NEWS ROUNDUP 1994-01-24 (1)

Carr Gottstein to Buy Supplier

Gottstein Foods here said last week it had agreed to acquire Yukon Express Services, an institutional food-service supplier, for an undisclosed amount of cash.

Yukon, based in Fairbanks, Alaska, has annual sales of approximately $25 million. The deal is expected to close by March 1.

Yukon Express supplies 200 institutional customers, including hotels, restaurants, school cafeterias and state correctional facilities located primarily here and in Fairbanks. It has a freight consolidation terminal in Tacoma, Wash., and warehouses here and in Fairbanks.

Separately, Carr Gottstein said it had reached an agreement to acquire two stores in Nome and Kotzebue, Alaska, from Kotzebue Development Corp. for an undisclosed price.

The stores, which operate under the name Hanson Trading Co., will be converted to Eagle Quality Centers around March 1. The 16,000-square-foot stores have a combined annual volume of approximately $15 million.

Wal-Mart Buys 120 Woolco Units

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (FNS) -- Wal-Mart Stores here is making its first move into Canada.

The retailer is acquiring 120 Woolco stores in Canada from Woolworth Corp., New York. The remaining 22 Woolco stores Woolworth operates in Canada are not part of the deal and will be converted to other retail formats or closed, Woolworth said.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Woolworth said it expects the transaction to generate cash of about $300 million. The deal is subject to Canadian regulatory approval and expected to be completed by about March 1.

Wal-Mart said it plans to convert the Woolco units to Wal-Mart stores, including remerchandising and refixturing. The stores average about 100,000 square feet, which is about half the size of the Wal-Mart's Supercenter format.

Investors Buy Shares of Sloan's

NEW YORK -- Sloan's Supermarkets here said two investors have acquired 135,800 shares of the company, or 5.7% of Sloan's outstanding common stock.

The investors are Gary S. Feldstein and Barbara J. Feldstein. The acquisition was for "investment purposes only," according to Sloan's, which operates 11 stores in this market.

The Feldsteins disclosed their Sloan's investment in a 13-D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It marked the third 13-D filing related to acquisition of Sloan's stock in the past 90 days.

Wesson President Hospitalized

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Robert Williams, president of Hunt Wesson Grocery Sales Co., Fullerton, Calif., was in intensive care late last week after becoming ill at the Food Marketing Institute's Midwinter Executive Conference here.

Williams was hospitalized and underwent a serious heart operation shortly after the conference began Jan. 15, a company spokeswoman told SN. He had experienced chest pains prior to entering the hospital.

FMI Plans Asia Pacific Exposition

WASHINGTON -- The Food Marketing Institute plans a new supermarket industry exposition to expand business opportunities in the Asian Pacific Rim.

The first show is scheduled for Oct. 18 to 20, 1995 in Hong Kong. It will subsequently be held every two years to avoid conflicting with the Australian Supermarket Institute convention, which also is held in alternating years.

FMI expects the new exposition to provide access to a high-growth marketplace for FMI members to source food and nonfood products, to provide a forum for suppliers to do business and develop sales contacts in the Pacific Rim and to facilitate growth of the supermarket industry as the transition from wet, or street, markets continues throughout the region.

As with other FMI conventions, the Pacific Rim expo will offer educational workshops and an exhibit floor.