A French-owned high-technology plastics company will soon move its Washington plant and its 115 jobs from Seattle's Rainier Valley to Puyallup.

Roy Teter, facilities manager for Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, said the phased move will begin in about three weeks and conclude in June or July.

Saint-Gobain produces high performance plastics and composite parts mostly for the aerospace industry.

The company had been searching for a new home for about 18 months, said Teter, when the former idX Corporation woodworking plant at 507 Levee Road became available.

The plastics firm had been working with the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County along with other cites in King and Pierce counties to find a suitable new location.

Saint-Gobain's lease on its present plant expires at the end of August.

The new 109,000-square-foot plant is better laid out than the company's Rainier Valley plant, said Teter, allowing the company to streamline its production system and cut energy consumption.

IdX, which makes fixtures for retailers, moved to a larger plant nearby.

Puyallup City Manager Gary McLean said the city expedited the company's demolition and construction permits to allow it to meet its move-in schedule.

"They brought us the request for permits on Thursday, and we had them ready for them by Monday," he said.

The French company is installing new energy-efficient lighting in the building and doubling the power available to run plant machinery, said Teter.

Saint-Gobain is also adding laboratory and final inspection facilities in the plant.

A demographic study the company conducted showed that many of its workers already live in South King County and Pierce County. Among them is Teter, a Puyallup South Hill resident.

The company first plans to bring its final assembly business here from Seattle and then gradually bring its parts production to Puyallup.

"Our plan is to continue production uninterrupted," said the plastic plant manager.

The new site, unlike the old one, allows the company to expand, he said. The old plant was purchased by a developer who plans to demolish it and build apartments on the site.

The plastic company is part of Saint-Gobain, a company that ranks 110th on Fortune Magazine's Global 500 list of the world's largest businesses.

Puyallup City Manager McLean said the city is particularly pleased to see new jobs come to the community. A statewide survey showed that residents of the state's 25th Legislative District, which includes Puyallup, have the longest commute distance of any district in the state.

One of the Puyallup City Council's objectives is to attract more businesses to Puyallup to bring the jobs closer to home, McLean said.

Alaska Airlines has begun testing a new airborne Internet system on one of its 737-700 aircraft on flights between Seattle and San Jose, Calif.

The tests will occur on one daily afternoon flight between the two cities, the SeaTac-based airline said.

During the test period, access to the Internet will be free. passengers with Wi-fi connections on their laptop computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants and other devices will be able to connection with the airborne system.

Alaska is using a satellite-based system developed by California's Row 44. A small antenna mounted on the plane feeds signals to and from a satellite. That satellite beams the signals back to a ground station where it connects with the Internet.

The airline will test the system for about 60 days. If the test is successful, the airline will begin installing the system on more of its aircraft. No pricing structure has been announced for the broader service.

Several domestic airlines have begun providing Internet service to their passengers for a fee. Several of those use a system that connects via cell phone towers sprinkled around the country. Alaska chose a satellite system because of its ability to communicate with aircraft flying over remote regions and the ocean.

Alaska in the last year and a half has begun extensive service to Hawaii. It also connects remote cities in Alaska to Anchorage and the lower 48 states.

Boeing has dropped plans to collaborate with an Italian aerospace firm to build a military transport aircraft at a new plant in Jacksonville, Fla.

Boeing, who's been an on-again, off-again partner with Italy's Finmeccanica in plans to build the C-27J transport plane for the U.S. military, said it has abandoned efforts to reach a production agreement with the Italian plane maker.

"For us, it wasn't about the airplane. It wasn't about the team," William Barksdale, a Boeing spokesman, told Reuters. "It's purely the economic climate."

The Army and the Air Force together have ordered 145 of the twin-engine turbo-prop aircraft. That order is worth $5 billion.

The first two examples of the plane have been produced in a plant in Turin, Italy. Finmeccanica said it will continue building the new plant without Boeing.

According to advice this week from the Small Business Administration, as banks and lenders have slowed lending, reduced credit lines and tightened lending standards, many small business owners have felt the effects of a cash crunch.

A poll this month by the National Federation of Independent Business says 58 percent of businesses surveyed see profits declining, while 28 percent have lowered prices, and price declines put pressure on cash flow for small businesses.

As part of its “Accelerate Your Success” Campaign, the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) is offering an online toolkit to help entrepreneurs with information on how to survive the recession.

This month features information about access to cash, and is available at www.score.org/accelerate.

According to an SBA release, the group also offers Five Secrets to Beating the Cash Crunch:

• Collect payment at the sale. In a tight economy, you can sell more by adding a service contract. Bundle products into a package with a slight discount. The client pays less and you get a bigger sale while still keeping solid profits.

• Collect more upfront and set up progress payments. Every SCORE mentor will say collect the funds you are owed and do it quickly. Whenever possible, collect an immediate deposit. In contract arrangements, set up the project for progress payments as key milestones.

• Save more by cutting expenses and holding on to your cash. Look at cutting expenses 10 percent. Spend what you need to market and operate your business. Don’t stock unnecessary items, print large quantities of branding materials, or commit to long-term contracts. Keep your cash in your business as fuel through the recession.

• Borrow funds for bridge capital until customer payment is received. A line of credit is a good way to fund bridge capital. If your credit score is not particularly strong, explore an SBA-guaranteed loan. Community banks and the bank you do business with day-to-day are good places to start.

• Slow your payments to vendors. Another way to free up extra cash is to slow or reduce your payments. Contact your vendors, lenders and credit card companies to renegotiate your rates, fees and repayment schedule. The key is to do so before you begin to have payment issues. You should be able to leverage your good repayment history to get more advantageous terms.

SCORE operates three local chapters as well as multiple counseling locations in the Puget Sound Area. The group provides experts who offer free and confidential advice to small business owners. Mentors have experience in finance, accounting, management, marketing, sales, technology and strategic planning. Reach the Tacoma office at 253-680-7770.

In a preview of just how deeply Boeing plans to cut its aircraft production next year, a major supplier says it will cut its production of parts for the twin engine jet by nearly 32 percent.

Curtiss-Wright said it it plans to deliver only 21.5 sets of 737 assemblies a month to Boeing beginning in the second half of the year.

The company is shipping about 31 sets of assemblies to Boeing now. That matches the company's existing 737 production rate. The reduction in production rate for parts won't be reflected immediately in Boeing's own production line because Curtiss-Wright continued to produce parts of the 737 during a 60-day Machinists Union strike at Boeing last fall, thus building up its inventory of parts.

The union strike halted all Boeing airline production for two months. The ramp up to full production also took about a month as Boeing gradually upped production to full rate.

Boeing's commercial airplanes division has said it will cut employment by 4,500 workers this year because of order cancellations and delays.

There are some interesting numbers out from the U.S. Census Bureau this week – from “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2008,” the latest in a series of surveys conducted annually since 1948.

• With declining fertility rates and the aging of baby boomers, the percentage of families with their own child living at home decreased to 46 percent in 2008, from 52 percent in 1950.
• In 1968, 29 percent of married men were age 55 and over, as were 22 percent of married women. In 2008, 38 percent of married men were 55 and over, as were 33 percent of married women.
• The percentage of women age 40 to 44 who were childless increased from 10 percent in 1976 to 20 percent in 2006.
• The median age for men at first marriage was 27.4 years. For women, the median age at first marriage was 25.6.
• The percentage of family households with children under 18 in 2008 that had three or more of their own children present was 21 percent in both 1998 and 2008.
• The percentage of adults ages 45 to 49 who were married varied by race and ethnicity. For example, among women 45 to 49, 79 percent of Asians, 69 percent of white non-Hispanics, 62 percent of Hispanics and 43 percent of blacks were married.
• In 2008, 66.9 million opposite-sex couples lived together - 60.1 million were married, and 6.8 million were not.
• The United States had an estimated 5.5 million “stay-at-home” parents: 5.3 million mothers and 140,000 fathers.
• About 9 percent of all children (6.6 million) lived in a household that included a grandparent. Twenty-three percent of children living with a grandparent had no parent present.

University of Puget Sound graduate Todd Benjamin is coming home to share his views and to hear the views of students and guests on topics close to the pocketbook.

According to a release from the school today, the erstwhile CNN financial editor and a faculty panel will exchange questions and views with the audience on topics including the economy, world leaders, perceptions of the media and defining moments in Benjamin’s own career.

UPS President Ron Thomas will host the interactive evening, beginning at 7 p.m. next Monday, March 2, in the Kilworth Memorial Chapel.

The public and the media are welcome to attend the free event.

Benjamin, a 1973 graduate, has interviewed world figures including Alan Greenspan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jack Welch, and Carlos Ghosn, according to the release.

For 26 years he worked as an anchor and correspondent for CNN, and ultimately as London-based financial editor for CNN International. He now combines appearing on CNN as an independent analyst and blogging on the news program’s Web site. He also acts as a consultant for businesses including Gazprom and Deutsche Bank, and is a visiting lecturer in leadership at London Business School.

During his visit to the Puget Sound campus, the one-time English major will visit classrooms for conversations with current students and catch up with some of his former professors. The visit is sponsored by the Catherine Gould Chism Fund in the Humanities and Arts.

For more information or directions, visit www.ups.edu.