Dart Group

Dart Group Corp. has reported that its net income per share for the quarter that ended Jan. 31 dropped by nearly 97 percent.The principal cause of the decline was a sharp drop in the earnings of Landover-based Trak Auto Corp. Trak, which operates a nationwide chain of stores selling discount automobile parts and accessories, reported a $4.2 million loss in the quarter.Dart owns 69 percent of Trak, a 54 percent stake in Crown Books and a majority share of Shoppers Food Warehouse.Three months ended 1/31/91.

Richfood Holdings Inc., owner of Metro Food Markets, has completed its purchase of Dart Group Corp. for $160 a share, or about $207 million, the company said.Richmond, Va.-based Richfood, a grocery wholesaler that has expanded into retailing, acquired Dart, a Landover-based retail holding company, primarily to strengthen its supermarket business in the mid-Atlantic.The deal gives Richfood Shopper's Food Warehouse, a chain of 37 discount supermarkets in Maryland and Virginia and the third largest chain in metropolitan Washington, with stores in Anne Arundel, Charles, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

Dart Group Corp. agreed to pay Herbert Haft more than $41 million in the first part of a settlement that would wrest control of the retail and real-estate conglomerate from feuding family members.The tentative settlement requires 76-year-old Haft to step down as chairman and chief executive of Greenbelt-based Dart Group and relinquish all control of the company he founded more than 50 years ago.In return, Dart will pay Haft $29.7 million if the settlement is approved, plus $11.6 million from funds previously set aside by the company to pay a 1995 settlement to Ronald Haft, Herbert's son.The 11th-hour agreement brings to an end years of bitter fighting between Haft family members that ended up forcing the company, which owns majority stakes in Crown Books, Trak Auto and Shoppers Food Warehouse, into bankruptcy protection in May 1995.

In a bid to strengthen its supermarket business in the mid-Atlantic, Richfood Holdings Inc., which owns Metro Food Markets, has agreed to purchase Dart Group Corp. for $160 a share in cash, or about $207 million, the company said yesterday.Richmond, Va.,-based Richfood, a grocery wholesaler that has expanded into retailing, is buying Dart, a Landover-based retail holding company, primarily to acquire Shoppers Food Warehouse, a chain of 37 discount supermarkets in Maryland and Virginia and the third largest chain in metropolitan Washington, with stores in Anne Arundel, Charles, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

Richfood Holdings Inc., owner of Metro Food Markets, has completed its purchase of Dart Group Corp. for $160 a share, or about $207 million, the company said.Richmond, Va.-based Richfood, a grocery wholesaler that has expanded into retailing, acquired Dart, a Landover-based retail holding company, primarily to strengthen its supermarket business in the mid-Atlantic.The deal gives Richfood Shopper's Food Warehouse, a chain of 37 discount supermarkets in Maryland and Virginia and the third largest chain in metropolitan Washington, with stores in Anne Arundel, Charles, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

Landover-based Dart Group Corp. announced yesterday that sales increased 18.8 percent and 17.3 percent, respectively, for the three-month and nine-month periods that ended Oct. 31.Three-month sales increased to $261,475,000 from $220,075,000, and nine-month sales rose to $747 million from $636,829,000.The increase in Dart's sales resulted primarily from the increase in the number of stores operated by Shoppers Food Warehouse, Crown Books and Trak Auto, all subsidiaries of Dart Group.In addition, sales were up 7.5 percent and 7.1 percent during the three- and nine-month periods for stores open more than one year.

Dart Group Corp., the retail and financial company controlled by the Haft family of Washington, reported that its earnings for the second quarter plunged 72.5 percent from the same period a year ago.The plunge was not attributable to problems in the two companies Dart controls, Crown Books and Trak Auto. Trak Auto posted a healthy earnings gain, while the decline at Crown was too small to have had such a dramatic effect on Dart's earnings.Besides its 53 percent share of Crown Books and 68 percent share of Trak Auto, Dart owns 50 percent of Shoppers Food Warehouse, a fast-growing grocery chain in the Washington area, and 100 percent of Dart Group Financial and Cabot-Morgan Real Estate Co. Dart, Crown and Trak Auto are all based in Landover.

The feud among members of the Haft family over the control of their holdings in the Dart Group could well be a plot for the kinds of books Robert M. Haft promotes in television and newspapers advertisements for Crown Books, one of Dart's companies.Mr. Haft, 40, founded the Crown Books chain in 1977 and made it the nation's third-largest bookseller after Waldenbooks and Barnes & Noble, with reported sales of about $241 million. He was expected soon to succeed his 72-year-old father, Herbert H. Haft, as chairman and chief executive of the Dart Group.

Dart Group Corp. reported yesterday a first-quarter net loss of $467,000, or 36 cents a share.The company posted net income of $913,000, or 31 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. The quarter ended April 30.Dart Group's consolidated revenue for the quarter rose 3.3 percent, to $157.9 million, compared with $152.8 million in the first quarter of 1995.The Landover-based company operates retail outlets in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Illinois and California.Dart Group owns 67 percent of Trak Auto, the discount auto-supply retailer, 51 percent of Crown Books, and 50 percent of Shoppers Food Warehouse, which operates 34 stores in the region.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Dart Group Corp. founder Herbert Haft won a court ruling that could complicate the company's attempt to settle the lawsuits now swarming around it.The Delaware Chancery Court, in an opinion made public yesterday, rejected an attempt by Mr. Haft's son Ronald to gain voting rights to a controlling block of Dart Group shares that his father transferred to him in 1993.The court rejected Ronald Haft's motion for summary judgment in a 28-page opinion that said the voting rights to the 172,730 Class B shares aren't revocable under arguments pressed by Ronald Haft.

Dart Group Corp. agreed to pay Herbert Haft more than $41 million in the first part of a settlement that would wrest control of the retail and real-estate conglomerate from feuding family members.The tentative settlement requires 76-year-old Haft to step down as chairman and chief executive of Greenbelt-based Dart Group and relinquish all control of the company he founded more than 50 years ago.In return, Dart will pay Haft $29.7 million if the settlement is approved, plus $11.6 million from funds previously set aside by the company to pay a 1995 settlement to Ronald Haft, Herbert's son.The 11th-hour agreement brings to an end years of bitter fighting between Haft family members that ended up forcing the company, which owns majority stakes in Crown Books, Trak Auto and Shoppers Food Warehouse, into bankruptcy protection in May 1995.

Dart Group Corp. reported yesterday a first-quarter net loss of $467,000, or 36 cents a share.The company posted net income of $913,000, or 31 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. The quarter ended April 30.Dart Group's consolidated revenue for the quarter rose 3.3 percent, to $157.9 million, compared with $152.8 million in the first quarter of 1995.The Landover-based company operates retail outlets in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Illinois and California.Dart Group owns 67 percent of Trak Auto, the discount auto-supply retailer, 51 percent of Crown Books, and 50 percent of Shoppers Food Warehouse, which operates 34 stores in the region.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Dart Group Corp. founder Herbert Haft won a court ruling that could complicate the company's attempt to settle the lawsuits now swarming around it.The Delaware Chancery Court, in an opinion made public yesterday, rejected an attempt by Mr. Haft's son Ronald to gain voting rights to a controlling block of Dart Group shares that his father transferred to him in 1993.The court rejected Ronald Haft's motion for summary judgment in a 28-page opinion that said the voting rights to the 172,730 Class B shares aren't revocable under arguments pressed by Ronald Haft.

State eases standard on gas sold in winterMaryland has passed an emergency regulation to ease the amount of oxygen required in gasoline sold in Maryland, Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein said yesterday.The regulation, which lifts a requirement for cleaner-burning gasoline in Maryland during the winter months, is expected to result in lower shipping and blending costs for the state's 3,000 gasoline distributors and retailers.The savings, a penny or two per gallon, may be passed on to consumers, Mr. Goldstein said.

Greenspan urges CPI adjustmentFederal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called yesterday for a blue-ribbon commission to adjust spending and tax programs for inflation, a move that probably would mean lower Social Security benefits and higher taxes.Speaking to the Senate Finance Committee, Mr. Greenspan and other experts said the Consumer Price Index, used to index federal pensions and tax brackets for inflation, has an upward bias.Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood, an Oregon Republican, told reporters he had not made up his mind about Mr. Greenspan's idea.

WASHINGTON -- Dart Group Inc., the Washington-area retailing conglomerate torn by a squabble within the Haft family, announced late yesterday that its four outside board members have taken control of the company.In addition, the company said Chief Financial Officer Ron Marshall quit to take an executive position at Supermarkets General Inc., a New Jersey-based supermarket chain.The announcements came a day after Ronald Haft boosted his stake in Dart Group to 79 percent of its Class B shares in a move to wrest control of the company from his father, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Trak Auto Corp. *Ticker.. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. Yesterday's Symbol.. .. .. .. ... .... .. .. .. Cls.. .. .. ..Chg.TRKA .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..12 5/8 . .. .. .. .- 7/8Period endedMay 1 .. .. .. .. 1st qtr.. .. .. .. ..Year ago.. .. .. .. ... .. Chg.Revenue .. .. .. $77,883 .. .. .. .. ..$77,836 .. .. .. .. .. ...0.0%Net Income .. .. .. .$92 .. .. .. .. ..$1,573**. .. .. .. .. .. -94.2%Primary EPS .. .. .$0.01.. .. .. .. .. $0.54*. .. .. .. .. .. ..-98.1%Figures in thousands (except per-share data.

WASHINGTON -- A bitter battle that had split one of Washington's most prominent retailing families has ended in a court settlement under which the family's patriarch, Herbert H. Haft, will retain control of the family's companies, which include the Dart Group, Crown Books and Trak Auto.The case, which had the trappings of a soap opera, was settled on Tuesday. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but people familiar with the case confirmed the details of an article in the Washington Post yesterday that reported Mr. Haft, 73, and one of his sons, Ronald, 34, had bought the interests of Mr. Haft's wife, Gloria, and their eldest son, Robert, 40.Washington became fascinated with the family's quarrel in the spring of last year, when Herbert Haft suddenly tried to oust Robert Haft from the board of the Dart Group.

WASHINGTON -- Ronald Haft says his father Herbert, chairman of retailing conglomerate Dart Group Corp., is trying to remove him from the presidency of Crown Books, a Dart unit, and also may be trying to bounce him from the presidency of Dart.The younger Haft, meanwhile, is orchestrating an attempt to topple his father from control of the family's real estate holdings.At a Sept. 7 Crown board meeting, Herbert Haft plans to propose that Ronald Marshall be named the new president of Crown Books, which is 51 percent owned by Dart, according to a declaration filed in the District of Columbia Superior Court by Ronald Haft.

WASHINGTON -- A bitter battle that had split one of Washington's most prominent retailing families has ended in a court settlement under which the family's patriarch, Herbert H. Haft, will retain control of the family's companies, which include the Dart Group, Crown Books and Trak Auto.The case, which had the trappings of a soap opera, was settled on Tuesday. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but people familiar with the case confirmed the details of an article in the Washington Post yesterday that reported Mr. Haft, 73, and one of his sons, Ronald, 34, had bought the interests of Mr. Haft's wife, Gloria, and their eldest son, Robert, 40.Washington became fascinated with the family's quarrel in the spring of last year, when Herbert Haft suddenly tried to oust Robert Haft from the board of the Dart Group.