SUPER FOOD, ALBERTSON'S LAWSUIT IS GOING TO TRIAL

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A civil suit filed by Super Food Services, Dayton, Ohio, against Albertson's is scheduled to come to trial here this week in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court for Orange County.

ution facility. Albertson's also broke off a supply agreement with Super Food about the same time.

Super Food is now seeking damages totaling more than $110 million from Albertson's, Boise, Idaho, according to local press reports.

The Super Food Orlando warehouses, which were leased, subsequently were shut down. Closing down its Orlando operations cost $23 million, according to a Super Food financial report.

Officials of Super Food last week declined to comment on the suit. Attorneys for the company could not be reached for comment.

Albertson's officials declined not be reached for

comment on the suit as well.

Albertson's -- whose Florida stores had been supplied by Super Food for 18 years -- was the wholesaler's largest customer, accounting for 34% of Super Food's overall volume, or about $620 million, in 1991.

In the 1992 suit, Super Food said Albertson's signed an agreement in February 1992 in which Albertson's agreed to purchase the Florida assets of Super Food -- at a reported price of between $70 million and $80 million -- and to continue Super Food's distribution operations.

As part of the negotiated agreement, Super Food said, Albertson's "insisted that Super Food cease providing warehousing and distribution services to all of its then-existing customers other than Albertson's so that, upon consummation of the agreement, Albertson's would be the only Florida customer of Super Food," according to court papers.

The February 1992 agreement also called for Super Food to terminate its existing collective bargaining agreements with Local 385 of the Teamsters union.

Super Food's warehouse employees, however, initially failed to ratify a contract offer from Albertson's. Although the union finally accepted Albertson's offer, the retailer had made other plans to supply its stores.

In March 1992 Albertson's signed a supply agreement with Fleming Cos., Oklahoma City.