerry Kiser, La-Z-Boy's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that "the general softness in consumer furniture demand" has been ag-gravated by bankruptcy filings of furniture chains including Montgomery Ward, Heilig-Meyers and HomeLife Furniture.

"These major bankruptcies have been the most visible outward sign of our industry's financial distress and it is unquestionably going to take time for the resulting void in retail selling space to be filled," Kiser said. "But even ignoring this impact, our first quarter sales performance still compared favorably with our competitors, some of whom had been down as much as 27 percent."

According to Kiser, the company has taken a number of steps in the last year to control costs.

Since July 29, 2000, La-Z-Boy has cut more than 2,170 employee positions. That is about 10 percent of its overall work force. Earlier this summer, 44 employees were laid off at the Neosho plant.

In addition, company officials said they have plans to close plants in Marion, Va., and Selma, Ala., and will eliminate manufacturing of contract furniture at a plant in Lincolnton, N.C.

Kiser said that "easier money" in the form of lower interest rates, "less burdensome taxes" and declining energy prices, along with strong home sales nationwide, will contribute to the company's rebound.

He predicted second-quarter earnings of 22 cents to 27 cents per share, and earnings of $1 to $1.15 for the full fiscal year.