Longs Plans to Buy Stores in Northwest

Longs Drug Stores Corp. plans to buy closely held Western Drug Distributors Inc., a chain of 20 drugstores, for an undisclosed price, to expand into the Pacific Northwest.

Western Drug, based in Bellevue, Wash., operates stores in Washington and Oregon under the Drug Emporium name. It is a franchisee of Drug Emporium Inc.

Longs operates 350 drugstores in California, Colorado, Hawaii and Nevada and had 1997 sales of $2.95 billion.

“It represents a little bit of an acceleration of their growth effort,” said Eric Bosshard, an analyst at Midwest Research.

Shares of Walnut Creek-based Longs rose $1.25 Wednesday to $33.12 on the New York Stock Exchange.