Barnum in the Supermarket

Because he has a $1 billion bakery empire that stretches from Britain to Australia, Canadian-born Willard Garfield Weston is known as the "Barnum of Bread" (TIME, Feb. 14). Last week the Barnum of Bread rose some more. In a $32 million stock deal, Weston got control of Chicago's National Tea Co., fifth biggest U.S. market chain, with 1954 sales of $520 million. He did so by purchasing 544,000 shares (27%) of National Tea stock from Director John F.

Cuneo, one of the biggest U.S. printers, and onetime National President R. V.

Rasmussen. For his money, Weston will become the third biggest grocer on the North American continent, with $1.3 billion annual sales and 1,025 stores (712 National Tea stores, 313 in Weston's Loblaw chain) in 14 U.S. states and Canada. Only A.& P. and Safeway Stores are bigger. For Capitalist Cuneo, who bought 348,000 shares ten years ago at about $5 a share, the deal was a bonanza. By selling all but 5,000 shares at a reported price of $60 a share, Cuneo made a profit estimated at nearly $20 million.

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