ALBERTSONS DEBUTS SUPER SAVER IN TEXAS

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

SAN FRANCISCO -- Albertsons opened its first Super Saver store last week and plans to open six more units of the newly developed format in Texas and Louisiana before the end of the month, Felicia Thornton, executive vice president and chief financial officer, told investors at the Banc of America Securities 34th Annual Investment Conference here last week.

She said the first Super Saver price-impact stores opened last Tuesday. A spokeswoman for Extreme Inc., the Albertsons division that operates the Super Saver stores, told SN the first unit is located in a converted Albertsons in Duncanvlle, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Of the six other Super Savers scheduled to reopen under the new banner this month, the spokeswoman said, two more will be in the Dallas area, with single units planned for Mesquite and Garland, Texas, and Baton Rouge and Gonzales, La. Stores average 50,000 square feet, the company said.

When Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons disclosed plans for the Super Saver format in August, it said the stores would offer a full variety of products but a limited selection, with a focus on freshness and quality in the produce and meat departments.

Although the new stores share the Super Saver name with three Hispanic-oriented price-impact stores Albertsons has operated for a few years in Southern California, the company said those three stores are run by the chain's Southern California division, whereas the new stores are run by Extreme, which operates from a separate headquarters in Boise.

In her talk here, Thornton said Albertsons expects to expand the Super Saver format "rapidly" through a combination of acquisitions and store conversions.