Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 3, 1995                   TAG: 9510030076
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

ST. LOUIS - Anheuser-Busch introduced its newest ice beer Monday in Washington state. Busch Ice joined Bud Ice, Bud Ice Light and Natural Ice among the company's ice-beer labels. Natural Ice is available only in select markets.

Ice beer, made by freezing beer, then removing the ice crystals, is billed as having a smoother taste than other beers. Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewery, said consumer demand for ice beers has been strong.

Busch Ice will be produced at the Fort Collins, Colo., brewery and will be sold in the sub-premium price category. Bud Ice and Bud Ice Light are marketed in the premium price category.

Last week, Anheuser-Busch introduced three new beers in the speciality beer category in Denver and Seattle.

-Associated Press

WLR buys assets of New Hope Feeds

WLR Foods Inc. of Broadway in Rockingham County said it has bought the chicken processing and production assets of New Hope Feeds Inc. and an affiliated company for about $18 million.

The New Hope operation employs 370 near Goldsboro, N.C., and has contracts with 87 poultry producers. WLR said it will expand New Hope's production from 250,000 to 650,000 birds per week and employment to 550 during the next year.

WLR, the nation's second-largest turkey processor and eighth-largest poultry producer, had sales of $909 million in its 1995 fiscal year, 25 percent ahead of last year's.

-Staff report

Briefly...

Wheat First Butcher Singer Inc., a Richmond stock broker with an office in Roanoke, said Monday it has agreed to acquire the assets of Calibre Financial Group of Memphis, Tenn. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. Calibre provides institutional fixed-income services in the national credit union market.

A new Internet access service is setting up in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg. Internet Business Technologies Inc., employing four, will open Oct. 12, offering Internet access and design services for World Wide Web home pages to customers in the New River and Roanoke valleys.