SUPER RITE SELLS 2 BASICS UNITS TO FOOD KING, GETS SUPPLY PACT

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

BALTIMORE -- Super Rite, Harrisburg, Pa., has sold two of its Basics stores here to locally based Food King Supermarkets and has picked up Food King's wholesale business in the process.

The purchase price was undisclosed.

Food King, which operated four stores here prior to the acquisition, had been supplied with virtually its full product line by Richfood, Mechanicsville, Va., after Richfood acquired the civilian business of B. Green & Co. here in January 1993.

However, following the acquisition last month of the two Basics units, Food King switched to Super Rite under a supply agreement that took effect last week. The agreement covers dry groceries, dairy, frozen foods and meat.

One of the acquired stores comprises 47,000 square feet, and the other 37,000 square feet.

According to Bernie Meizlish, president of Food King, the two stores overlap the company's existing four stores to some degree. It is too soon to determine whether the new additions will cannibalize the other units, he said.

Meizlish also said Food King is seeking additional acquisitions.

Super Rite sold the two stores to Food King because they were not convertible to the Metro superstore format, Super Rite's primary expansion vehicle, William K. Schantzenbach, vice president of finance and chief financial officer, told SN.

"It made sense to give them up to get the wholesale business of four more stores," he said.

Super Rite operates nine other conventional Basics stores. It plans to retain the eight stores, which are here, Schantzenbach said, but expects to sell the ninth, in Washington, shortly.

Super Rite is concentrating its expansion on its 60,000-square-foot Metro format, he said. The company operates six Metro stores here and one in Dover, Del.

An eighth Metro location is scheduled to open here next week, and expansion to the eastern short of Maryland is possible, Schantzenbach said.