OTHER NEWS - March 25, 1992

Buyer Found for Ghirardelli Chocolate: Chicago-based Quaker, which put the chocolate business up for sale three years ago, said it agreed to sell Ghirardelli to Thomas H. Lee Co., a Boston-based investment firm. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but analysts placed Ghirardelli’s value at between $15 million and $20 million. The Lee firm and its affiliates own controlling interests in General Nutrition Cos., Playtex Family Products, Petco Supply Stores and a number of other consumer-product companies. The sale is expected to close within a month. The company, founded in San Francisco in 1852 by Domingo Ghirardelli, has annual sales of $50 million and 200 employees.