Newspaper Plans Latino Business Centers

La Opinion, the nation’s largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, announced plans to launch business service centers for the Latino community in Southern California in partnership with Gigante USA, a major Mexican supermarket chain opening its first stores in the state. The centers, to be called SERVICentro La Opinion, will offer notary public and translation services, classified ad placements and business resource information, La Opinion officials said. Future services will include overnight delivery, telecommunication product sales and banking services. In a marketing alliance, the newspaper will locate the centers inside Gigante USA supermarkets. Gigante USA is a subsidiary of Grupo Gigante, Mexico’s third-largest supermarket chain and the first to enter the Southern California market. The first U.S. store is set to open today in Pico Rivera and two more openings are planned for later this year. La Opinion, which is partly owned by Times Mirror Co., said the centers will expand on the traditional role of a newspaper by offering needed professional services to Southern California’s estimated 6 million Latino residents and 300,000 Latino-owned businesses.