OBITUARY 2001-01-29

Arthur Applebaum

. -- Funeral services have been held here for Arthur Applebaum, son of the founder of Applebaum's here.

Applebaum, 90, died of kidney failure earlier this month.

Applebaum's, which began as a horse-drawn fruit-and-vegetable business in 1923, evolved into a chain of 72 supermarkets, with Applebaum as vice president, marketing. In that position, he saw the potential, as early as the 1940s and early 1950s, of frozen foods and dairy, and fought to allocate sufficient space for those categories to expand in the family's stores.

Applebaum retired in 1979 when the business was sold to Loblaw, Toronto. The company was subsequently repurchased by the Applebaum family in 1982 and reopened under the Rainbow Foods banner.

Survivors include a son and daughter, two sisters and brother, Sid Applebaum, retired chairman of Rainbow Foods.

Sir Alistair Grant

LONDON -- Sir Alistair Grant, a former chairman of Safeway, Hayes, England, died of cancer last week at age 63.

Grant linked up with British entrepreneurs James Gulliver and David Webster in 1978 to create the Argyll Group by acquiring underperforming U.K. food retailers like the 900-store Presto chain. By 1985, Argyll was Britain's fourth-largest food retailer behind J. Sainsbury, Tesco and Asda.

In 1987, Argyll bought Safeway U.K. from its U.S. parent, Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., for $1 billion and became Britain's third-biggest food retailer. Gulliver left Argyll and Grant became its executive chairman in 1986. Under Grant's leadership, the chain continued to grow strongly into the early 1990s. Grant changed the name of the group and all of its stores to Safeway in 1996.

But by then the chain had hit difficulties, as Tesco was reinvigorated and Asda strengthened its formula for everyday low prices. Safeway suffered from the lack of a strong brand image, and profits and sales began to decline. Only over the last 18 months, under new chief executive Carlos Criado-Perez, has the retailer begun to grow again through a focus on local price promotions.

Grant, who was knighted in 1992, retired from Safeway in 1997 and became chairman of Scottish & Newcastle. A year later he added the position of governor of the Bank of Scotland, a position he relinquished in 1999 when his condition was diagnosed. At the same time, he stepped back to being a director of the bank as well as deputy chairman of Scottish & Newcastle.