Friday, February 16, 2007

O'Sullivan Industries pays Lamar city utility bill

O'Sullivan Industries met its Thursday deadline to pay its nearly quarter of a million dollar utility bill, according to an article in this morning's Joplin Globe.
I haven't seen the print edition of today's Globe, but it is interesting that speculation about the company's inability to pay the bill, grouped with the background information about the company's cutting of its employees' pay and benefits was included among the newspaper's top stories both on the Internet and in the print edition Thursday, while the good news that the payment has been made is relegated to the business section, much lower on the Globe's homepage today.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This one should have never been in the paper in the first place. I find it hard to believe the O'Sullivan is the only business in the area with problems. I guess they have to pay the bills ahead of everyone else? I thought the idea was to pay your big bills in the last week they was due?
Randy "Tunnel Vision" Turner

Anonymous said...

Maybe IF other businesses "are" in trouble they aren't asking the city to delay paying their bill!

Anonymous said...

Randy...I think yu were making the correct observation about the Globe....it is interesting tat they present things as bad news and give it pimo coversage. But when bills are paid, they put in a less obvious place. That's why the Globe isn't well respected around here.
Very biased reporting.....

Anonymous said...

Come on Randy. Dog bites man, not news. Man bites dog, news. Isnt' that the standard? Although I'll agree that the Globe grows steadily lamer.

Anonymous said...

If a big business was to come in the area you can guarantee they would get more breaks and help than other smaller businesses and residents. Will the community yell and screams when this happens?
I don't see anyone complaining about subsidized farming or the goverment helping the airline industry. I feel much better now that I have had my dailey dose of the "Tunnel Vision Report."

Anonymous said...

Could Randy could do an article on the whole RTA business? I think he would be suprised to see all of the manufactures in this industry strugling because of Imports.
What kind of car do you drive? Where was your clothes made at? How about your electronics? We all even Mr Turner are part of this problem on a much larger scale than just O'Sullivan Ind.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, they are probably all struggling to some extent or another. Some of the smaller players have got to be defunct. I can't imagine how that helps anyone though. Bottom line is that RTA (and therefore O'Sullivan) has been eaten alive by imports.

For SW MO, the issue is how that impacts O'Sullivan and all the jobs in Lamar, as well as the peripheral businesses that support it. If you are a support business, the smart money is always on diversifying your customer base so that the loss of one customer doesn't kill you.

As an employee, you have to look at the probabilities. What is the probability that O'Sullivan will survive? If you feel good about the prospects and the pay is good, by all means stay there. If you are uneasy about the risk, look for another alternative with better percieved long-term prospects, even if the pay is lower.

Big thing is quit venting at everyone who thinks O'Sullivan is vulnerable and says so. Kinda like yelling at someone for the weather!

Anonymous said...

But you just responded to the venting so I guess it worked.
50 degrees and sunny.