Mergers & acquisitions. - The Food Institute Report

Birds Eye Foods, Inc. reached an agreement to sell its Veg-All canned vegetable business to Allen Canning Co. For more information, see page 14.

Canteen Vending Services Inc. acquired Delicor, a Hayward, CA-based vending company, a spokesman for Canteen confirmed. Delicor operated branches in Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA ... Vending Market Watch (June 16).

Consolidated Restaurant Operations Inc., Dallas, TX is acquiring Chevys Inc., Emeryville, CA, which is privately owned by a management team and equity firm J.W. Childs Associates. Linda Duke, a public relations consultant for Chevys, said there are no current plans to change or close any of the 82 company-owned Chevys Fresh Mex locations or 37 franchised restaurants. Chevys also is selling its 10 Fuzio Universal Pasta sites, six of which are company-owned. Consolidated Restaurant, a private company, manages 174 restaurants in 18 states, mostly in the Southeast and Canada. Chains include El Chico Mexican Restaurants, Cantina Laredo and The Spaghetti Warehouse ... The Sacramento Bee (June 17).

Oakland, CA-based Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Inc., which last year agreed to a $2.5 billion takeover by Nestle, said the two companies agreed to extend until June 30 the date after which either side could terminate the deal, in order to give them more time to obtain U.S. Federal Trade Commission clearance. The previous deadline was June 16.

Glazer's Wholesale Distribution purchased Montana Beverage Co., El Paso, TX, a Coors and SABMiller distributor, for an undisclosed sum as part of a strategy to expand its rural wine, spirits and beer wholesale network ... Justdrinks.com (June 17).

The foodservice division of H.J. Heinz, Pittsburgh, PA, acquired Truesoups, a maker of frozen soups for casual-dining restaurants and foodservice distributors, for undisclosed terms. In addition to its premium frozen-soup varieties, the Kent, WA-based company produces a line of frozen sauces, stews, pot pies and gravies ... The Seattle Times (June 20).

HFL Corp., a company led by top Uni-Marts Inc. officials, terminated a buyout agreement with convenience store operator Uni-Marts. State College, PA-based Uni-Marts said the agreement was broken off by HFL over concerns that Uni-Marts. lenders might not agree to the deal in a timely fashion. Uni-Marts will continue to look for merger possibilities and will divest poor-performing sites (see FOOD INSTITUTE REPORT, June 9, page 5) ... The Morning Call (June 20)

Jerry's Foods agreed to buy the North Minneapolis, MN Target store that is scheduled to close Aug. 2 for an undisclosed price and will convert it to a Cub Foods store. Jerry's Foods is a unit of Jerry's Enterprises Inc., Edina, MN. The privately held company operates a total of 24 stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Florida ... The Star Tribune (June 19).

The Kroger Co., Cincinnati, OH, struck a deal with Spartan Stores Inc., Grand Rapids, MI, to buy two Food Town supermarkets in Toledo, OH and one in Fremont, each of which will be converted to Krogers by June 25 ... toledoblade.com (June 19).

Nutraceutical International Corp., Park City, UT, entered into a purchase and sale agreement to acquire substantially all of the operating assets of Arizona Health Foods, Inc. through its subsidiary, Fresh Vitamins, Inc. Phoenix, AZ-based Arizona Health Foods owns and operates a chain of 11 health food stores, which primarily sell branded nutritional supplements.

In other news, Nutraceutical International Corp. completed its acquisition of 100% of the stock of M.K. Health Food Distributors, Inc. for about $10.8 million in cash (see FOOD INSTITUTUTE REPORT, June 9, page 7).

Denver, CO-based Vistar Corp. signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire the Vend Products operations of Estey Corp. Located in Portland, OR and Livermore, CA, Vend Products, with fiscal year 2002 sales of approximately $62 million, distributes candy, snack items and office supply products to the vend industry.

Meanwhile, Vistar Corp.'s Vistar/VSA of Hartford, Inc. unit acquired assets of Lisa, Inc., East Haven, CT, an Italian specialty and pizza distributor to the New England market which generated sales of about $18 million in 2002.