SUPERVALU EXPANDING CUB'S STORE BASE IN INDIANAPOLIS

MINNEAPOLIS -- Supervalu here said last week its Stillwater, Minn.-based Cub Foods subsidiary has purchased three franchised Cub stores in Indianapolis -- expanding its corporate store base there to seven -- as part of a strategy to increase its presence in markets where it is more prominent and to exit others.

chised units. Those numbers include four Milwaukee-area Cubs, which the company disclosed two weeks ago will be sold in mid-February to Jewel Food Stores, Melrose Park, Ill. Supervalu said Cub will leave the Milwaukee market, in return for an agreement to become the secondary dry grocery supplier to the entire Jewel network of 183 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Last spring Supervalu exited the Columbus, Ohio, market when it sold its four corporate stores there to Kroger Co., Cincinnati.

"These moves position Supervalu strategically to apply our resources more effectively and to add incremental sales to both our wholesale and retail businesses," Hooley said.