Nov. 25--RICHMOND, Va. --

A slow economy cut into cash at the business empire centered on Richmond's iconic Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. this summer.

And while the business saw its assets shrinking in a tough economy, it also repaid millions of dollars worth of IOUs, according to regulatory filings.

The filings, which provided scant details and no explanations, showed the company and its subsidiaries strengthen their balance sheet despite a drop in the cash they retained from operations.

They provide a rare look into the privately held company.

"Ukrop's balance sheet and income statement is impacted by a variety of investments unrelated to the operation of the supermarket," the company said in a written reply to questions about the filing yesterday.

"From time to time, when there is a downturn in the economy, it is reasonable to expect that our balance sheet and income statement would be impacted."

Beyond that, though, the company did not elaborate on the regulatory filing, which provided only bare-bones financial numbers and provided no year-over-year comparable figures.

Financial analysts usually need to see figures from the prior year and explanations of accounting standards and assumptions before drawing any conclusions.

The Ukrop family typically declines to talk specifics about the finances at the grocery business and its subsidiaries. Private companies are not required to release financial data.

The figures are out now because federal regulators this year began requiring banks to give basic data about their parent companies, even private ones such as Ukrop's.

The grocery chain and the Ukrop family own a majority of First Market Bank, a community bank based in Richmond. The bank plans to merge with Union Bankshares Corp.

The slow economy nationally has cut deeply into grocers' traditionally thin profit margins.

A potential sign of that erosion at Ukrop's came in the filing's disclosure that cash flow from operations -- the difference between the cash it takes in and the cash it pays out -- declined between the second and third quarter.

Operating cash flow fell to $2.9 million in the third quarter from $4.6 million the quarter before, the filings show.

The company lost $1.45 million in the third quarter on revenue of $140 million, the filing reported. The filing does not break out a reason for the loss, such as special charges or accounting technicalities.

Unlike the cash-flow figure, a loss can include a variety of accounting adjustments, ranging from depreciation and losses on investments to costs of shutting facilities.