STRICTLY BUSINESS: CHICKEN, ANYONE?

Chicken, America's Sunday dinner staple for generations, has recently taken wing.

A continued emphasis on chicken as a low fat, low cholesterol alternative to more fatty meats, also has driven up demand, and Hudson Foods Inc. couldn't be more pleased.

Americans are eating more chickens, say officials of Hudson Foods, headquartered in Rogers, Ark. A decade ago each person in the U.S. was eating an average of about 68 pounds of poultry a year, 57 pounds of chicken and 11 pounds of turkey.

Latest statistics reveal every American eats an average of 78 pounds of poultry a year, 62 pounds of chicken and 14 pounds of turkey.

Hudson is expected to step up its expansion of its Dexter, Mo., chicken processing plant following a five-year "supply agreement," completed recently with Boston Chicken Inc.

The Dexter plant is one of two Hudson facilities that will provide orders for Boston Chicken, a franchiser and operator of food-service stores specializing in rotisserie roasted chickens.

The plant at Dexter is expected to process at full capacity more than 650,000 chickens per week for Boston Chicken, which has agreed to purchase 100 percent of the capacity of two Hudson processing plants.

The Southeast Missouri plant currently produces 325,000 chickens a week and employs about 350 persons. When the expansion is complete, the plant's employment will reach more than 500.

Approximately 175 new workers are expected to join the staff at Dexter, following an $8.6 million expansion at Hudson's existing chicken processing plant, hatchery and feed mill in Dexter.

Hudson's plans call for a 33,000-square-foot expansion -- 21,000 square feet at the plant and 12,000 at the hatchery -- to be completed by January.

Another recently-announced expansion calls for additional facilities at Dexter, including a freezer unit for storage of up to a million pounds of chicken.

Hudson, a Fortune 500 company, also has announced a $24 million expansion project at its Hope, Ark., plant and hatchery.

Due to increased production, Hudson will add more contract growers in the area. "We need about 110 additional contract broiler houses," said one company spokesman. "We also need another 25 breeder houses."

Hudson reported 1993 annual sales of $920.5 million. The company sells a variety of chicken and turkey products under the Hudson brand name as well as poultry, beef and pork products under the Ohse, Schweigert, Pierre and Roegelein brand names.

The firm operates 14 processing facilities in 10 states and employs more than 8,500 people.

Hudson also will produce Boston Chicken products at its chicken processing complex to be constructed at Henderson, Ky.

Construction on the Henderson facility is expected to start soon, with production to get under way during late spring 1996. Initial production will be about 325,000 chickens. When the Henderson plant reaches full capacity, it is expected to average 2.3 million chickens a week.

Hudson Foods Inc., one of the nation's largest poultry producers, currently processes 4.3 million chickens a week.

Hudson expects to offer up to 2.5 million shares of Class A common stock (NYSE:HFI), a proposed stock offering, with proceeds from the sale of stock to be used for capital expenditures, including construction of the Henderson plant. Hudson officials say some of its major stockholders will offer an additional 1.5 million shares for sale.

Hudson shares were on the market this week at about $22.

The poultry-raising industry is a big one in the U.S., providing billions of dollars to the economy.

Although poultry -- chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, geese, pheasants and even pigeons -- is used primarily for food, they also provide several important byproducts. Manufacturers use the feathers from ducks and geese to stuff pillows and insulated clothing. Eggs are used in the making of paint, vaccines, and other products.

Arkansas, Georgia and Alabama produce most of the chickens that are used for meat; North Carolina is the chief turkey-producing state followed by Minnesota and California; Long Island is the largest producer of ducks in the U.S. and California is the leading egg-producing state.

Most poultry produced in the U.S. is by large commercial farms that raise only these birds. Some farms have flocks of more than a million birds and many have flocks of 5,000 or more birds.

Southern Illinois officials are hoping to become part of the poultry-raising and poultry-processing industry.

The Illinois area lost its bid for a Hudson plant to Henderson, Ky., but Tyson Foods Inc., another Arkansas poultry processing company, is looking for a site to build a chicken processing facility.

The Southernmost Illinois Development Committee is offering to build the plant for Tyson if it is placed in Alexander, Johnson, Pulaski, Union or Massac counties.

Tyson, headquartered at Springdale, Ark., has announced that it will construct four new processing plants, each to employ from 1,200 to 1,500 people.

Auto Tire and Parts

opens its 18th store

Auto Tire and Parts Center, headquartered in Cape Girardeau, recently opened its 18th store. The company's latest operation is at Kennett.

"Opening a store in Kennett is a perfect fit with our strategic growth plan," said John Tlapek, president of the company. "It significantly expands our geographic market coverage."

The new location offers access to one of the largest automotive and heavy duty machine shops in the area. Auto Tire and Parts was founded more than 80 years ago, in 1909, with one store in Cape Girardeau. The firm now has 18 stores, 17 of them in Southeast Missouri and one at Chester, Ill.

The company provides a large inventory of both foreign and domestic automotive, agriculture and truck parts, said Mike Himmelberg, general manager of the company.

The company's warehouse is at 212 S. Kingshighway.

`One person,

one number'

Ameritech Cellular is here. "One Person, One Number" is not far behind.

Ameritech, a provider of communications services, has converted its CyberTel operations, which it purchased three years ago, into the Ameritech name in Missouri.

Ameritech's Cape Girardeau headquarters is at 500 N. Kingshighway.

The announcement that Ameritech Cellular is here is a signal that something has changed, said Linda Wokoun, vice president and Missouri marketing manager.

"Several new services will be provided under Ameritech, including the personal number service, which will ring a customer in the office, car or at home," said Wokoun.

During the three years that Ameritech has owned CyberTel, the company has tripled its cellular towers and customer base, said Wokoun.

Starting from "day one" in Missouri, Ameritech cellular customers started benefiting from credit-card billing options and 24-hour customer service. An international roaming system is expected to be in place by January.

"International roaming and membership in the North American Cellular Network are two important benefits to customers who travel with their phones," said Wokoun. With entry into NACN, customers will be able to make and receive calls in more than 2,000 cities across 44 states without roamer access numbers or special activation codes.

With the one number service, customers will have the ability to consolidate and coordinate all phones through a single telephone number, including multiple cellular phones, office, home, pager and fax.

"This means callers will have just one phone number to reach subscribers virtually anywhere," said Wokoun.

In addition, the system will give subscribers control of calls, delivering only the calls subscribers want, directing others to alternate places.

Ameritech, which pioneered cellular technology when it launched the nation's first cellular network more than 10 years ago, had 1993 revenues of almost $12 billion. The company, which also offers paging services in the St. Louis metropolitan area, employs more than 400 people throughout Missouri.

New store opens

in West Park Mall

Rogers Jewelers, headquartered in Middletown, Ohio, has opened in West Park Mall at Cape Girardeau. The new retail store opened Saturday.