BUSINESS MEMO

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Industrial Appreciation Dinner will be held Thursday at the Show Me Center.

The dinner honors area industries, with the highlight of the evening being the presentation of the Commitment to Excellence Award, recognizing the 1993 industry of the year.

This year's event marks the fifth year for the dinner. Concord Publishing House Inc. was last year's industry of the year. Previous winners were Biokyowa in 1991, Procter and Gamble in 1990, Lone Star Industries in 1989, and General Sign Co. in 1988.

Carl E. Hurley, a former educator who left a professorship at Eastern Kentucky University to become a full-time speaker and entertainer, will be the featured speaker. Tickets are available by calling the chamber office, 335-3312

Venture Stores Inc. will begin test marketing its new Venture Credit Card Sunday.

The card will be test marketed in Cape Girardeau, Springfield and Joplin, Mo.; Tulsa, Okla; and Peoria, Springfield, Champaign and Decatur, Ill.

"The marketing comes after customer surveys show that customers do indeed want the credit cards," said Julian M. Seeherman, chairman and chief executive officer of Venture Stores, headquartered at O'Fallon, Mo. "Customers see the credit cards as added convenience."

The Venture Card has no annual fee and offers approved applicants a one-time, 10 percent discount on a future Venture Card purchase. Venture, which operates 103 stores in nine states, had sales of more than $1.7 billion in fiscal 1992.

The U.S. Postal Service is looking at adding morning delivery of newspapers as a service.

The postal service has been conducting focus groups with daily and weekly newspaper circulation managers to see whether they would be interested in using a cost competitive service that would deliver newspapers before 7 a.m. on weekdays and 8:30 a.m. on weekends.

The service promises less than one delivery error per 1,000 copies and redelivery within an hour.

Newspaper executives say they would be interested in using a morning delivery service if it were cost effective and reliable.

Schnucks, with stores in the St. Louis metro area, Columbia and Cape Girardeau, has provided a total of $91,636.89 to the 1993 flood relief effort.

"We issued a corporate challenge to our associates in July that we would match all donations up to $25,000, effective through Labor Day," said Schnucks spokesperson Sue Kunstmann.

The final results show that the associates contributed $31,671, with the corporate challenge raising the total to $56,671.34. Contributions of food, services and other support raised the total to $91,636.89.

Another assistance program "Hunger Never Takes a Vacation" was launched by Schnucks at the same time. Under this program, Schnucks customers donated a total of $97,960 to the area's hungry and flood victims.

"We're proud of our associates and customers," said Kunstmann.

An underground storage tank workshop will be held at the Drury Inn in Cape Girardeau at 1 p.m. Oct. 14.

The workshop is co-sponsored by the Missouri Department of Natural Resource; Vicar Inc.; Horner Equipment Co.; Innovative Environmental Technologies Inc.; Larron Laboratory and Mid-South Steel.

Additional information is available by calling Jackson L. Bostic at Poplar Bluff, (314)-840-9750.

ST. LOUIS Spartech Corporation, which has two operations in Cape Girardeau Atlas Alchem, One Atlas Drive and Resin Exchange, Nash Road Industrial Park has approved a new Spartech Plastics' rigid sheet and rollstock facility at a site to be selected in the Mideast U.S.

Bradley B. Buechler, president and chief executive officer of the firm, noted that when the new plant opens, Spartech will have seven production facilities with more than 40 extrusion lines and an annual production capacity of about 200 million pounds.

Patrick B. Fleming, who joined Spartech earlier this month, has been assigned full-time to the new plant search committee, and will be the general manager of the new facility when it opens.

CHICAGO (AP) - Amoco Corp. is studying whether to cut jobs at its corporate offices, just two months after cutting its worldwide work force by 16 percent.

Amoco may eliminate some of its 6,000 staff positions through buyouts, job sharing or layoffs, company officials said.

Amoco began cutting 8,500 jobs, including 1,100 in the Chicago area, in July 1992 as part of a worldwide restructuring. The cuts were completed two months ago.

The study of corporate jobs is scheduled for completion next year, said L. Richard Flury, executive vice president of Amoco Chemical Co. and head of the study.

CHICAGO (AP) - Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. says it has agreed to buy some of Warner-Lambert Co.'s chocolate and confectionery assets.

Included in the deal announced Wednesday would be the brands of Junior Mints, Charleston Chew, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies and Pom Poms. Chicago-based Tootsie Roll also plans to buy Warner Lambert's manufacturing facility in Cambridge, Mass.