Trading Partners

BRUSSELS - International food retailer Delhaize Group announced today that in the third quarter of 2003 its net earnings per share increased to 0.58 euros from 0.26 euros in 2002.

BOISE, Idaho - Albertsons Inc. and Trigo Technologies announced that the supermarket chain will standardize with Trigo Product Center, the product information management software application, for more than one million grocery and pharmaceutical items sold by Albertsons' 2,300 retail stores in 31 states.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - Fresh Brands Inc. today reported sales of $152.6 million for its third quarter ended Oct. 4, 2003, which represents a 7.6 percent increase over last year's third-quarter sales of $141.9 million.

Grocers can boost year-round sales of school and office supplies simply by regaining focus on the category and using creative promotions.

In the dog-eat-dog world of beer marketing, hometown regionals are brewing up a storm.

Retailers continue to prize efficiencies more than employees, and experts predict the payback will be a shortage of management talent in just a few years.

BOULDER, Colo. - Wild Oats Markets, Inc. today released its preliminary third-quarter 2003 sales and earnings results. The national natural and organic foods retailer also announced that it has reached a decision with distributor Tree of Life, Inc. that mutual expectations under the two companies' primary distribution agreement were unlikely to be met and that Tree of Life would relinquish the primary distribution role.

TAMPA, Fla. - ADC, Inc., a provider of data communication technology to the supermarket industry, said today it has licensed its InterScale scales management system to Lowes Foods, a 106-store supermarket chain based in Winston-Salem, N.C.