CERTIFIED OF CALIFORNIA SIGNS DEAL TO PURCHASE 12 PETRINI'S STORES

RUSSELL REDMAN

LOS ANGELES -- Certified Grocers of California here has signed a definitive agreement to buy 12 Petrini's supermarkets from Bay Area Foods, San Rafael, Calif.

The sale price was not disclosed. Under the deal, entered in May, Certified agreed to buy the stores and then resell them to member retailers. The cooperative wholesaler reported that it expects to close the sales of the stores in three transactions within the next two months.

The Petrini's units, all located in San Francisco's Bay Area, range in size from 25,000 to 28,000 square feet, according to Patrice Smith, a spokeswoman for Bay Area Foods. Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., entered a contract to buy one of the 13 Petrini's stores, in Santa Rosa, early this month. "We are in the process of determining details of the store's conversion to a Safeway, the departments that it will contain, etc.," said Debra Lambert, Safeway spokeswoman. She declined to give further details until the sale closes.

Mollie Stone's Markets, a gourmet food store operator based in Mill Valley, Calif., announced in early summer that it would buy Petrini's units in Greenbrae, Sausalito and Palo Alto from Certified. The deal, which is slated to close in about a month, would boost Mollie Stone's store count to five. Certified would supply the stores.

The nine remaining Petrini's stores are located in San Ramon, Sunnyvale, Burlingame, Walnut Creek, San Mateo (two units), Novato, Moraga and Castro Valley.

Robert Ling, vice president and general counsel at Certified, declined to name the other member retailers slated to buy those units. "We're not disclosing that until we've reached final, definitive agreements with the retailers," he said.

One San Francisco-area published report said potential buyers for the remaining Petrini's stores could include Cala and Andronico's, both Certified member retailers.

However, retailers acquiring Petrini's stores could opt to convert them to Apple Markets, a fresh- and service-oriented format that Certified is rolling out under a new store-banner program. "Some of the retailers who'll be buying the stores may operate them as an Apple Market," Ling said. Certified said it will provide financial assistance to retailers for remodeling the Petrini's stores and for implementing equipment or technology upgrades. Retailers will announce their plans for store redesigns at a later date, Certified reported.

"The acquisition of these stores presents a tremendous opportunity for our retailers," Alfred A. Plamann, Certified's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "These stores will be reborn as upscale markets -- markets that are better equipped to handle the specific needs of customers throughout the Bay Area."

Petrini's, founded in 1935 by Frank Petrini, was known for its service meat and produce departments. The Petrini family sold the chain to Provigo, a Montreal-based wholesaler, in 1988. Bay Area Foods, which also operates nine New Deal Markets and one Jumbo Latino store in California's Central Valley, acquired the Petrini's chain from Provigo in December 1994.