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Show The Salt Lake Tribune BUSINESS Friday, February 9, 2001 CONSUMER ER CENTERPIECE NAFTAPuts Dice Makerin a Bad Spot ———— Facing competition from cheaper Mexican manufacturer, U.S. companygets help from federal program BY RICK ALM KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE KANSAS CITY — The next time’you see a ofdice bounce across a casino craps table, think about NAFTA. Chances are those plastic “Anybody who thinks NAFTA isn’t hurting American business is out oftheir tree. They pay people in a week what we pay in about a day.” Linda Sohm Midwest Game Supply Co. made dice every year. That's about a quarter of the world’s legalized gambling bling market, which Market Inc. has its headquarters in Las Vegas. But most of its manufacturing capability for dice, chips, playing cards, furniture and other casino prodee nee ren oe Oe ees, in San Luis, Mexi FDASays Celebrex - Not Easier on Stomach WASHINGTON — There's no proofthe much-promoted arthritis brex is gentler on the ~- stomach than older, cheaper painkillers, the government'sscientific advisers decided Wednesday. _ The ruling was a blow to manué PaullSon’’s representatives didn’t return calls to discuss the dice market. The company commands nearly half the world market. The restofthe pie is shared byjusta handful ofother U.S. companies in the specialized industry, which has high bars to entry. Thanks to lower Mexican wages and the duty-free advantages of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Midwest Game Supply has had a tough time beating Paul-Son’s prices, said the plain-spoken Sohm. But Midwest is fighting back — not by shippingjobs elsewhere, but by modernizing with help from an agency that aids businesses hurt by foreign competition. “Anybody who thinks NAFTAisn’t hurting American business is out of their tree,” Sohm almost shouted across a conference table in the Spartan office she shares with her husband, company Vice President Chuck Sohm. “They pay people in a week what we pay in about a day.” Celebrex, its chief ne, Vioxx anda class ofolder ers called NSAIDs— “nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs” that include ibuprofen and neg — all bear identical warnings that ete users are at risk of io lo} Celebrex and Vioxx work slightly differently than older , and thus proponents hoped they would prove gentler on the stomach. Inoneofthe mostrecentcasino contracts she bid on, Sohm said, Paul-Son beat her price of $2.85 per pair by about40 cents. Dice represent about two-thirds ofMidwest’s annual revenue,a figure the company wouldn’t disclose. Someof the 55-year-old company’s 30 workers makeprinted felt layout surfaces for table games such as blackjack and craps. Midwest also markets myriad plastic products manufactured byothers, including chip traps and card dealer shoes. Midwest this. year has a new venture: ae exclusive layout manufacturer for a new table souri Gaming game onl take ii Minin eee ae Ameristar Casino in Kansas City. Butall of that is a sideline. “Dice are our bread and butter,” Chuck Sohm said. With Paul-Son grabbing an increasingly larger share of the casino market, the Sohms in 1998 turned for help to the Kansas City regional cities te tie federally, Onanced. Trade Adjust: ment Assistance Center. The network of 12 regional nonprofit orga zations awards 50 percent matching grants help U.S. businesses hit by foreign trade See new methods,strategies and technology. Paul Schmid, director of the Kansas City center, said there is a three-year backlog of qualified applicants seeking financing from the low-profile program, which awards only about $9 million in grants nationally each year. With the help of a $37,000 trade center grant, Midwest’s on-and-off, seven-year quest to automate the critical drilling stage of the dicemaking process finally cametofruition late last year. The company’s best handdriller can produce 800 to 900 pairs of dice a day. Midwest’s new computerized drilling machine, nicknamed Spot, produces 2,800 pairs a day — more if The drilling happens in a split second as bits gouge depressionsjust 25/1000 ofan inch deep in the ‘ic cubes. With Spot, Chuck Sohm said, waste has been slashed from almost 10 percentto 0.5 percent. With production up and waste down, Midwesthas been able to hold down prices. Andbyeliminating handdrilling, Spot also eliminates a health risk for employees. It was concern for workers that led the Occu- pational Safety and Health A last erae eee eene eestor workplaces to guard against repetitive stress injuries. The rule took effect in January. Eliminating the risk, aswellas the expense The trade center grant paid 50 percentofthe cost to design and build a prototype. Midwest had to finance 100 percent of Spot’s $129,000 actual cost. Linda Sohm said there are no significant European or other overseas competitors in the precision dice industry. She and her few U.S. competitors sell their diceto casinos worldwide. There's a fine art to making perfectly balanced, casino-quality dice — the only kind Si vata Here’s how the company does Negotiations have begun with another exhibitor, with hopes of see- Take a raw-cut cube of cellulose acetate and hone it to razor-edge squareness with an error tolerance ofno more than 3/10000 ofan inch. Drill the shallow “spots” on each side with 112 of its 365 theaters in North America. precision accuracy. Fill each spot with an epoxy-based paint of the exact dried weightas the removed material. Stamp the purchasing casino’s name and a security code number oneach die. Shave the sides perfectly smooth again,polish andsell. Oh, yes. Before selling, get approved and licensed by state and individual tribe casino regulators as an authorized supplier of gambling su} Utah farmers and ranchers received $2.09 per bushel ofbarley in December, 4 cents higher than last year, according to the Utah Agricultural Statistics Service in Salt LakeCity. They got $82 per ton for baled alfalfa, up $9 from last year. They received $52 per ton for other hay, up $14fromlast year. . Besides the personal and financial background checks involved, licenses and renewals in eachjurisdiction can run from $50 to $4,000 a year. Sohm has 30 of them and is applying for more. Ifall that isn’t a deterrent to entering the industry, try finding employees with the skills needed in such handiwork. “Tt took me abouta year to find the rhythm,” said Janie Wright, a painter who has been at the task aboutfour years now. Wright and the others in her all-female crew workjust a few feet apart, but in excruciating isolation relieved only by the music each has playing in a headset. “You're in your own little world,” said SEEROe ie Jb Hs SS cee ew ne ber y iy Tomed Inc., a Salt Lake City companythat specializes in developing noninvasive systems to deliver drugs into the body, reported that revenuefor its second quarter ending Dec. Siro seteeee million over last year’s qi The company posted a Sipels of $1.4 million, or 22 cents per share, for the quarter, compared with a net loss of $174,000, or 3 cents per « share, in the comparable quarter a year-ago. 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