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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 12, 1993                   TAG: 9305120132
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

PHILADELPHIA - Shipments of special diet food to Nutri-System franchisees were to have begun Tuesday, said the court-appointed trustee who took control of the Blue Bell, Pa., company over the weekend.

The shipments will come just in the nick of time for some franchisees who would have been forced to shut weight-loss centers this week without them.

The trustee, Philadelphia lawyer John T. Carroll III, is running the company under a court order that gave him control of the bankrupt firm.

Carroll said franchisees had agreed to pay in advance for food shipments and were wiring money to a special bank account. He said about 50 Nutri/System employees had been recalled to process orders and he expected shipments to be made 24 to 48 hours after the money is received.

Most franchisees said they had no more than three weeks' worth of food on hand when the company shut down April 28 after its banks seized its cash and bank accounts.\ Briefly . . .

\ PNC Bank Corp. of Pittsburgh said Tuesday it has agreed to buy Sears' Mortgage Banking Group from the ailing retailer for $328 million. PNC said it would acquire all of Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s mortgage operations, which include 120 loan-origination offices nationwide and a $6.7 billion savings bank based near Chicago. The deal will make PNC the fifth-largest maker of home mortgages in the nation, a bank spokesman said. The Sears group wrote $11.8 million in mortgages last year and services a portfolio of home loans worth $27 billion.

\ Ben Franklin Retail Stores Inc., a Carol Steam, Ill., retailer with stores in the Roanoke Valley, said Tuesday it has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed offering of $25 million of convertible subordinated notes. Proceeds will fund the opening and operation of additional company-owned craft superstores and general corporate purposes.