Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, April 30, 1998
Hawaii paper supplier bought by its manager
Richard Meachen, manager of the Hawaii division of paper products supplier Unisource Worldwide Inc., said today he has bought the division from the Berwyn, Penn., parent company for an undisclosed price.The business, located at Kapolei, employs 33 people and has annual revenues of $20 million.
Meachen said the deal will be effective tomorrow at which time the Hawaii business will have a new name, PaperSource.
He said Unisource was undergoing a restructuring but couldn't see a way to consolidate the Hawaii division with any other so might have closed it.
Meachen said PaperSource will continue to sell Unisource products, such as printing papers, towels and tissues for hotels and retail packaging materials.
It is bringing its customer service center back from California, keeping all of its employees and adding three more, he said.
Cyanotech reports loss as sales to China drop
Cyanotech Corp. today reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of $85,000, due partly to a reduction in business with a major customer in China.The loss, which amounts to 1 cent per diluted share, compared with a profit of about $1.3 million, or 8 cents a share, in the year-earlier period, according to the Big Island maker of dietary and other natural microalgae-based products.
For the quarter ended March 31, Cyanotech, based in Kailua-Kona, said sales totaled $2.2 million, compared with $3.6 million the previous year.
For the fiscal year, the company reported a loss of $300,000, or 2 cents a share, on sales of $7.6 million. In the previous year, Cyanotech posted a gain of $4.2 million, or 25 cents a share, on sales of $11.4 million.
Chairman Gerald Cysewski said the fiscal-year loss largely reflected fewer sales to a China customer that previously accounted for a big chunk of orders for Cyanotech's main product, Spirulina Pacifica, a dietary supplement.
Another factor was slower-than-expected initial sales of a new product used in the aquaculture industry, Cysewski said.
30-year mortgages rise to 7.22 percent
WASHINGTON -- The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.22 percent this week, the highest rate so far this year and up from 7.15 percent last week, according to a survey by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.The report also showed that the average rate on an adjustable mortgage was 5.69 percent, up from 5.64 percent, and 15-year mortgage rates rose to 6.85 percent from 6.78 percent.
In other news . . .
WASHINGTON -- As many as 13 states are poised to bring an antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp. to block the release of Windows 98, said an attorney general involved in the case.
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