Also. . .
* TruServ Corp. said its ServiStar and Coast to Coast chains may be renamed True Value as the closely held hardware retail cooperative tries to better compete with Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s Cos., the largest U.S. sellers of home-improvement products. More than 3,000 ServiStar and Coast to Coast stores have the option to change their names, which would bring the total True Value locations to more than 8,000. The name change is expected to begin next month and be completed by February, the company said.
*
* Land O’Lakes said it will build a state-of-the-art cheese and whey processing facility in the California Central Valley town of Tulare. The cooperative now operates two other facilities in California: a large, multipurpose dairy plant in Tulare and a smaller cheese plant in Orland. When fully functioning, the new plant will have the capacity to process 6 million pounds of milk daily, making it one of the largest such plants in the world. Land O’Lakes is a national food and agricultural cooperative owned by farmers, ranchers and farm supply cooperatives in 30 states.
*
* Sony Corp.’s electronics division is closing a factory in Florida that makes digital broadcast studio cameras, eliminating 200 jobs, as it moves the work to Japan and Britain to cut costs. Closure of the plant, opened in 1991, is part of a previously announced restructuring.
*
* Britain’s Pearson, owner of the Financial Times newspaper, named Deputy Editor Peter Martin to a new position overseeing its ft.com Web site and said it will combine the newspaper and Web site staffs. The company is spending $66 million this year to develop the site and has hired New York-based Razorfish Inc. to redesign it. The investment comes as it faces increasing competition from online news providers such as TheStreet.com.
*
* Boeing Co. said it has acquired Preston Group, an Australian company specializing in software that simulates air traffic and airport use, for undisclosed terms.
