THE bankrupt Norco stores in Aberdeen and the North-east are

attracting interest from 15 companies.

The joint liquidators, Mr Ian Souter and Mr Dugal Beedie of Ernst &

Young, said yesterday some were interested in the 20 convenience shops

and the Centrepoint store in Aberdeen as one package: others were

interested in separate parts.

The firms included the UK chain Kwik Save; Scottish Co-operative;

Watson and Philip; Morning Noon & Night; and Shoprite, the Isle-of-Man

store group.

Mr Souter said they had not put a price on the stores, nor had those

showing an interest given any indication what would happen to the

existing staff.

''What we said in our sales package is that we hope the staff can be

transferred,'' Mr Souter said.

Norco employed 800 staff(450 part-time) and already 204 have been made

redundant, 150 with the closure of the Dundee superstore and 54 in

Aberdeen.

On the question of future redundancies, Mr Souter said: ''We are

assessing the trading position day by day and we will make employment

decisions on that basis.''

Mr Andrew Armstrong, who will be retiring in September as deputy

district manager for the French company, Total Oil Marine, has been

proposed as an independent trustee for the Norco pension fund, after

discussions with the Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers and

the Transport and General Workers' Union.

Mr Souter said that if there were a surplus in the fund, the

liquidators did not have the power to make any call on it.