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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 21, 1992                   TAG: 9203210185
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

Food costs fell a slight 0.1 percent this month in Roanoke Valley supermarkets, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services reported. The price of a basket of 40 commonly purchased foods was $72.44, down from $72.49 in February and 4.3 percent lower than $75.72 in March 1991.

In Northern Virginia supermarkets, the same order cost $80.91 this month, down 1.4 percent from last month and 4.2 percent in the year. Norfolk-area stores charged an average of $77.44 for the order this month, down 0.2 percent from February and 2 percent since last March. In Richmond, the order totaled $76.48, 0.5 percent less than a month earlier and 5.3 percent less than a year earlier.

- Staff report

2 Tazewell firms file in bankruptcy court

Two Tazewell County companies have filed petitions in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Roanoke:

J & L Coal Inc. of Richlands, headed by Jerry W. Maggard, asked for reorganization, reporting debt of $1,122,029 and assets of $377,840.

James H. Vencill, trading as the Western Sizzlin Restaurant at Cedar Bluff, reported debt of $18,966 and assets of $1,178.

- Staff report

Dublin plant to make 77 trucks for Kroger

The Kroger Co. said it is buying 77 truck tractors from Volvo-GM Heavy Truck Corp., an order valued at nearly $4.7 million and worth almost two days of production at the truck plant in Dublin.

The order is down from 98 tractors the supermarket chain bought last year but even with the number it bought in 1990.

Kroger has ordered conventional and cab-over road tractors from the Pulaski County plant. Seven of the tractors, priced at $61,000 each, will be used by Kroger's Mid-Atlantic Marketing Area, based in Roanoke. The others will work in Kroger's 10 other marketing areas.

The tractors are maintained in the Roanoke-area garage but travel "millions of miles," said Joann Boone of Kroger.

The Dublin plant is completing 42 tractors a day, an increase of a half-dozen since January, said Steve Plastek, human resources manager. The plant's work force is at 1,100, including 110 recalled from layoff since December. About 200 workers remain on layoff, he said.

- Staff report