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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 18, 1995                   TAG: 9511200102
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEPHANIE STOUGHTON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

RACK & SACK TO EXPAND?

Farm Fresh Inc. is considering opening Rack & Sack discount food stores in several new markets, including Roanoke, Lynchburg and Northern Virginia, the company's chief executive officer said Friday.

The grocery stores would be formatted after the company's new Rack & Sack operation in Richmond. That 82,000-square-foot store, which opened this month, includes a large perishables department, a dry groceries area and a Drug Emporium pharmacy.

Michael E. Julian, president and chief executive officer of Norfolk-based Farm Fresh, said the company has no firm expansion plans for Roanoke. But he indicated that the company has been looking for sites and said he believes the area could support two Rack & Sacks.

In Roanoke, Rack & Sack would compete with market leader Kroger, Food Lion and Harris Teeter. ``We think it's a market that needs the kind of discount store we can bring there,'' Julian said.

Archie Fralin, Roanoke spokesman for The Kroger Co., said rumors of a Farm Fresh expansion into Southwest Virginia have been floating around for some time. He has heard nothing definitive, however.

Based on what he knows about the Norfolk company's operations, Fralin said Farm Fresh likely would be a direct competitor to Kroger, which operates 13 stores in the Roanoke and New River valleys.

"Competition is inevitable in our business," Fralin said. "We face new competitors throughout our marketing area all the time."

Julian launched the Rack & Sack warehouse stores in 1993, but they didn't begin pumping cash into the company until recently.

Staff writer Megan Schnabel contributed information to this story.

by CNB