
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994                   TAG: 9411090055
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SPARTANBURG, S.C.                                  LENGTH: Short

BLACK-OWNED COMPANY GETS CONTROL OF UP TO 47 DENNY'S

Denny's restaurants, under pressure to increase minority ownership and management, said Tuesday a black-owned Atlanta company will operate as many as 47 Denny's during the next six years.

The restaurants are in New York and New Jersey.

NDI Inc. will buy 17 company-operated Denny's restaurants this year with rights to purchase five additional restaurants during 1995. The price was not disclosed in the announcement by Flagstar Cos. Inc., Denny's parent company.

It also will have a five-year agreement to build 25 new Denny's restaurants in the same territory.

``This is a major step for Denny's in meeting and, in fact, exceeding, our commitment to increasing African-American franchisees,'' Denny's President C. Ronald Petty said.

Denny's has 1,500 company and franchise restaurants in the United States and eight foreign countries.

In July 1993, Flagstar agreed with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to increase the number of its restaurants owned by black franchisees.

The company, facing 4,200 complaints by customers who said they were targets of discrimination at its restaurants, agreed in May to a $46 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department.

The NDI agreement is Denny's third minority franchise relationship entered this year. The other two involve individual restaurants, one in Beaumont, Texas, the other in Carson, Calif.

The Denny's restaurants will be operated by NDI's new subsidiary, NDI Foods Inc. Through another subsidiary, NDI owns and operates 23 Blockbuster Video stores.

by CNB