THURSDAY May 23, 2019
Mathis Report: Restaurants, stores planned next to Memorial Park
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
ADVICE FROM THE INVENTOR OF POUND PUPPIES JACKSONVILLE
Saft says it’s cutting 63 jobs
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DON’T LET EXCUSES DERAIL YOUR IDEAS
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The battery maker has not hit employment targets required by its incentives deal with the city. BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
JACKSONVILLE
Lithium-ion battery manufacturer Saft America Inc. says it will cut 63 jobs at its West Jacksonville factory by the end of 2019. A spokesperson for Saft confirmed the job losses in an email Wednesday and said the company’s Jacksonville facility has been unprofitable and underutilized. Saft says it plans to restructure operations at its 235,000-squarefoot Jacksonville plant to focus on the company’s more profitable sectors — mobility, energy storage and rail assembly for U.S. customers. “The restructuring will have a short-term impact in terms of jobs with 35 positions made redundant immediately and 28 more in late 2019,” said Lisa Harlow, a senior account executive with Clapp Communications that represents Saft. Saft didn’t say how many SEE SAFT, PAGE 6
Photo by Dede Smith
Amelia Island resident Mike Bowling invented Pound Puppies, one of the world’s best-selling toys in the mid-1980s. He told the Southside Business Men’s Club that self-imposed obstacles keep most great ideas from coming to fruition. BY DAN MACDONALD CONTRIBUTING WRITER
M
ike Bowling, the creator of Pound Puppies, one of the best-selling toys in the mid-1980s, contends that self-doubt is all that might keep an idea from becoming the next big thing. “The greatest ideas on Earth will never
be invented,” the Amelia Island resident told the Southside Business Men’s Club on May 8. People with great ideas allow excuses and self-made obstacles to ground many an invention, he said. Bowling’s career began in Cincinnati where he was an 18-year Ford assembly line employee. The pay was good, he had seniority and medical benefits. He disliked the job.
While driving with his young daughter, he became fascinated at how attached she was to her doll. She took it everywhere. To her it was real. Bowling began thinking about the strength of that attachment, comparing it to that of a person and pet. The idea for Pound Puppies was born. Bowling had no money, no experience SEE BOWLING, PAGE 13
File image
Saft America’s 235,000-squarefoot factory is on 12 acres at 13575 Waterworks St. in Cecil Commerce Center. The plant opened in 2011.
THE MENDENHALL REPORT
JEA not planning rate increase in fiscal 2020 But sales at the utility are slipping. PAGE 11 VOLUME 106, NO. 133 • TWO SECTIONS