Virginia business briefs for Jan. 18

By: Times-Dispatch Staff | Times-Dispatch
Published: January 18, 2012

State tourism officials expecting a good year

This year should be a good one for the Virginia tourism industry, officials told members of the state's travel media Tuesday.

The Virginia Tourism Corp., the state's travel and tourism promotion agency, hopes to capitalize this year on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, along with the publicity from Steven Spielberg's new film "Lincoln."

Much of the biopic, scheduled for release late this year, was filmed in Richmond and Petersburg this winter.

"We think this is such a mega-opportunity for us to have," the agency's Tamra Talmadge-Anderson said.

The state's $18.9 billion tourist industry also will benefit from the opening of the Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox and from Fort Monroe in Hampton becoming a part of the national park system, officials said.

The Williamsburg Pottery will be reborn as a 160,000-square-foot shopping village this spring and the National Air & Space Museum's center near Dulles airport will welcome the legendary space shuttle Discovery.

Nestlé will expand in Danville and add 50 jobs

Danville's Nestlé facility will undergo a $2.7 million expansion-renovation project, company officials said.

The company also plans to add 50 full-time positions at the factory for both the Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough and Buitoni refrigerated pasta and sauce divisions, factory manager Jeff Novak said.

The local plant employs 633 people.

The manufacturing will temporarily shut down for five weeks starting in March as one-third of the floor is replaced, said Nestlé USA spokeswoman Roz O'Hearn. The flooring replacement will continue through the rest of the facility over the next two years.

The company also will add a building to the cookie dough manufacturing area for sanitation and equipment storage.

The original facility opened in 1988 with Nestlé coming to Danville in 1999.

Sperry Marine cutting 50 jobs in Charlottesville

Sperry Marine is eliminating about 50 jobs at its Naval and Marine Systems Division in Charlottesville.

Sperry Marine said that the layoffs announced Tuesday are among 400 companywide.

The Charlottesville-based unit of Northrop Grumman Corp. provides navigation and ship-control technology. The company attributes the job cuts to expected additional cuts in defense spending. It also cites the current outlook for electronic systems.

From staff and wire reports