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Fleming Cos., Oklahoma City, said last week it is building a 136,000-square-foot structure in Lewisville, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas, to house its customer-service center and senior management team. The company said it had chosen Lewisville in part because it is a 10-minute drive from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The building is expected to be completed in late spring or early

Fleming Cos., Oklahoma City, said last week it is building a 136,000-square-foot structure in Lewisville, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas, to house its customer-service center and senior management team. The company said it had chosen Lewisville in part because it is a 10-minute drive from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The building is expected to be completed in late spring or early summer. In October, Fleming had announced it was moving customer-service and senior management functions to north Texas while centralizing professional, technical and administrative functions in the office here.

ve assistant, were informed of available jobs at Tops, a division of Ahold USA. Some of these job openings were described by the spokeswoman as promotions. In March, as part of an Ahold USA-wide effort to consolidate financial services in Carlisle, Pa., some 135 headquarters jobs were cut at Tops.

Tesco plc, Cheshunt, England, said it continues to outperform the rest of the U.K. food retail industry, with same-store sales up 4% in the third quarter ended Nov. 20. Overall, sales rose 7.3% in the third quarter and were up the same amount in the nine-month period. Same-store sales in the first nine months of the year rose 4.1%, Tesco said in a statement. "Underlying volumes accelerated from the first half as customers welcomed our price cuts," it said, alluding to its recent heavy program of price promotions aimed at blunting the inroad of Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., which bought Asda plc earlier this year for $10.8 billion. Tesco also said that it will be the world's largest Internet food retailer by the end of the year. Its internet shopping service is available in 100 of its 640 stores and is already profitable. The company recently added books, gifts, home products and financial services to its shopping site.

Safeway Plc, Hayes, England, announced a series of strategic and management initiatives under new chief executive officer Carlos Criado-Perez aimed at reviving its fortunes. Criado-Perez -- who was appointed CEO late last month after only 10 weeks as chief operating officer at Safeway -- said he will focus Safeway's efforts on local marketing and price promotions, as well as on a wide selection of fresh foods, better product availability and improved service. In a move toward boosting the responsiveness of its stores to their local markets, the company will institute a new bonus scheme for 2,000 of its store managers, which could be worth up to 50% of their salaries. Safeway revealed the new strategy in reporting a 20.7% drop in after-tax profits to $165.1 million (103.2 million pounds) from $208.5 million (130.3 million pounds) on a 2.4% rise in sales to $7.02 billion (4.39 billion pounds) from $6.85 billion (4.28 billion pounds) for the 28 weeks ended Oct. 16.

Somerfield, Bristol, England, said its core stores subsidiary would now be overseen by its group chief executive, David Simons. Simons succeeds Tony O'Neill, who became managing director of the Somerfield stores division earlier this year. The company recently announced plans to sell about 500 of its stores in a move aimed at turning around its operations, which have struggled ever since it acquired the British discount food chain Kwik-Save in February 1998. Simons last month said the company plans to sell about 140 of its larger Somerfield units and about 340 of its smaller Kwik-Save stores.

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