FOODARAMA SET GROWTH BY CONSTRUCTION

JOEL ELSON

FREEHOLD, N.J. -- Expansions and new store construction will continue to pave the way to strong sales and earnings in the coming year for Foodarama Supermarkets, said executives here at the company's annual shareholders meeting last week.

Joseph Saker, president and chief executive officer, said Foodarama, which operates 20 ShopRite units, is also seeing positive results from its large-store format, the World Class ShopRite.

Saker said Foodarama's financial condition remained strong in 1997, and that working capital increased $500,000. Two World Class ShopRites Foodarama opened in mid-1996 in Marlboro and Montgomery, N.J., "have been well-received by our customers and continue to improve," he said

In outlining the chain's expansion plans, Saker said a new World Class ShopRite is slated to open later in the year in Bound Brook, N.J. Three additional new units and a number of expansions are planned over the new two years.

"Additionally, three leases have been signed for replacement locations, plans are being finalized to expand one existing store and negotiations are under way to expand another existing store," Saker said. The expansion of Foodarama's West Long Branch, N.J., store is also under way, he added.

The new format has been a boon to top-line growth. A 75,000-square-foot World Class ShopRite that opened Feb. 25 in East Windsor, N.J., as a replacement for an older, smaller Hightstown, N.J., Foodarama ShopRite "is generating $1.1 million in sales weekly," a company official told SN after the meeting.

Commenting on the company's positive first fiscal quarter of 1998, Saker told shareholders "it was our best in the last few years," adding company officials were "surprised at this abounding type of rise."

Net income in the quarter increased to $783,000, or 70 cents a share, from $176,000, or 13 cents per share, last year. Sales advanced to $170.2 million from $163.4 million in the prior period, while same-store sales increased 4.2%. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the quarter increased to $4.4 million from $3.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income for fiscal 1997 declined to $1.06 million, or 90 cents per share, from $1.40 million, or $1.13 per share, in 1996.