Nationwide to reduce staff
Nationwide Insurance Enterprise said yesterday it will restructure its property and casualty insurance operations in 27 states, cutting an undetermined number of jobs.
President and Chief Executive D. Richard McFerson said a major component of the plan will be consolidation of functions performed at nine regional offices, including an office in Annapolis, the company's headquarters for Maryland and Washington.
The company employs 32,000 people, including about 550 in Annapolis and an additional 210 throughout the mid-Atlantic.
The company's restructuring will eliminate its multi-state regional sales offices in favor of single-state offices, according to human resources director Bruce Petersen in Annapolis. He said the company has given no word on how the moves would affect the Annapolis office.
Fila unit expands again
Fila USA will lease 126,400 square feet of warehouse space at the Port Breeze Business Center on Broening Highway, marking the second big expansion for the sneaker and clothing manufacturer this year.
Fila, a subsidiary of Italy-based Fila Holding SpA, has more than quintupled its U.S. sales since buying out a licensee in the early 1990s. Its U.S. headquarters are in Hunt Valley.
In June, Belt's Corp. of Baltimore said it would approximately double the size of Fila's warehouse at the Holabird Industrial Park in East Baltimore to 323,000 square feet. The landlord at Point Breeze is Creaney and Smith, Developers.
Ford, Chrysler oppose recall
The chairmen of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. sent a letter to President Clinton declaring their opposition to a government-ordered recall of rival General Motors Corp.'s older pickup trucks, the companies said yesterday.
The letter, which argues that a recall of GM's 1973-1987 C/K pickup trucks with side-mounted fuel tanks would threaten the entire automotive industry, was signed by Chrysler Chairman Robert Eaton and Ford Chairman Alex Trotman, as well as GM President John Smith.
If the Transportation Department is allowed to order a recall, the Big Three executives said, all federal standards would be subject to arbitrary revisions years later and therefore irrelevant.
Critics say the trucks are vulnerable to fires in side-impact
crashes, but GM has argued the trucks are safe and met all federal impact standards in place at the time they were built.
30-year mortgage rate rises
The 30-year mortgage interest rate jumped to 9.19 percent this week, the highest since Aug. 16, 1991, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said yesterday.
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