REPORT: SELFRIDGES ACCEPTS WESTON BID
epted a $962 million purchase offer from Galen Weston, according to published reports. Weston is chairman and president, George Weston Ltd., Toronto, which owns a 61% share of Loblaw Cos., Toronto, Canada's largest supermarket operator. Selfridges operates the 540,000-square-foot Selfridges & Co. department store here, as well as two smaller stores in Manchester, U.K. The reports noted that a rival group of investors is expected to make a counter offer.
'ALL THINGS ORGANIC' TO CO-LOCATE WITH FMI IN 2004
GREENFIELD, Mass. -- The Organic Trade Association here last week said it would co-locate its All Things Organic Conference and Trade Show in 2004 with the annual Food Marketing Institute Show in Chicago. The conference will join the Specialty Food Trade's Fancy Food Show, the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association's Produce Expo & Conference, and FMI's own Supermarket Pharmacy Conference in co-locating with FMI's main expo. FMI said its attendance at this year's FMI Show, which ended last week, was 18,590 -- not including attendance for the Fancy Food Show, for which figures were not available -- vs. about 27,000 to 28,000 in 2002. The All Things Organic Show, which took place in Austin, Texas, in each of the last three years, this year included 260 exhibitors and about 2,000 attendees, an OTA spokeswoman told SN.
PENN TRAFFIC REACHES AGREEMENT WITH BANK GROUP
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Penn Traffic Co. here said last week it has entered into an amendment to its credit facility with its bank lenders that replaces a previously announced one-week waiver agreement. The amendment reduces the required covenants in the facility, with the result that Penn Traffic is in compliance with them and can borrow, repay and re-borrow under the facility's revolving credit portion. The amendment also waives Penn Traffic's obligation to file its annual results (for the year ended Feb. 1) until June 9, or the date its independent auditor announces it will not issue its unqualified report on the consolidated financial statements, whichever comes first.
CANADA SAYS WAL-MART MUST LET UNION TALK TO WORKERS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The British Columbia Labour Relations Board here has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., must permit representatives of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1518 here to speak for 30 minutes to employees of a Wal-Mart store in Quesnel, British Columbia, on company time and without management presence. The board said it chose this remedy after finding Wal-Mart guilty of unfair labor practices for interfering in an organizing drive at the store, for permitting company representatives to make false and derogatory statements about the local and its organizer, and for threatening police action against individuals supporting the union. A Toronto-based Wal-Mart spokesman told SN, "Wal-Mart respects the laws of the province of British Columbia. We are currently reviewing the labor board's decision. Out of respect for orders that are contained in the board's decision, any further comment at this time would be inappropriate."
FLEMING MAY CLOSE 12 RAINBOW STORES
DALLAS -- Fleming here said it has issued warning notices to employees at 12 Rainbow Foods stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The notices said the stores -- none of them among the 31 Rainbow stores Roundy's, Pewaukee, Wis., offered to buy earlier last week -- were scheduled to close by June 10, but a Fleming spokesman told SN that the stores could still be bought should the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., rule that an auction must be held to give companies other than Roundy's an opportunity to bid on the stores. Fleming, which filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last month, has said it intends to sell or close all of its stores to concentrate on distribution.
