MOST RED APPLE UNITS MAY FOLD INTO SLOAN'S

NEW YORK -- Red Apple Cos., a privately held operator of 64 supermarkets here, may fold the majority of those stores into Sloan's Supermarkets, a publicly held company, within six months, industry sources told SN.

upermarkets under a settlement agreement signed late last year with the Federal Trade Commission. Trade observers said that, once those stores -- and possibly others that do not meet certain size and volume standards -- have been sold, the remaining stores will be merged into the public Sloan's Supermarkets operation, which operates 11 stores here.

Sloan's reported that sales and same-store sales rose 4.5% to $12.3 million for the third quarter ended Nov. 27.

Net income fell 11.4% to $146,650, while income from continuing operations rose 28.4% to $153,244. The company attributed the increase to the completion of a store remodeling program.

Sloan's also reported a third-quarter loss on discontinued operations of $6,594, compared with earnings of $46,185 from those operations a year ago. Discontinued operations included the remaining assets of Designcraft, a onetime jewelry manufacturer that had been a dormant holding company owned by Catsimatidis prior to the acquisition of Sloan's Supermarkets in March 1993.

The company did not disclose nine-month results. However, based on previously released figures, sales for the 39 weeks rose 10.9% to $35.7 million, while earnings fell 57.3% to $136,360.

On Oct. 14 Catsimatidis exercised his outstanding stock options to purchase an aggregate of 450,000 shares of Sloan's common stock for $775,000.

3rd-QUARTER RESULTS

Qtr Ended 11/27/94 11/28/93

Sales $12.3 million $11.7 million

Change 4.5%

Same store 4.5%

Net Income $146,650 $165,538

Change -11.4%

Inc/Share Not Available

39 Weeks 1994 1993

Sales $35.7 million $32.2 million

Change 10.9%

Same store 3.5% (est)

Net Income $136,360 $319,337

Change -57.3%