STRICTLY BUSINESS: GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS ON AREA BUSINESS FRONTS

There was some good news and some bad news on the Cape Girardeau and area business fronts last year.

The good news was that more than 175 new businesses opened in Cape Girardeau in 2000.

The bad news? More than 150 businesses closed.

Actual figures from the Cape Girardeau merchants permit office show 180 openings with 151 closings a net gain of 29 new businesses.

Southeast Missouri also experienced good business growth and job creation during the year 2000, despite the slowing of the national economy, according to reports from the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission, and Southeast Missouri "Business Indicators" publication.

A total of 354 new business starts were reported in the seven-county area of the SEMO Regional Planning Commission, creating an estimated 2,500 full- and part-time jobs for residents in that region.

Business expansions in the area resulted in another 217 jobs.

Year-end totals in the region show 154 closings, resulting in a gain of 200 new businesses.

Cape Girardeau County was the leader in new businesses, St. Francois County added 68 new business during the year, with a half dozen closings, for a net of 62. Perry County was third on the list at 29 new business and five closings.

Brisk business growth has continued into the first quarter of 2001. Cape Girardeau has added 40 new businesses during the first three months, including Albertson's Supermarket, with 50 full-time and 65 part-time jobs; Pavestone Manufacturing with about 40 new employees and new Willy's Beach Club Restaurant with about 50 employees.

For the seven-county SEMO Regional Commission area, a total of 68 new business were reported during the first quarter, with eight closings, for a net of 60, resulting in about 500 new jobs. Expansions in the region added another 42 jobs. A total of 122 jobs were lost by closings, leaving a net of 520 new jobs.

Retail growth based on sales taxes also grew throughout the area, with sales topping the billion-dollar mark for the second year in a row in Cape Girar-deau County.

The Cape Girardeau area has become a great retail area over the past decade, and sales have soared by more than 40 percent.

Cape Girardeau County annually records the largest retail sales throughout the Southeast Missouri area, followed by St. Francois County to the north, with retail sales the past four quarters of more than $550 million.

Sales during the past four quarters in Butler County, which includes Poplar Bluff, Mo., topped $470 million, and Scott County, which includes much of Sikeston's retail community, topped $300 million in sales during the past four quarters. New Madrid County, which also includes part of the Sikeston retail scene, recorded about $258 in annual sales; Perry County recorded $196 million for the year, and Stoddard County reported annual sales of $195.5 million.

Meanwhile, the slowdown in hiring is expected to continue in Southeast Missouri and the nation this fall.

About 70 percent of companies in the area expect their payrolls to remain study for the July-September period, with only 30 percent adding to their employment rolls. About three percent anticipated reductions. Nationally, about 27 percent of employers say they may increase staff.

These numbers were released recently by Manpower Inc., a leader in the worker-staffing industry.

"A year ago at this time, the employment picture was bright," said local Manpower spokesperson Peggy Gates. "Forty percent of employers thought increases were likely, and none were intending to cut back."

Missouri's unemployment rate decreased by a tenth of a point, to 3.8 percent in April, while total employment increased by about 16,000 to 2.85 million jobs.

Changes in April were less than the usual seasonal improvements for the spring. Most of the industry gains were expected, along with farm labor increases.

Perry County, which usually boasts low unemployment, recorded a 97.2 employment rate in April, with 10,711 of its 11,017 workforce working. Cape Girardeau was at 96.6 employment, with 36,468 workers employed. Cape County has a workforce of 37,963. Bollinger County checks in at 5.3 unemployment.

Cairo, in Southern Illinois, has the highest unemployment rate in Illinois, at 9.2 percent, and Pulaski County is not far behind at 8.5 percent.

A few scattered layoffs by the manufacturing sector has resulted in increased unemployment rates, although 10 of the 22 Southern Illinois counties have lower unemployment rates than a month ago.

Statewide, the Illinois unemployment rate is at 5.1.

Guest speaker at Jackson

Desmond Lee will be guest speaker at the Jackson Chamber of Commerce and Jackson Industrial Development Company Industrial Appreciation Banquet this month.

Lee, you may recall, was president of the Lee Rowan company when it opened a branch operation in Jackson in 1964.

In 1993, Des Lee sold his Lee Rowan Company to manufacturing conglomerate Newell Company, putting aside his career as owner of a major manufacturing company. Lee embarked on a new career as a philanthropist and civic leader. As a believer in the American Dream, Des Lee says he is committed to making the St. Louis region a national example of how all sectors of the community can work together for the betterment of everyone. His philosophy of giving is to work together to break down walls and build new intellectual highways for improved cooperation and partnerships. He has deemed the Des Lee Collaboration Vision "the greatest thing in my life."

Lee, who has visited the Jackson are many times during the past 30 years, will return there June 18, where he will be keynote speaker at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Jackson.

Lee's former company -- known as Rubbermaid now -- was founded more than 60 years ago in St. Louis. It became a subsidiary of Newell Co. in 1994 when it was purchased by Newell. Newell and Rubbermaid merged in March 1999 to form Newell Rubbermaid Inc., a $6.2 billion, Fortune 500 company.

Today, Lee Rowan is out, Rubbermaid is in!

Rubbermaid Closet Organization Products (RCOP) is the new name of the company at Jackson, which has more than 900,000 square feet under its roof and about 1,400 employees.

Lee Rowan was founded in 1939 by Edgar Desmond Lee and John V. Rowan. The company's first products were metal trouser-creasers that were sold to Sears, Roebuck and Co. and JCPenney, which have been Lee Rowan customers for more than 50 years.

During World War II, the firm, unable to obtain steel for the trouser-creasers, started manufacturing arming wires for bombs. After the war, the firm experimented with new products that eventually led to Storage Systems by Lee Rowan.

Today the firm not only makes the hangers, but a complete line of ventilated storage products and an assortment of traditional closet accessories.

Lee Rowan expanded its St. Louis operation to Jackson in 1964, in a 49,000-square-foot building with 25 workers.

Since then, the plant has had more than a dozen expansions. In 1998, the company moved its Memphis manufacturing facility to Cape Girardeau.

Nordenia's 10th

Nordenia USA, which opened north of Cape Girardeau as M&W Packaging a decade ago, started out making flexible packaging for its neighbor across the street, Procter & Gamble, but has since expanded its product to many clients.

Nordenia company officials from Germany were on at the site last week to observe the newly-expanded plant, and the 10th anniversary of the company here.

M&W Packaging, a 1997 Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Industry of the Year, became Nordenia USA last year.

Ever since M&W started operations in 1990 at the intersection of Route J and Highway 177, it has been part of Nordenia International, a multinational maker of flexible packaging based in Germany, but like offshoots of Nordenia in other countries, M&W went under its own name, until last year.

Nordenia recently completed a $10 million expansion project, which resulted in the addition of about 100 new workers. The company employment tops the 400 mark.