Stater Bros. Earnings Plummet 90%

Stater Bros. Holdings Inc. said Tuesday that its first-quarter profit tumbled 90% as the company lost much of the business it gained during last year’s supermarket strike.

Colton-based Stater Bros., which operates 160 Southland stores, reported net income for the quarter ended Dec. 26 of $3.4 million, compared with $34.6 million in 2003.

Sales for the first quarter fell 18% to $839.1 million, down from $1.03 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, slid 22.2% in the latest quarter compared with a year ago.

The supermarket labor dispute began in October 2003, when members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union struck Safeway Inc.’s Vons and Pavilions stores after contract talks stalled. Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs, were bargaining jointly with Safeway and immediately locked out their UFCW workers.

About 59,000 grocery workers were idled at supermarkets in Central and Southern California over the next 4 1/2 months. The dispute ended Feb. 29, when workers ratified a new three-year contract.

During the bitter strike, however, many of the three companies’ regular customers patronized other grocers, such as Stater Bros., Whole Foods Market Inc., Arden Group Inc.’s Gelson’s Markets and Trader Joe’s.