Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 16

Reno Gazette-Journal USINE TUESDAY November 29, 1994 STEVE FALCONE, BUSINESS EDITOR: PHONE, 788-6322; FAX, 788-6458 I a November 28, 1994 Ford buys back stake In South Africa affiliate JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Six years after disinvesting because of apartheid, Ford Motor Co. announced Monday it would buy back some of the operation it left behind and formally re-enter South Africa. The size of the investment was not jjisclosed, but Ford promised to mject cash, new equipment and products into South African Motor Corp. known as Samcor, which assembles Ford, Mazda and Mitsubishi vehicles. Ford's move doesn't contain new investment sought by the government to create jobs, but a return to existing facilities.

Nelson Mandela's African National Congress won the nation's first all-race election in April ending apartheid and has been seeking foreign investment. Amfed Financial 19t -Vi Amtervlnc. 1 V4 -116 BankAmerica 40H Clorox 57tt Coeurd'Alene 16 Comttock Bank R. R. Donnelley 28 -V Echo Bay 1CM -Vi First Interstate 71 Vi -1V FlrstMlssGold 9 FMC Gold 3 Gannett 47 V.

General Motors 38 GlamisGold 7 -Va Granite Const 20Va -Va Harding 6 -V Nevada Power 20 Newmont 37 Pacific Telesis 29 J.C. Penney 46 -2V4 Radica Games 5 Reno Air 4 -Vs Rotech 27 V4 Santa FePac. Gold 12 Sierra Pacific 18 -V. Sierra Tahoe Southwest Gas 1SV4 -Vb US Bancorp 227 Treasury bills: Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities rose in Monday's auction to the highest level in more than three years. The Treasury Department sold 1 3.6 billion in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 5.44 percent, up from 5.40 percent last week.

Another 1 3.6 billion was sold in six-month bills at an average discount rate of 5.86 percent, up from 5.85 percent. In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said Monday the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, the most popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, rose to 6.63 percent last week from 6.58 percent. DondSS Treasury bond prices dropped for the first time in a week Monday as news of strength in holiday shopping and the housing industry resurrected investors' worries about inflation. The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond dropped 7-16 point, or $4.38 per 1 ,000 in face value. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, rose to 7.98 percent from 7.94 percent on Friday.

DOW(lndiuliUh) NYSE SAP 500 AM EX S4PMIdCp a- NASDAQ NYSE Diary Advinm: 1,160 Nethifhs DtcHnct: 1,091 4 Unchanged: 665 New low Total luoes: 2,916 108 Composite volume: 324,662,000 1993 ivg. comp. Associated Press CAMDEN, N.J.ST Pace employee Rosemary Guillen boxes jars of Pace picante sauce at the company's plant in San Antonio, Texas. New Jersey-based Campbell Soup Co. has an agreement to acquire Pace, the nation's leading sauce maker, for $1 .1 billion.

See story, below. Stums good, bad for Tahoe, Memo Holiday tourism: Visitors flock to lake, ski resorts; road closures dampen Truckee Meadows business during Thanksgiving. doubt that a major snowstorm the day before Thanksgiving hurts us." But any business the resort may have lost during the holiday, which was still better than last year's Thanksgiving, Morgan said, can be made up by having plenty of snow on the ground in the weeks to come. "I'm way ahead on my room reservations for December," he said. "Snow for us is the greatest thing in the world." At Harrah's on the South Shore, Wednesday through Friday nights were "packed," said John Packer, director of communications.

The casino also did well, he said, noting that all the tables were open Friday night. But like Harrah's Reno, Saturday night's room count was off. Early checkouts at Tahoe led to the lower number of visitors that night. Packer said, adding that the numbers were offset somewhat by anticipation of a storm that never came Sunday. "If they can't get here, we're in big trouble," said Gene Carano, general manager and vice president of the Eldorado Hotel Casino.

"We're tracking the snow pattern." That is to say, when there are snowstorms in the Sierra, business is noticeably down in Reno. Describing the weekend's business as "soft," Reno Hilton President Ferenc Szony said, "We had a hard time hitting 90 percent occupancy Saturday night." Szony attributed the small numbers Saturday night to "early visitors who stayed over Friday night instead of braving the storm. Ski resorts at Tahoe reported good visitor turnouts, some with record numbers. "We had the best Thanksgiving ever in our history," said Monica Bandows, Heavenly ski resort public relations manager. Visitation dipped a little Friday 20 percent to 30 percent below the same day last year she said, but "Saturday was phenomenal." Skier numbers fell some again on Sunday, Bandows said.

But most resorts expect that, she said, as visitors tend to go home on Sunday. All the fresh snow is expected to keep business hopping through the traditionally slow early December period. Bandows said the resort was able to open the Mott Canyon back country area this week with See TOURISM on page SB ENTERTAINMENT 'Dream Team' in venture with ABC 1 I Lu Mi i pnn; GAMING TOURISM Demolition put off for closed Landmark LAS VEGAS Demolition of the closed Landmark Hotel is being delayed again to allow time to remove additional asbestos from the needle-shaped tower east of the Las Vegas Strip. I. Demolition was scheduled Cor this month, then moved back to December.

Now it's been postponed until after the first of the year. Meanwhile, the Clark County Health District is proposing penalties against Central Evironmental the contractor hired to remove the asbestos, and AB-HAZ Environmental, the asbestos removal consultant. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spent $800,000 on asbestos removal that took nearly six months, with completion of the job scheduled for August. The convention authority plans to demolish the famous tower and clear the property to make way for a parking lot. Mississippi gamers open in Vicksburg VICKSBURG, Miss.

The Mississippi Gaming Commission has opened an office in Vicksburg for its enforcement officers. The five full-time officers will oversee the activities of icksburg's four casinos, 24 Hours a day, seven days a week. The Gaming Commission, Jvith its headquarters in Jackson, has other satellite offices in Gulfport, Tunica and Natchez. Plans for a Vicksburg branch have been in the works for sometime. A gaming officer's duty is to ensure casinos are operating iwithin state rules through spot checks and visits.

Strain said. The agent also investigates customer complaints and works with local law officials when a crime has been committed at a casino. Lone Star Casino wins Vegas approval LAS VEGAS Lone Star Casino Corp. said Monday it has received preliminary approval to operate a casino in Las Vegas. The company said it expects its first Las Vegas property to become eligible for a casino gaming license early next year after completion of a final review by Nevada authorities.

Lone Star, a Houston-based casino operator, said it also will seek approval to operate a casino on a second Las Vegas property, which it leased last month. Wire service reports checkouts" of people trying to avoid getting snowed in on Sunday by a storm that failed to materialize. "The bad part of that was that it was beautiful Sunday," said Pep-permill General Manager Carlton Geer. "It was in the high 40s, and a lot of the snow melted." Geer also attributed Saturday night's low room occupancy numbers to road closures and "unexpected" departures. "We were absolutely having a great week up to Thursday," when the snowstorms began, he said.

"People canceled for the weekend on Friday." The storms also meant odd business patterns at Lake Tahoe, with ski resorts reporting great visitor turnouts and hotels taking cancellations. "We had a substantial no-show on Friday," said Richard Morgan, general manager of Hyatt Regency in Incline Village. "There's no rimm i i hf i 1 Is I fi urn Shear pins can also become a hot commodity in the middle of winter, Moresi said. Shear pins (or bolts) attach a snowblower's auger which grinds up snow to be blown to the drive mechanism. The pins are made to break if something gets lodged in the blower to prevent damage to the machine.

But unless you have backup pins when one breaks, your blower becomes useless. "The shear pins are already back-ordered," Moresi said. Other stores around town report ACQUISITIONS If jit tlfjw ft no fi' 4 two feet of snow He found a By James Robbins GAZETTE-JOURNAL As with most Sierra snowstorms, there's some good news and there's some bad news. The good news is that Lake Tahoe ski resort and hotel operators say the early season snowfall this month boosted business over the Thanksgiving weekend and visitor totals are expected to remain high throughout December. The bad news is that Reno hotels and casinos reported meager profits and visitor counts over the same holiday period, because of closures of Interstate 80 and the Shovels, blowers in short supply By James Robbins GAZETTE-JOLRNAL Weather forecasters aren't the only ones who try to predict what kind of winter is in store for the Sierra Nevada each year.

Area merchants' also find themselves doing a little prognosticating when ordering snow shovels and snowblowers for the season; and from the sound of it, many weren't anticipating this much snow in November. "We're running down and out, and we can't get any more," said Ernst Home and Nursery manager Tim Hardie, describing brisk show shovel and blower sales. While shovels can still be ordered from some suppliers, blowers are a different question, he explained. "The factories that were making snowblowers are now making lawn mowers for summer," he said. "We're completely out of the 7-horsepower snowblowers," said Allied Auto Parts manager Charlie Stevenson.

"We only have the 9-horsepowers left." He said most of the blowers were sold on Saturday, when the heavy snowfall that began on Thursday finally let up. "We're trying to get as many shovels as we can," said Paul Mor- Tim DunnGazette Journal that fell at his home over the weekend. good selection at Target in Reno. SHOVEL SEARCH: Steve Russell of Incline Village checks out the equipment to help rid him of the NEW YORK In their first major business deal since forming their ballyhooed Hollywood studio last month, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen on Monday announced an alliance with Capital CitiesABC to create prime time and syndicated television shows. Robert Iger, president and CEO of Capital CitiesABC, said the broadcast company is putting "in excess of $100 million," into the joint venture.

Geffen said he and his two partners combined also are investing more than 100 million into the production company. The agreement puts Capital CitiesABC in business with three of Hollywood's most successful executives at a time when Warner Paramount Pictures and other studios are preparing to launch their own TV networks to challenge the major broadcasters. The deal also represents a dramatic departure from the traditional financial relationship between studios that produce television shows and TV networks. The venture will be a 5050 split between the two sides, both in financing and in reaping the profits from syndication sales and other sources. "We are sharing 5050 in the risk and 5050 in the potential rewards," Iger said.

"This deal allows us to apply our investment in one direction: not on overhead or real estate but on programming these three men were willing to put up a significant amount of their own money while giving us an opportunity to own 50 percent" of the company. The two sides did not divulge much more about the deal, said to be the first joint venture between a network and a studio in which all aspects of the arrangement are shared evenly. Spielberg called it a "wonderful opportunity to put ideas on TV." He said he expects to push for his own pet projects and become more personally involved in TV than he has been in the past. But, he added, "For the most part, I'm interested in finding very talented producerwriters to create their own shows and also exist with us in a creative environment." Los Angeles Times WAREHOUSING New York manufacturer builds an automated facility in Sparks Campbell's gets hot deal, buys big Mexican sauce company esi, co-owner of North Shore Hardware at Lake Tahoe. "Our suppliers are running low." On the other hand, he said, "Blowers are a tough one.

We've already passed last year's total (sales)." While shovels can be ordered just about any time during the year, shop operators said, snowblowers are hard to come by if the winter turns out to bring more snow than predicted. At the same time, stores don't want to be stuck with too many extra machines when spring comes. service area with a maximum guaranteed four-day delivery period. When fully operational, the center should employ about 40 people. The facility's paperless materials handling system uses some of the most advanced technology available, said Todd Lankcnau, project manager for Lundahl and Associates, the Reno architectural firm overseeing the project.

"From the time the material is put on the conveyors, it is automatically labeled, scanned, sorted and palletized for shipment," he said. "The system was designed by IBM in Jericho, New York, by selecting the most desirable traits of all similar systems very few shovels, if any at all, are left on the shelves. However, Target manager Harold James said his store won't run out of shovels because they literally have truckloads in stock. "We're one of the top sellers of snow shovels," James said. "We don't even have to discount them." And what if the Reno Target ends up with hundreds of leftover shovels toward the end of the season? "We ship them to (a Target in) Minnesota or somewhere else," he said.

family company, it's a chance to go after global sales of its popular Pace Picante Sauce. "We're neophytes in the international game," said Pace president Rod Sands. "There's a huge opportunity there for us." The purchase is not expected to affect Pace's 471 full-time workers or change the way Pace Picante Sauce is made, Sands said. "It's still going to be made in San Antonio by people who know what picante sauce should taste like," Sands said. Picante is a Spanish adjective meaning biting or highly seasoned.

Pace's advertising brags about its San Antonio roots, sneering about another hot sauce brand made in New York City. Pace is the leading picante sauce in retail and food service sales. Ameristar 5V -Va Aztar 6 Bally Gaming 9 Bally Enter. 6 Boomtown 13 Caesars World 41 Vt Casino Data Sys. 1 7V2 Va Circus Circus 20V2 Grand Casinos 13 Harveys 13 Hilton Hotels 69 -Va IGT 16 Jackpot Ent.

8' MGM Grand 25 Mikohn Gaming 10 Mirage 19 Monarch 77b Vi Primadonna 24' PromusCos. 28 Rio Hotel 11 116 Sahara Gaming 4V Vi Sands Regent 7 -Vt Showboat 12 -Vt Sodak 13 United Gaming 5 Vi USA Capital Composite Gaming Index 125.74 0 04 By Susan Skorupa GAZETTE-JOURNAL Leviton Manufacturing is building a fully automated warehouse in Sparks to distribute the company's products in 22 states. The Little Neck, N.Y., manufacturer, which makes electrical devices and wiring, plans to have the Sparks center at 620 Spice Island Drive operational during the first quarter of 1 995. With 179,000 square feet of space, the distribution center will feature one of the most sophisticated materials-handling systems of its kind, company officials said. The center will provide one-day error-free service to major trading centers in the Los Angeles and Seattle areas.

It will provide other parts of its SAN ANTONIO (AP) Campbell Soup Co. jumped into the fast-growing Mexican sauce business Monday with the announcement that it is buying Pace Foods Ltd. for $1.1 billion in cash. For Campbell's, the deal means the acquisition of the world's leading producer of Mexican sauces, which have surpassed ketchup as the nation's most popular condiment. "Pace is a brand jewel," that will provide Campbell with a "turbo-charged new business category," said David Johnson, Campbell chairman, president and chief executive officer.

Campbell stock was unchanged at $43.75 in New York Stock Exchange trading Monday. For Pace, until now, a private.