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Red Apple Companies, Inc., John A. Catsimatidis and two other firms have applied for Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission approval to divest the Sloan's supermarket at 530-534 Amsterdam Avenue in New York City to 530 Food Corp. Food Corp. would operate the supermarket as a Met Food Store. The FTC is seeking public comments on the application for 30 days, until Jan. 4, 1996, before making a decision.

Food Corp. is located c/o Herbert J. Silver on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Its president, Ted Y. Park, operates two supermarkets in the New York metropolitan area, one in Brooklyn and one in Forest Hills.

The divestiture is required under a February 1995 consent order Red Apple signed to settle FTC charges that its acquisition of several Sloan's supermarkets between 1991 and 1993 could substantially lessen supermarket competition in each of four Manhattan neighborhoods. The consent order requires Red Apple, Sloan's Supermarkets, Inc. (also known as Designcraft Industries, Inc.), and Catsimatidis, who is chairman of Red Apple and Sloan's, to divest six Manhattan supermarkets by March 6, 1996 to entities that will operate them as supermarkets in competition with Red Apple, thus restoring the competition allegedly injured by the challenged acquisitions. This is the first divestiture application to be submitted by Red Apple.

The application states that Food Corp. would be a new entrant in the supermarket business in the Upper West Side area, so the divestiture would satisfy the goal of the consent order to restore competition.

Comments on the application should be sent to FTC, Office of the Secretary, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Copies of the application and other documents associated with this case are available from the FTC's Public Reference Branch, Room 130, same address as above; 202-326-2222; TTY for the hearing impaired 202-326-2502. To find out the latest news as it is announced, call the FTC NewsPhone recording at 202- 326-2710. FTC news releases and other materials also are available on the Internet at the FTC's World Wide Web site at: http://www.ftc.gov

(FTC Docket No. 9266)