San Clemente Agency Snares Alpha Beta Pact : Promotion: Husband-wife team scores a coup in landing $10-million advertising account with 141-store chain.

The owner of Alpha Beta supermarkets surprised the county advertising community Tuesday by awarding most of its $16-million ad account to a husband-and-wife team from San Clemente.

Heil-Brice Retail Advertising, operated by Joan Heil and Hal Brice, was awarded a $10-million account to promote the 141-store Alpha Beta chain.

Food 4 Less, the La Habra-based owner of Alpha Beta, awarded a $6-million account to Cochrane Chase, Livingston & Co. of Irvine to promote several of its smaller supermarket chains: Viva, Boys Markets, ABC Markets, Food 4 Less Warehouse, Cala Foods and Bell Markets.

Cochrane Chase is said to be the oldest ad agency in the county and was rumored last week to be in line to win the entire Food 4 Less account.

“Cochrane was the only name I heard,” said John Good, publisher of California AdNews in Newport Beach. “In the scheme of things in Orange County, those are very big accounts, and people have been watching this closely. We were a bit surprised by the way the account was broken up.”

Good said splitting the account is part of a trend among advertisers to choose very specialized agencies. Heil-Brice got its start in Phoenix handling advertising for the ABCO supermarket chain, which is based in Arizona.

The agency, which moved to the county almost four years ago, now handles advertising for Big Bear Markets of San Diego and the Sacramento-based Raley’s chain.

In the past, Heil-Brice has concentrated on TV and radio ads.

“The Alpha Beta stores are the keystone of this group,” said John Vrba, senior vice president for the Newport Beach office of Western International Media, one of the country’s biggest media buyers. “Presumably, (Food 4 Less) wanted a different kind of approach for Alpha Beta. Their other chains are Hispanic-oriented and have a smaller number of stores.”

Officials from Food 4 Less, Heil-Brice and Cochrane Chase did not return telephone calls Tuesday.

Food 4 Less also plans to spend $100 million to renovate some of its Alpha Beta stores, which are mostly in Southern California, and is topping them with new green awnings.

The electronic media ad campaign will be an important one for the Alpha Beta chain, which spent almost three years in limbo because the state attorney general’s office opposed its merger with Lucky Stores.

In 1988, Salt Lake City-based American Stores, which owned the Alpha Beta chain, bought the rival Lucky Stores chain for $2.5 billion. The deal was held up, however, when former Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp determined that the combination would violate state antitrust law.

In June, American Stores sold its Alpha Beta stock to Food 4 Less Supermarkets Inc. for $251 million. Food 4 Less is owned by Claremont-based Yucaipa Cos., which had already owned the other chains, including Market Basket; it operates Marina Market in Marina del Rey.

The Los Angeles office of Bozel Inc., a New York-based ad agency, had previously handled the Alpha Beta account.