ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603040002
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
Food Lion nips shipyard's heels
NEWPORT NEWS - Welcome to the post-industrial service economy.
Food Lion, the North Carolina-based supermarket chain, is poised to overtake Newport News Shipbuilding as Virginia's largest private employer.
Food Lion has 17,812 workers in Virginia, just 265 fewer than the shipyard.
The 110-year-old yard has held the title for decades, employing nearly 25,000 workers during the Reagan military buildup of the 1980s. But it began paring its work force in 1990 in response to defense budget cuts. The yard expects its payroll to level off between 16,000 and 16,500 by the end of the year.
Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., has grown in Virginia from its first store 16 years ago in Buena Vista to 235 stores and a distribution center in the state.
The retailer plans to open more Virginia stores and hire more workers this year. That means the grocery store chain will likely overtake the yard soon as the state's largest employer, although many of Food Lion's workers are part-time employees.
``It just illustrates the fact that the defense industry is shrinking while the service industries are growing,'' yard spokeswoman Jerri Fuller Dickseski said.
William Mezger, with the Virginia Employment Commission, confirmed that employment in manufacturing has dropped, while the number of jobs in the trade industry, which includes grocery stores, has grown.
Last year, manufacturers in the state employed 405,000 people, down 4.3 percent from 1985, he said. During the same 10 years, employment in the trades grew from 547,000 to 700,000.
- Associated Press
Fred's buying Rose's Stores
HENDERSON, N.C. - Rose's Stores Inc. ended its hopes to become an independent viable discount chain Friday, agreeing in principle to be bought out by rival Fred's Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., in a stock swap.
Shareholders of Rose's, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last May, will receive 0.3 share of Fred's common stock for each share of Rose's common stock, the companies announced. The value of the stock swap was not immediately known.
The deal is subject to certain changes in the price of Fred's common stock and the approval by stockholders.
Rose's filed for bankruptcy protection in September 1993, after analysts said the company floundered in a changing retail market dominated by chains such as Wal-Mart.
The purchase by Fred's - with 201 stores in the Southeast U.S. - means an immediately 50 percent increase in their total number of outlets.
Rose's, based in Henderson, operates more than 100 stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi.
- Associated Press
VDOT to discuss minority program
The Virginia Department of Transportation will hold a forum Tuesday in Roanoke to update contractors and consultants on the state's disadvantaged-business enterprise program for minority-owned contractors.
The workshops, which give minority contractors a chance to meet prime contractors and local VDOT officials, will provide information on how the state conducts business.
The forum, one of three around the state next week, will be held from 3:45 to 8 p.m. at the Airport Marriott hotel. For more information, contact Joe King at (804) 947-2117.
- Staff report
NS subsidiary buys mineral land
Southern Regional Industrial Realty, a Norfolk Southern Corp. subsidiary, has bought 10,000 acres of mineral properties in Tazewell and Buchanan counties from Big Creek Resources. Terms of the sale, completed Wednesday, were not disclosed.
The property contains an estimated 40 million tons of recoverable coal, mainly of steel-making quality. New mining operations should open on the property soon, said Danny Smith, president of Pocahontas Land Corp., another NS subsidiary, which will manage the property.
Pocahontas Land owns and manages roughly 900,000 acres in Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, from which it leases rights to extract coal, natural gas and timber.
- Staff report
Bankruptcies ...
Five bankruptcies with business affiliations were filed this week in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western Virginia at Roanoke. Four of them were personal bankruptcies that the court listed as businesses because they have commercial connections.
Biological Monitoring Inc. of Blacksburg, a water quality testing and analysis company owned by David and Betty Jo Gruber, filed for protection from creditors during reorganization. It listed assets of $405,869 and liabilities of $575,525.
Maurice Eugene Weeks and Judith Christine Weeks of Coeburn filed for a wage-earner plan. He is a self-employed trucker. They listed assets of $94,850 and liabilities of $57,560.
Barry W. Guthrie and Kathy Mae Guthrie of Elliston filed for liquidation. He is a self-employed metal studs and drywall hanger doing business as B&G Drywall and Barry Guthrie Drywall. They reported assets of $5,830 and liabilities of $29,255.
Randy David Newberry of Looney's Creek filed for liquidation. Court records listed him as sole proprietor of Lone Wolf Tire Co. in Maxie and holding a one-third interest in TPSC Ideals Inc. of Grundy. He listed assets of $103,350 and liabilities of $118,689.
Jimmy Arnold Ratliff and Genola Gail Ratliff of Patterson filed for liquidation. They trade as Gail's Laundromat in Patterson and Gail's Laundromat #2 in Vansant. They listed assets of $59,451 and liabilities of $236,506.
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