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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 5, 1994                   TAG: 9410050099
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: BUSINESS   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:    WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS POST OFFICE TO START TAKING CREDIT CARDS

The agency said it will begin accepting credit and bank debit cards at 33,000 of its post offices, and it committed about $600 million to a controversial, high-tech method of electronically routing the mail.

Officials said it will take two years for the agency to phase in use of credit cards across the nation. They have been in use at 550 test sites for the past 15 months.

The action is expected to make the Postal Service one of the largest credit card users in the federal government. Like retail merchants, the agency will have to pay a percentage fee on all its credit card transactions.

The postal board also decided to spend nearly $600 million on equipment for 120 ``remote encoding sites,'' computerized facilities where postal workers view the images of envelopes on video screens and route the envelopes electronically. The process is similar to operations, such as Salem's Orkand Corp., that perform the service under contract for the postal service.

- Washington Post

Briefly ...

First Colony Corp., Lynchburg parent of First Colony Life Insurance and American Mayflower Life companies, said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire a minority interest in BT Variable Inc., a subsidiary of Bankers Trust New York Corp. Financial terms were not disclosed. BT Variable, through its subsidiaries Golden American Life Insurance Co. and Directed Services Inc., offers annuity and variable life insurance products under the name GoldenSelect, with total assets of nearly $1 billion.

Hoechst Celanese Corp., Somerville, N.J., operator of a cigarette filter fibers plant at Narrows, said Tuesday it plans to expand its North American polyethylene terephthalate packaging resins business, more than doubling current capacity. The realignment of manufacturing facilities will affect five plants in South Carolina, North Carolina, Mexico and Canada.

Cellular One, a cellular telephone company, has opened its third Roanoke Valley office, at Apperson Drive and Electric Road, Salem. The 2,500-square-foot office employs eight people.

CCS Data Station, a Christiansburg company selling computer hardware and software and providing training, programming and system integration services, has changed its name to Comprehensive Computer Solutions. The 13-year-old company expects to occupy a new 6,000-square-foot building in Christiansburg's Industrial Park early next year.

Acme Markets of Virginia, a North Tazewell grocery chain, this fall plans to open its 11th store, in the Dutch Inn Plaza, 617 S. Virginia Ave., Collinsville. The company is remodeling space formerly occupied by a Winn-Dixie supermarket.