Trading Partners

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- National Beef Packing Co., LLC (National Beef) and its majority owner, U.S. Premium Beef, LLC (USPB), based here, have entered into a non-binding agreement to acquire Brawley Beef, LLC.

SAN ANTONIO -- HEB here said it has issued a recall of its entire HEB Baby Food line, including Mom's Choice Organic Baby Food, in response to three consumer reports of glass shards found inside jars of peas, carrots, and applesauce. The reports originated in Houston and Corpus Christi, but the grocer made the decision to remove the products from all of its Texas stores on Wednesday.

CARLISLE, Pa. -- Deborah Vereen, director of organizational effectiveness and diversity for Giant Food Stores here, will lecture on corporate diversity at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa.

CARTERET, N.J. -- Pathmark Stores, Inc. here has awarded Waitsfield, Vt.-based Northern Power, a subsidiary of Distributed Energy Systems Corp., a contract to provide three turnkey photovoltaic (PV) systems to the Northeast regional grocer's Garwood, Elizabeth, and Lawnside, N.J. locations. The turnkey systems, which will have a total capacity of 750 kilowatts, will be designed, built, and commissioned by Northern Power in association with New Jersey-based BGA LLC Engineering.

ST. LOUIS -- Family-run regional chain Schnuck Markets, Inc., based here, has signed on to use Vertical InstantOffice, an integrated communications platform from Cambridge, Mass.-based Vertical Communications, to aggregate, track, and manage its voice communications.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- While category killers drove demand for PC-based point-of-sale (POS) systems in 2005, shipments in 2006 should see strengths among grocers and specialty stores, says a new study released today by IHL Consulting Group.

LANGHORNE, Pa. -- Community Options, a Princeton, N.J.-based nonprofit agency that provides employment services and housing for people with disabilities, has honored McCaffrey's Supermarkets president and c.e.o. James McCaffrey as its sixth annual Person of the Year, according to a local press report.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Wegmans Food Markets here and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Bon Appétit Management Co., a foodservice company noted for its sustainable sourcing practices, said yesterday at the Boston Seafood Show that they have adopted new purchasing policies for farmed king salmon that meets strict health and environmental criteria. The policies were developed with New York-based Environmental Defense, an environmental advocacy organization.