Triad.

• Position: REGIONAL REPORT

It's a wrap: RJR sells its packaging unit

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., part of Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American, wants to focus on making cigarettes, so it split its packaging division into five pieces and sold them to five companies for $48.2 million. At least 650 of RJR Packaging's 740 employees were retained, either by Reynolds or one of the buyers. Most now work for Tulsa, Okla.-based Oracle Flexible Packaging, which bought two factories in Winston-Salem and the part of the business that makes packages for companies other than Reynolds. Other buyers are: Montreal-based Alcan Packaging Food and Tobacco; Richmond, Va.-based Alcoa Flexible Packaging, part of Pittsburgh-based Alcoa; Louisville, Ky.-based Southern Graphic Systems, another Alcoa division; and Richmond, Va.-based Mundet.

BURLINGTON -- Culp, a High Point-based maker of upholstery and mattress fabric, will lay off 225 here by August. It expects to save about $11 million a year by consolidating velvet-upholstery production in Anderson, S.C. The layoffs will leave Culp with about 1,150 Tar Heel workers.

WINSTON-SALEM -- Chicago-based Sara Lee's branded-apparel division plans to cut 350 of 5,600 jobs here by the middle of the month. The intent is to cut costs and improve efficiency before the division is spun off next spring.

WINSTON-SALEM -- Daryl Thompson, 64, plans to retire as president and CEO of mortgage insurer Triad Guaranty by next spring. No successor has been announced. The company has...