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PENNEY'S GROWTH HORMONEThere's not much growth left in the department-store biz. So J.C. Penney is buying drugstores. On Nov. 3, the chain unveiled plans to snap up Eckerd in a deal worth $3.3 billion. It would make Penney, through its Thrift Drug unit, the nation's No.3 chain, with 2,800 stores and sales of $10 billion. Penney investors weren't impressed, in part because of Eckerd's $760 million of debt. And analyst Robert Buchanan of NatWest Securities frets that low drug profits erode Penney's overall margins.
EDITED BY KEITH H. HAMMONDS
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Updated June 14, 1997 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1996, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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