A federal grand jury in New Haven, Conn., has begun hearing testimony about alleged tax evasion by Tom Leonard, president of the Stew Leonard's Dairy Store in Danbury, Conn. According to his attorney, Leonard "intends to cooperate fully" with authorities on the investigation, which involves charges that he skimmed cash from receipts at the Norwalk, Conn.-based company's Danbury store and underreported the store's volume for tax purposes. The grand jury, which meets in private and will decide whether to bring a criminal indictment against Leonard, has already called Leonard's secretary and a handful of store employees to testify.
enter to Summit Logistics Inc., Toronto. The 500,000-square-foot facility supplies dry goods and perishables to British Columbia stores and operates a fleet of 90 trucks and 160 trailers. The chain also has agreed to a multiyear deal in which Summit would provide warehouse and distribution service to its 83 British Columbia stores.
Red Apple Cos., New York, has asked the Federal Trade Commission to free it from a 1994 antitrust order to divest certain Sloan's stores. John Catsimatidis, Red Apple chairman, told SN he expects a decision by late summer. He added that he expects Sloan's Supermarkets, a public company, to acquire about 30 privately held Sloan's and Gristedes stores that Red Apple controls by early fall. Red Apple, a private company Catsimatidis owns, has 40 Sloan's and Gristedes units in Manhattan. Sloan's Supermarkets, in which Catsimatidis is a minority shareholder, has 14 Manhattan units.
Smith's Food & Drug Centers, Salt Lake City, has revised its proposed financing for its pending recapitalization. Smith's raised its offering of senior subordinated notes due 2007 from $350 million to $575 million. It also dropped its proposed offering of $150 million of senior notes due 2006 and $75 million of cumulative redeemable exchangeable preferred stock. Shareholders will vote on the recapitalization May 23.
