April 14--Hampton Hotels, the global brand of mid-priced Hampton Inn and Hampton Inn & Suites hotels, has honored the Hampton Inn Van Buren, a Pride Hospitality-operated hotel, with the company's Lighthouse Award, designating it as one of the hotel chain's top performing hotels among more than 1,800 Hampton properties.

The Hampton Inn Van Buren was recognized for its high rankings in overall accommodations, service and quality. The award criteria was based on customer feedback measured through guest satisfaction surveys on the hotel, as well as product quality and service scores measured quarterly by the Hampton Hotels brand.

The three-story, 64-room Hampton Inn Van Buren is operated by Pride Hospitality LLC, owner, manager and developer of hotels throughout the U.S. Angie Robertson is general manager of the Hampton Inn Van Buren.

A free wireless workshop teaching customers how to get the most out of their iPhone devices will be held at the Verizon Wireless communications store at 7723 Rogers Ave., in Fort Smith at 9 a.m. April 27.

The in-store workshop, which is open to customers of any wireless carrier, will cover a variety of topics, including basic hardware functionality and features of individual smartphones and tablets. Online registration at VerizonWireless.com/workshops is encouraged.

Butterball LLC has named Lowell-based Zero Mountain Inc. as the Warehouseman of the Year for 2012.

Zero Mountain has been serving Butterball as a vendor partner since 1974, and in 2012, stored and shipped 272 million pounds -- 106 million pounds of the total volume delivered to Butterball customers -- in less than 60 days. The average dock turn time for customer and Butterball delivered trucks was 1 hour and 14 minutes, less than Butterball's two-hour goal, and dock cuts were nearly 0 percent.

Zero Mountain has worked to accommodate Butterball production and logistics by reducing overtime and identifying issues with pallets that saved significant cost in 2012.

Garner, N.C.-based Butterball LLC, which operates a production facility in Ozark, created the "Carrier of the Year" and the "Warehouseman of the Year" awards to honor the works of a crucial link in the supply chain that supports the company's market plan. Every year, the logistics team reviews the service, communication, flexibility, overall value and administration of the company's Top 10 carriers. The logistics team then submits a scorecard ranking for each carrier, which is supported by the company's internal key performance indicators.

Area businesses can announce relocations, new branches, changed ownership, events and honors from independent organizations by sending information to Times Record/Business News, P.O. Box 1359, Fort Smith, AR 72902, or emailing [email protected].

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