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May 1, 2006:
The Associated Press has updated this story
with
this correction, provided in its entirety:
FRANKLIN,
Ky. - In an April 24 story about a company
moving its headquarters from Franklin to
Tennessee,
The Associated Press reported erroneously
that PIC North America is a genetic engineering
company. The company uses genetic information
to make swine breeding decisions, but does
not modify genes. The story also erroneously
reported the recipient of a state grant to
develop a shrimp research program. The recipient
was PIC's parent company, which is also the
parent company of a shrimp research firm,
according
to Keith M. Canfield, global marketing director
for PIC North America.
SyAqua
to return shrimp program funds as it departs
Kentucky for Tennessee
Associated Press
FRANKLIN, Ky. - An international genetic
engineering company is severing its ties
with this small south-central Kentucky town
and relocating its corporate headquarters
to Hendersonville, Tenn.
PIC North America
plans to complete the relocation by September.
The company employs
about 120 people, 80 of which will probably
make the move to the new corporate offices,
according to Keith Canfield, the company's
marketing director for North America. The
company was established in Spring Green,
Wis., in 1973 and opened an office in Franklin
in 1976.
"It's a major blow to our local
economy," Simpson
County Judge-Executive Jim Henderson said.
Canfield
said Hendersonville, which is 40 miles south
of Franklin, was chosen over
sites in Missouri and Wisconsin because it
was the least disruptive to the company's
employees.
The company was bought by Genus
plc, a British company, last December. The
global biotechnology
company works with bovine animals, "using
genetically improved breeding animals that
have better production efficiency and better
product quality," according to its Web
site. PIC North America does similar work
with swine.
"
There was an effort to examine
how the two companies can work more effectively
together," Canfield said. "This
is one of the initiatives to come out of
that."
A $2.8 million state grant given
to PIC North America to work with Western
Kentucky
University and other state institutions to
develop a shrimp research program will be
returned to the state because Genus has decided
not to pursue the project. About $80,000
of the grant has been spent, but it will
be returned according to state Sen. Richie
Sanders, R-Franklin.
Canfield said most of
the employees not relocating to Hendersonville
have been offered
jobs at the Genus research center in Madison,
Wis.
"
We expect that the number of jobs
that might be eliminated in the move is a
small percentage of our total employment," Canfield
said in an e-mail.
Source:
http://www.bgdailynews.com
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