Foodservice

Royal Ahold NV refused to comment yesterday on a report that the troubled company is considering selling all or part of U.S. Foodservice, the Columbia food distributor at the heart of an accounting scandal that has engulfed the Dutch retailing conglomerate. "It's all speculation," said Barry F. Scher, vice president of public affairs for Ahold USA, the U.S. arm of Ahold that includes Giant Food Inc. of Landover and U.S. Foodservice. "We don't comment on speculation." The Dutch company wants to sell all or part of U.S. Foodservice as part of a strategy to reduce about $14 billion in debt and to regain credibility with investors, London's Financial Times reported yesterday.

Global food retailer Royal Ahold NV, owner of Giant Food Inc. and Columbia-based U.S. Foodservice, said yesterday that first-quarter sales at its U.S. supermarket chains rose a better-than-expected 4.8 percent. Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer's performance, grew by 2.4 percent, the Netherlands-based Ahold said. The U.S. results helped boost investor confidence in the embattled company, which said last week that it had overstated profits at U.S. Foodservice by $880 million.

A day after James L. Miller was ousted as head of U.S. Foodservice in Columbia, two more executives resigned amid an accounting scandal that cost parent company Royal Ahold NV nearly $1 billion. Michael Resnick, U.S. Foodservice's chief financial officer, and David Abramson, executive vice president and general counsel, resigned effective immediately, Royal Ahold said yesterday. Resnick had worked for the Columbia food distributor since October 2000 and became chief financial officer in 2001.

James L. Miller, founder and chief executive of Columbia-based U.S. Foodservice, was ousted yesterday by parent company Royal Ahold NV nearly three months after the disclosure of an accounting fraud that cost the Dutch supermarket conglomerate $1 billion. Ahold's supervisory board said it asked Miller to resign based on an internal probe, completed last week, that found U.S. Foodservice inflated profits by $880 million over three years. Miller, 54, also will step down from the corporate executive board at Netherlands-based Ahold, the world's third-biggest retailer that counts Giant Food Inc. among its six U.S. grocery chains.

The fate of scandal-tinged U.S. Foodservice, the Columbia food distributor that inflated profits by $880 million over three years, will be among the first issues confronting Anders C. Moberg this week when he arrives in the Netherlands as the new head of Dutch food retailing giant Royal Ahold NV. Under normal circumstances, Moberg's job would be daunting as chief executive officer of a huge international retailer that runs thousands of stores in more...

Fraudulent accounting of rebates from suppliers at its Columbia-based subsidiary will cost global food retailer Royal Ahold NV nearly $1 billion, according to figures released yesterday. Ahold said that U.S. Foodservice overstated profit by $880 million over three years, 76 percent more than the previously estimated $500 million. The earnings restatements will wipe $700 million in assets from U.S. Foodservice's balance sheet as of last Dec. 28 and boost its liabilities by $290 million, Ahold said.

Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch food retailing giant under federal investigation for accounting fraud, is close to wrapping up its internal forensic accounting investigation and is expected to announce results by tomorrow. "We're expecting them to make an announcement within the next 48 hours," Frank DeMaria, a spokesman for Ahold in New York, said late yesterday. Ahold, the world's third-biggest retailer, disclosed in February that its U.S. Foodservice subsidiary, based in Columbia, overstated profits in 2000 and 2001 by at least $500 million by incorrectly booking rebates or discounts from vendors.

Sara Lee Corp. suspended three employees who provided auditors for Columbia-based U.S. Foodservice with inaccurate information about the size of its vendor discounts, which may have contributed to an accounting scandal that caused the Maryland company's Dutch parent to overstate earnings by at least $500 million. Sara Lee, widely known for its baked goods, said yesterday that the employees are cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating whether U.S. Foodservice executives improperly accounted for rebates it received from food manufacturers.

ConAgra Foods Inc. said yesterday that it had received five requests to confirm inaccurate payments to U.S. Foodservice, weeks before the Columbia company and its parent, Royal Ahold NV, came under fire for accounting irregularities. ConAgra, the nation's third-largest food manufacturer and a key supplier to U.S. Foodservice, said the food distributor sent it five letters between the end of January and the middle of February asking the supplier to confirm inflated estimates for what it owed in rebates.

He seemed, to some, low-key, almost humble, an unlikely future CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Some who watched James L. Miller move up in food service distribution say they never would have singled him out as one who would rise so far. Now Miller, credited nearly single-handedly with building U.S. Foodservice of Columbia into the nation's second-largest restaurant and institutional supplier, finds himself at the epicenter of an international accounting scandal...