RISER SEES AMERICAN SEAWAY GROWTH

DAN ALAIMO

CLEVELAND -- Riser Foods expects to aggressively expand its American Seaway Foods wholesale operation this year.

Anthony C. Rego, chairman and chief executive officer of Riser, Bedford Heights, Ohio, said the company will attempt to attract new customers, place more products with existing customers and, perhaps, expand beyond its market area, which is within a 200-mile radius of here.

Rego spoke about the company's wholesale operations at a breakfast meeting here earlier this month. "We are putting a renewed emphasis on growing our wholesale business," he told SN following the presentation.

American Seaway Foods was bolstered by the addition of 82 wholesale grocery customers formerly supplied by Peter J. Schmitt Co., which declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992 and recently emerged from bankruptcy with different operations.

American Seaway was also fueled by the acquisition of a 330,000-square-foot nonfood warehouse from Boston Distributors in August 1993. The assimilation of the nonfood business has gone well, Rego said. "The health and beauty care and general merchandise has proven to be a very good division for us," he said. "Not only are we attacking it as a wholesaler, but we also bring a retail mentality to it. I see that as a tremendous growth opportunity for us."

Riser's move to increase its wholesale operations comes at a time of consolidation and contraction in the wholesale food business. For the most part, only the biggest players are experiencing significant growth, industry observers have said.

American Seaway Foods also is looking beyond its present market boundaries for more wholesale business, Rego said.

About half of Riser's $1.1 billion sales volume last year came from its wholesale operations. The company has 400 retail customers.

Riser also operates about 44 supermarkets, including its newest large-format Marketplace stores. Riser plans to open at least seven of the 70,000-square-foot stores within the next two years, Rego said.

The third Marketplace format is scheduled to open in mid-March in North Royalton, Ohio. Three other Marketplace stores will open by the end of the year and three more are on the drawing board for 1995.

Riser also is testing a deep-discount general merchandise format called Jax. It has opened two Jax stores in the last year in locations where it holds a lease but has closed supermarkets.