Newswatch 2009-08-24

FEDS INDICT 3 IN IDENTITY THEFT CASE

NEWARK, N.J. — U.S. attorneys here last week charged three individuals with stealing credit and debit card numbers from retailers, including Scarborough, Maine-based Hannaford Bros., in what federal officials called the single largest data breach in U.S. history. The indictment charges that Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, worked with two hackers based in Russia to steal customer account information from Hannaford and 7-Eleven. Data was also stolen from Heartland Payment Systems, which processes payments for retailers, and from two other, unidentified national retailers. More than 130 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen beginning in December 2007 by using malicious software and “sniffers” to intercept the data, the charges said. Hannaford reported the breach in March 2008. “We continue work to further harden our network security, using our internal resources and those of General Dynamics, the premier U.S. Government Department of Defense cyber-security contractor,” Hannaford said in a prepared statement last week.

CUSTOMER LOSS SINKS Q3 AT UNIFIED

LOS ANGELES — Unified Grocers here said the loss of Brown & Cole as a customer and the tough competitive environment resulted in lower sales and earnings for the fiscal third quarter that ended June 27. Net income dropped 18.8% to $3.9 million for the 13-week quarter and 16.5% to $10.2 million for the 39-week year to date, while sales declined 2.4% to $992.5 million for the quarter and 2.4% to $3 billion for the 39 weeks. The company said the sales decline was due primarily to the loss of Ferndale, Wash.-based Brown & Cole as a customer.

DAYTON WORKERS OK KROGER DEAL

DAYTON, Ohio — Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 75 here have voted to approve a new three-year contract with Kroger Co., the union and retailer said. The agreement covers more than 4,000 employees who work in 30 stores in the Dayton area.

SCOTT'S WORKERS OK UNION: REPORT

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Workers at 11 of 12 stores operating under the Scott's Food & Pharmacy banner here have signed union authorization cards and will be represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700, reports said last week. Scott's is a division of the Kroger Co., Cincinnati. Workers at a Scott's store in Kendalville, Ind., have not authorized the union, local reports said.

H-E-B BREAKS GROUND ON NEW DC

TEMPLE, Texas — H.E. Butt Grocery Co., San Antonio, broke ground here last week on a new 450,000-square-foot distribution center. The center is located on a 160-acre site on land the chain purchased in February. Once completed, the facility will serve more than 50 H-E-B stores from Austin to Dallas, the company said.

PATHMARK REOPENS FORMER STORE

NEW YORK — Pathmark has reopened at a site where it formerly operated a store in Staten Island, the Montvale, N.J.-based retailer said. The store on Hylan Boulevard was among five stores transferred to King Kullen as part of mandated divestitures when A&P acquired Pathmark. King Kullen, Bethpage, N.Y., closed its store at the location in January.