Liquor Barn’s Home Office Will Follow Expansion to Southland

SAN DIEGO — Liquor Barn, the San Leandro-based liquor discount retail chain, said Wednesday that it will move its headquarters to San Diego by May 1, a move that will result in layoffs of about 40 employees at its administrative offices in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Executives at the 65-store chain also said they plan to open at least 22 new stores by 1993, nearly all in Southern California. A major focus will be San Diego County, where five to seven stores will be added this year to the six already open, President Harvey Rosen said.

Described by industry observers as the nation’s largest specialty liquor chain, Liquor Barn was acquired for $40 million last year by an investment group headed by Triton Group Ltd., a publicly traded conglomerate based in La Jolla. The buyout was completed shortly after Liquor Barn emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Triton owns 67% of the chain’s equity, while a management group led by San Diegans Rosen and Lewis Silverberg own the remaining 33%.

At the time of the buyout, Rosen said Liquor Barn’s headquarters would remain in San Leandro. Rosen said Wednesday that he changed his mind because the company’s growth plans are concentrated so heavily in the southern half of the state.