Wholesalers

Two of Maryland's largest wholesale alcohol distributors are pressing ahead with plans for a partnership after the state attorney general's office decided not to challenge the plan on antitrust grounds. Churchill Distributors LLC of Baltimore and Reliable Liquors Inc. of Glen Burnie will form Reliable Churchill LLLP. The new venture will be an affiliate of the Charmer-Sunbelt Group, owner of Churchill and one of the largest beverage distributors in the country. James Smith, president of Reliable, will become the chairman and chief executive of the company.

Sol Kramer, who turned a Depression-era 15-cent balsa toy airplane business into a leading wholesale hobby empire, died of pneumonia April 24 at Hospice by the Sea in Pompano Beach, Fla. The former Pikesville resident was 96. Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Lithuanian immigrants. His father, Morris, was a Saratoga Street tailor. His mother, Dora, was a homemaker. Mr. Kramer was a graduate of the old Robert E. Lee School and received his diploma from City College at age 14. "He and his brother, Lou, belonged to the Junior Birdmen of America, a model airplane club promoted by the Hearst newspapers," said his son, Dr. Karl Kramer of Coral Gables, Fla. "His brother was really the airplane builder.

WASHINGTON - Sales at U.S. wholesalers posted the largest gain in 19 months in January and inventories fell, a sign that further demand may have to be met by increased factory production. The 1.2 percent increase in sales after a 0.5 percent drop in December was the first since August and the biggest since June 2000, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. Stockpiles fell for an eighth consecutive month in January. The 0.2 percent decline after a drop of 0.5 percent in December brought the value of inventories to a two-year low of $287.

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative said Tuesday that it will seek approval from Maryland regulators to build an electric power plant in Cecil County. The Virginia-based Old Dominion supplies power to about 550,000 households and businesses through 11 cooperatives in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, including the 52,000-member Choptank Electric Cooperative on the Eastern Shore. The nonprofit said its proposed plant would be constructed near Rising Sun, at its Rock Springs facility.

ANNAPOLIS -- A controversial bill to give Maryland wholesalers some economic protection against the manufacturers who supply them made it out of a House committee yesterday.But the heated debate preceding the 13-9 vote by the House Economic Matters Committee suggests that the heavily amended bill faces a fight in the full House next week.Sponsored at the behest of the Department of Economic and Employment Development, the bill sets rules for manufacturers who want to end their relationships early with some wholesale distributors.

ANNAPOLIS -- A controversial bill to give Maryland wholesalers some economic protection against the manufacturers who supply them made it out of a House committee yesterday.But the heated debate preceding the 13-9 vote by the House Economic Matters Committee suggests that the heavily amended bill faces a fight in the full House next week.Sponsored at the behest of the Department of Economic and Employment Development, the bill sets requirements for manufacturers who want to end their relationships early with some wholesale distributors.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, says the old saw. It may soon be lined with higher-priced gas stations, too, thanks to Maryland's General Assembly. State lawmakers are considering legislation to ban motor fuel "zone pricing," under which fuel wholesalers charge higher prices to some retail gas stations than to others. Understandably, retailers oppose the practice, and legislators worry that it's unfair. But if lawmakers vote to prohibit zone pricing, consumers will end up paying higher gas prices, because low-price stations will end up charging more.

Nine cigar and wholesale tobacco companies in Maryland sued Baltimore yesterday to block a new cigar tax from taking effect July 1.The suit challenges legislation passed by City Council in December that will impose a levy of 18 cents to 36 cents on each cigar sold by wholesale tobacco dealers in the city.The bill originally targeted tobacco shops and pipe and chewing tobacco. Those businesses were cut from the measure after owners complained that the tax would wipe them out.A provision in the city law repeals the cigar tax when a 30-cents-a-pack increase in the state's cigarette tax -- now 36 cents a pack -- kicks in next year.

POLICE LOG* Whitehall: Thieves broke into Centronic Wholesalers Inc., in the 1600 block of Whitehall Road, Monday morning and stole electronic equipment valued at more than $300, police said.

There is nothing wrong with the economy that bombing Baghdad is going to put right.Congress, against military advice, is spending $1.5 billion to develop a tilt-rotor aircraft that is designed to go up and forward but actually goes down.The Baltimore financial district is cosmopolitan: a little bit of Ireland, a touch of New York, a slice of Virginia and now a hunk of North Carolina.Perot was going to end the welfare state for boaters, peanut wholesalers, motorists and all retired people.

After spending the bye week meeting with coaches and reviewing every aspect of the Ravens' play through the first seven games, coach John Harbaugh said there are no plans to make "wholesale changes" before Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns, and acknowledged that there isn't a simple fix to the team's road woes. "Execution is part of it, but coaching is part of it, game-planning is part of it, guys developing into their positions, whatever it might be, it's all a big part of it," Harbaugh said Monday.

One of the latest tech startups to get a footing in Baltimore is Foodem , a website started by a University of Maryland College Park grad a few years ago that aims to build a transparent marketplace for commercial food buyers and distributors. Kash Rehman, the founder of Foodem, has been on both sides of the equation in the food industry: he's worked for a small food distributor in Maryland and he's also run his own restaurant in College Park. Here's what Rehman, 35, learned along the way. As a restaurant buyer, he needed to spend an hour by phone comparing wholesale prices for food (think chicken tenders)

Albert Wilbur Woodfield Jr., former owner of a Rock Hall wholesale seafood company, died Wednesday at his daughter's Centreville home of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 81. The son of a wholesale seafood merchant and a homemaker, Mr. Woodfield was born and raised in Galesville and was a 1948 graduate of Southern High School in Lothian. Mr. Woodfield was a partner in Woodfield Fish & Oyster Co. of Galesville, which had been established by his father. In 1965, he left the business when he purchased Hubbard's Pier and Seafood Inc. in Rock Hall, which he owned and operated until selling the business in 1988.

The $245 million settlement that Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group agreed to pay is the largest of its kind to resolve allegations of market manipulation with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Details of the settlement emerged Monday, the same day Chicago-based Exelon Corp. closed on its $7.9 billion takeover of Constellation. The sale creating the largest non-utility energy provider in the United States ushers Baltimore's last Fortune 500 company out of town. The New York Stock Exchange will de-list Constellation shares Tuesday.

Hundreds of workers at Giant Food distribution center in Jessup worry that their jobs are in danger because a New Hampshire company will take over operations of the facility next month. The company, C&S Wholesale Grocers, laid off 1,100 workers at a subsidiary in New Jersey earlier this month when it shut down six food distribution centers. Unionized Giant workers fear they could face the same fate just as their contract is slated to expire May 14. About 600 of the workers and union organizers gathered at a Teamsters union hall Sunday to discuss how to fend off possible job losses that could impact more than 1,000 workers.

William John Salladin II, a former insurance executive who headed All Risks Ltd. for more than three decades, died Friday of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 67. Mr. Salladin, the son of an insurance executive and a homemaker, was born in Proctor, Vt. The family moved to Rumson, N.J., and then to Towson in 1957. After graduating from Towson High School in 1961, Mr. Salladin attended the University of Maryland, College Park. An animal lover, Mr. Salladin was 14 when he began working for a Towson veterinarian and had planned on studying to become a veterinarian.

Before most of us have even thought about morning coffee, Norman "Moe" Mozal has rounded up 20,000 pounds of free fresh fruits and vegetables at the Maryland Wholesale Produce Market in Jessup.Mr. Mozal had the haul, valued at about $4,200 on the wholesale market, loaded and whisked off in a tractor trailer to Baltimore.By day's end all of the produce, from cherry tomatoes to iceberg lettuce and string beans, will be given away.No one will have paid a dime for the goods.The immediate beneficiary of the haul is the Baltimore-based Maryland Food Bank, the nonprofit organization that distributes donated food statewide to more than 400 organizations that help the needy.

SAN FRANCISCO - The same folks who decided Bush vs. Gore soon may be deciding whether wine can be delivered to your door. With lower federal courts divided, proponents and foes of interstate wine shipping are expecting the Supreme Court to eventually decide the issue. At stake will be the competing values of state's rights and free trade. That was the message last month when an advocate for the wine industry and consumers debated a lawyer for the nation's liquor wholesalers at the annual gathering here of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Stanley I. Greenebaum, a retired wholesale appliance executive and World War II combat veteran, died of a stroke July 8 at Sinai Hospital. The Pikesville resident was 85. Born in Baltimore, he grew up on Menlo Drive and graduated from Forest Park High School in 1942. He entered the Army a few months later and was moved from post to post, including Maryland, Washington, Kentucky and Texas. While in the artillery school at Fort Sill in Oklahoma he received orders to report to Officer Candidate School.