Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 29

Monday INDEX Business forum Page D3 Monday JANUARY 20, 1997 SECTION Business traveler Page D4 Investing PageD7 Economic report Page D6 Monday's people PageD7. St2rTribun3 Kinnni MHMr Umi i mm Inside Grocery wholesaler Nash Finch already had a lot on its plate last year when Ohio-based Super Food came on the market. Now Nash Finch is digesting an acquisition that puts it in the top ranks of the industry. 1 :1 4 MAJH -ft 3 IROTHtUi WH0LKALE FRUITS Star Tribune Al Flaten, CEO of Edina-based Nash Finch, stood before a painting depleting the Nash Brothers Wholesale Fruits store in 1885 at Devils Lake, N.D. Photo by Charles Bjorgen Nash Finch by the numbers An Appetite for Although its financial performance is cyclical on a quarter-to-quarter basis, the company's annual sales have climbed steadily over the past several years.

Its net earnings have been more erratic. SALES $1200 In millions 1000 $1003.9 800 $618.1 ft -A Nash Finch becomes bigger fish in the grocery wholesaling pond Column one Confused by AIDS Companies attempt to educate workers by going beyond standard policies By Diane E. Lewis Boston Globe A lot has changed since the AIDS epidemic began 15 years ago. Talk to almost any human resource manager these days and you will hear about corporate piolicies that protect the privacy of HIV-positive employees, policies that guard against discrimination, policies that guarantee full medical coverage and provide flexible hours for those who require regular doctor's visits. But policies are not always enough.

Paul A. Ross can attest to that. Back in the late 1980s, Ross vjas a regional personnel manager at Digital Equipment Corp. when a group of employees refused to install computer equipment at a couple of Boston hospitals. The reason: They were afraid of contracting AIDS.

"They did not want to work at any Boston hospitals where AIDS patients were being treated," Rbss recalled. "They thought they rrjight contract HIV simply from being in a medical environment where some patients had the virus. They had no idea how AIDS is, transmitted." AIDS training Digital responded by developing a corporatewide AIDS program, and it put Ross in charge. Ross, now worldwide manager of trie HIV AIDS program office at Digital, is also principal consultant at Paul A. Ross Associates, through which he offers AIDS teaming programs to corporate customers.

On a rainy day this month, he stood in front of a group of managers at BankBoston and listened as they talked about their concerns. Asked to say the first thing that came to their minds when they hfeard the word "AIDS," participants suggested: careless, promiscuous, gay, drug user, death and dying. I "Listen to what is being said hre," said Ross, striding down an aisle. "Aren't judgments being made? Aren't fingers being pointed: 'If you weren't sleeping abound, you wouldn't have o( 'If he has AIDS, he must be gay oj she must be a drug Heads nodded. A few people smiled.

One man wondered whether the virus could be transmitted by a kiss. Asked another: "is it more expensive to treat AIDS than cancer?" Literature provided by Ross says AIDS cannot be transmitted through everyday contact. That means you can't get it from a kiss, a toilet seat or from sharing a straw. You can get AIDS from sexual intercourse with an infected partner, from sharing drug needles with an infected person or from being born to an infected mother. As for the cost of treatment, the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says AIDS treatment, while expensive, is no more expensive than cancer or other terminal conditions.

The average cost of a year of medical care for an AIDS patient is about $250,000 comparable to the cost of cancer treatment. Progressive plans BankBoston has been aggressive on the education front. Since 1979, it has tracked the number of; cases of full-blown AIDS in locations where it has employees, raised money for the AIDS Pledge Walk, put a range of policies in place and, this year, bought 22,000 holiday greeting cards from the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts a gesture that likely will double the nonprofit organization's card sales this year. i Turn to AIDS on OSfon A $90,000 settlement with a cruise line. Aetrium Inc.

comeback story 31 Ten years ago, when Joe i Levesque and his manage-s ment team took over, North St. Paul's Aetrium Inc. was teetering on the edge ot i bankruptcy. Since then. A combination of tight finanrli cial controls and shrewd ac i quisitions has turned it the most profitable maou-M facturer of semiconductor handling and testing equip--, ment in the industry.

Turn to Dick Youngblood on DZ Examining the ethics of stress Workplace stress can -t: make you lose sleep, affectll your concentration and CMrf ate a host of other prob-: lems. If one were to take the collective pulse on the floorit of the New York Stock Ex- change on any given day, I expect the results would be alarming. But did you ever think that stress might make you less ethical? Columnist Marjorie Kelly anxiety can do strange A things to good judgment, i Turn to Business Ethics on D3. Computer problem just 3 years off Trr The start of anew should come with a sense I of optimism. But for many- businesspeople, the passing of 1996 means only that a daunting challenge is speeding toward them.

In less than three years, when we arrive at New Year's Day 2000, most computers will, I collapse unless millions of lines of code have been re-i written and tested to verify their ability to recognize tne millennium change. The impact? Companies will unable to process end-of- i the-year billing and payroll properly card holders, will be refused transactions jj because their accounts will appear delinquent. Turn (4 Business Forum Commen tary on D3. hi fyi How to manage Web bookmarks Internet sites are sprouting up everywhere. So are bookmarks, which let con-.

sumers go to favorite Wide Web sites with a single mouse click. With so many sites on the Web (an estimated 400,000 and counting) PC users are finding it cumber- I some to maintain a com- prehensive list of book- marks without cluttering' their computer screens. jj Enter Starfish Software, a 2 start-up company run by -j Borland International founder Philippe Kahn. The 60-person company has developed Internet soft- 3 ware that lets users keep track of their bookmarks, as well as simplify and orgar nize their Net 2 Called QuickMarks, the product includes Control Center, a strip that sits on the right side of the computer screen like a virtual filing cabinet. It features drawers that open when you click on them to links to online information, "It's an economical ap- proach to saving desktop I space while cruising the Internet," Starfish's Erie; i Bodnarsaid.

i QuickMarks also eludes InternetMeter, which monitors the progress and efficiency of online commu-; nications, and QuickZip, 1 designed to compress and decompress files grabbed off the Internet. Users can fetch Quick-Marks from Starfish Software's Web site (www.star-fish.com) for free. Biannual updates are $20 each. San Francisco Chronicle Your turn If you'd like to share opinions about the Monday Business section, call Scott Gillespie, 673-4516. I 1995 1996 I I I I I I DUU I I I I 1994 NET INCOME $8 In millions $6.8 By Ann Merrill Star Tribune Staff Writer Nash Finch, the quiet, Edina-based grocery wholesaler, had just celebrated its 110th anniversary.

Its new chief executive officer, Al Flaten, had been in the job less than 18 months. The company was selling off its convenience store operations, expanding distribution to military bases and working on technology upgrades. Then it got a call from the head of Super Food Services Inc. Would Nash Finch be interested in buying the Ohio-based grocery wholesaler, a move that would catapult ninth-ranked Nash Finch to vie for the position of the nation's third-largest grocery wholesaler? After much consideration, the company last spring decided to go for it and began "the most significant year in Nash Finch history," Flaten said. "I knew if we could pull this off, it would be a big move.

At one point, I asked mmi i ii run 4 A ginger tin Nash's Dne spices, for Nash which In celebrated 111th The dates the 1920s. 2 i i i i I i i i I i i 1994 I 1995 I 1996 Nation's biggest wholesalers from 48 percent at the end of 1995. The debt led Standard Poor's for a time to put the company on its Cre-ditWatch report. But several factors came together to tempt Nash Finch: continued consolidation among wholesalers, competitive pressure in all sectors of the industry and Flaten's own desire to create a legacy of growth. "1 Now, two months after completion of the $250 million sale, there's agreement that the Super Food acquisition was a good albeit surprising move.

On the day the deal was announced, Nash Finch's thinly-traded stock closed at $16.75, up 25 cents a share. It's currently trading in the range of $21 a share, close to the 52-week high of $21.75 posted Dec. 30. "We had figured Nash Finch as a long shot, mainly because of its size but the acquisition makes tremendous financial sense," said David Katz, chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Management in New York City, former owner of Super Food stock. "Super Food has a reputation as a well-run company in a tough industry." Super Food's revenues climbed 2 percent to $1.2 billion in fiscal 1996 while net income edged up 11 percent to $10.1 million.

While investors may have been cheered by the 1996 performance, times have not always been so good. Turn to NASH FINCH on D4 from of packed Finch, December Its anniversary. tin probably from SALES, MOST RECENT FOUR QUARTERS NET INCOME COMPANY INBU.IQNS IN MILLIONS 1 Fleming Cos. Inc. $16.76 $203 Oklahoma City 2 Supervalu Inc.

$16.51 $171 Eden Prairie Wakefem Food Corp. $43 NA Elizabeth, NJ. (A co-op) Nash Finch Co. $3.09 $195 Edina Super Food $120 $102 Dayton, Ohio i Combined $4.29 $2571 Richfood Inc. $326 $421 Mechanicsville.Va.

my staff, 'Are we moving too They said, 'No, you hook 'em and we'll string Despite that enthusiasm, there was a lot to swallow with the Super Food deal. It required fiscally conservative Nash Finch to seek up to $500 million in unsecured bank financing, debt that is expected to raise the company's debt-to-capital ratio to more than 65 percent in 1997, Sources: Quarterly reports, companies and Chain Store Guide, an industry publication Funco bounces back with new generation of games Daily closes since 1296 $15- Inside business Stock up strongly from year ago, when firm was in the doldrums 12 -i 9 3f45jjan.il I i i i i i i i i David Phelps For Funco (FNCO) Chairman David Pomlje, the improved performance is a calculated mixture of art and science as well as timing and market knowledge. Turn to INSIDER on DS on American Express has an Injunction against SunAmerica Inc. Thanks in part to sizzling holiday sales of the newest generation of video games and hardware, Including the highly sought Nintendo 64, Eden Prairie-based Funco Inc. may be a candidate for comeback business of the year.

Last January Funco's stock traded for less than $3 a share and the company's earnings were flat year over year. But today the stock is hovering around a 52-week high of $14, earnings for the most recent quarter were stunning and prospects for the coming year have the investment community excited. FMAMJ ASONDJ Source Bloomberg Business Newt.