Biz Buzz

LONG ISLAND

Lifetime Brands buys distributor

Garden City-based Lifetime Brands Inc. has bought a 40 percent stake in a large Brazilian distributor of branded housewares, GS Internacional SA. It's the second recent purchase for Lifetime Brands, which holds a stable of companies that already includes Farberware, KitchenAid and Cuisinart. Lifetime's new partner, GS Internacional, based near the Brazilian shipping port city of Vitória, markets dinnerware, glassware, home decor, kitchenware and barware to more than 7,000 customers, including major department stores, housewares retailers and independent shops throughout Brazil, Lifetime said Monday in a statement. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Last month Lifetime bought a British kitchenware maker, Creative Tops Ltd. -- Joseph Mallia

Permanent hiring still sluggish

Many U.S. companies have stretched their workforces to the limits of productivity -- yet they're still not inclined to make permanent hires, a temp agency executive said Monday. Cautious employers may keep relying on temporary employees, Tig Gilliam, head of North American operations for Adecco SA, a temporary staffing agency with a major presence on Long Island, said in an interview published in The Wall Street Journal. After waves of workforce reductions through layoffs in recent years, Gilliam said, he expects a continued lag in permanent hiring because employers "don't want to go through the layoffs again." Adecco has offices in Garden City, Melville, Edgewood and Bohemia. Though an upsurge in temporary hiring often signals a trend toward permanent hires, that pattern might not take hold in the current economic climate, Gilliam said. "Companies have been able to get to levels of productivity with the staff they had that they didn't expect, and they're looking to rely more on flexible resources than permanent," he said. -- Joseph Mallia

NATION

Lowe's stands by ad ban

Lowe's is planning to stick by its decision to yank its ads from a reality TV show about American Muslims despite growing opposition the home improvement chain is facing over the move. On Monday, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota), who is Muslim, released a statement condemning Lowe's for choosing "to uphold the beliefs of a fringe hate group and not the creed of the First Amendment." The ad was pulled after complaints from the conservative Florida Family Association, which urged members to email the show's advertisers. Lowe's, based in Mooresville, N.C., said it stands by its Sunday statement that it pulled the ads after the show became a "lightning rod for people to voice complaints from a variety of perspectives -- political, social and otherwise." "All-American Muslim" premiered last month and chronicles the lives of five families who live in and near Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit suburb. TLC spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg said the show, which ends its season on Jan. 8, has garnered a little over a million viewers per week. -- AP

Stock-fund retreat continues

Investors pulled cash out of stock mutual funds for the seventh month in a row, as the European debt crisis continued to drive U.S. market volatility in November. Investors withdrew a net $16.1 billion from U.S. stock funds last month, extending a string that began in May, industry consultant Strategic Insight estimated Monday. Stock funds attracted new cash during the first four months of this year, on the heels of strong market gains in late 2010. But the market was dominated this summer and fall by fears that Europe's debt crisis was getting impossible to contain. "With the market still gyrating, investors still lack enthusiasm" for U.S. stock funds, said Avi Nachmany, research director with New York-based Strategic Insight. Through November, investors withdrew a net $65 billion from stock funds. -- AP