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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 16, 1994                   TAG: 9407180146
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SOME DRUGSTORES HAVE TO GO

Because of the lack of competing pharmacies, the Federal Trade Commission says the merger of the Revco and SupeRx store chains could raise prices and reduce service for prescription drugs in Radford, Covington and Marion.

The FTC wants Revco D.S. Inc., which Friday completed its purchase of Hook-SupeRx Inc., to sell either the Revco or the SupeRx stores in the three communities.

The agreement calls for the stores to be sold within a year and requires that Revco get FTC approval if it wants to buy any other pharmacies in those communities in the next 10 years. The agreement must be published in the Federal Register, and 60 days must be allowed for public comment before it can become final, which could be as early as October.

The agreement does not mean that federal antitrust law has been violated, but that the potential exists in the proposed merger, said the FTC.

This is the second time this year the FTC has stepped into a drugstore merger. When Thrifty Drug recently acquired Payless Drugs from Kmart Corp., the FTC required the sale of some overlapping stores on the West Coast.

The $600 million Revco-HSI merger creates the second-largest drugstore chain in the country, with 2,381 stores in 25 East Coast and Midwest states. Revco has headquarters in Twinsburg, Ohio; HSI is in Cincinnati. Both have major presences in the Roanoke Valley, which could mean that some stores eventually may close here, but the company had no comment on that Friday.

Revco has said it would consolidate Hook-SupeRx headquarters in Cincinnati and its divisional headquarters in Indianapolis and Pawtucket, R.I., into Revco corporate offices.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported earlier this month that 425 jobs, including administrative positions, would be lost in the Cincinnati area. HSI Chief Executive Officer Philip Beekman, The Kroger Co. and Goldman Sachs held about 55 percent of the HSI stock. HSI previously was a division of Kroger.

Beekman, who will leave the company, is to get severance pay of $1.24 million, plus $4.2 million in a retirement trust, the Enquirer said.

Revco, which was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for four years until it emerged in June 1992, will pay $13.75 a share for Hook-SupeRx stock and will assume about $300 million in debt as part of the purchase.

by CNB