BUSINESS DIGEST ||

Gas prices drop

Youngstown

Gas prices in Northeast Ohio dropped by 7 cents this week from last to $2.156 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.

The average price in Youngstown is $2.192 this week.

As gasoline inventory rises for a second straight week, the Great Lakes and Central States region is seeing gas prices continue to drop compared with one month and one year ago.

According to the Energy Information Administration, inventory in the region is 4 million barrels more than this time last year.

Leadership change

POLAND

Shapes Unlimited Inc., 590 E. Western Reserve Road, a stocking distributor of custom aluminum extrusions for the vinyl window and ornamental fence industries, recently had a change in leadership after the death of its founder, John Sullivan, in March 2015.

The new leadership is now making investments in the company’s Poland headquarters to improve production there, and is looking to grow the company’s operations to meet a growing market in the southeast.

UPS adds new fee for peak periods

ATLANTA

UPS is adding a new charge of under $1 for shipments to residential customers during peak delivery periods in November and December.

United Parcel Service Inc. said Monday it will add 27 cents for residential deliveries from Nov. 19 to Dec. 2 and Dec. 17-23. UPS will add a fee of between 81 cents and 97 cents to overnight, second- or third-day deliveries for residential deliveries Dec. 17-23.

It will also add a new peak surcharge of $24 for oversized packages – if width plus length times two is more than 130 inches – and $249 for packages weighing more than 150 pounds, from Nov. 19 through Dec. 23.

Those seasonal fees are on top of regular surcharges for large or heavy items.

UPS will also charge a peak surcharge on some international air-shipping routes.

During peak shipping season the Atlanta company adds airplane and truck cargo capacity, often at higher short-term rates, and hires additional seasonal employees.

Calkins selling 6 newspapers

LEVITTOWN, Pa.

Family-owned Calkins Media is selling its six daily newspapers in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh suburbs.

The company announced Monday that GateHouse Media is acquiring the Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer, the Beaver County Times and the Ellwood City Ledger, all in Pennsylvania, and the Burlington County Times in New Jersey.

A parent of GateHouse says the deal is worth $17.5 million.

Calkins says a sixth property, the (Uniontown) Herald-Standard, is being purchased by Wheeling, W.Va.-based Ogden Newspapers. Terms of that deal weren’t announced.

Staff/wire reports