BALTIMORE -- Pantry Pride plans to close 54 stores in Maryland and Delaware Aug. 15 because of strong competition and financial difficulties, the company's chief executive said Tuesday.
Grant Gentry said, 'The decision was made necessary because of the region's continuing losses and the unliklihood that it could become profitable in the near term given the intense competitive situation existing in the area.'
About 4300 employees will be affected by the closing of the stores, 38 of which are in the Baltimore area, Gentry said in a statement issued from company headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla..
Gentry said, 'The closing of the Baltimore operations and the elimination of the continuing lossess will increase the viablity of the company as a whole.'
The company said the closing of 54 supermarkets should result in a substantial writeoff for the fiscal year. Pantry Pride lost $6 million in the region in the past 11 months.
Pantry Pride Enterprises, previously known as Food Fair Inc., on July 6 emerged from 33 months of operation under Chapter XI of the federal bankruptcy act.
Bernard Lipskin, the company's director of communications, said then that the company filed motions with the bankruptcy court to retain jurisdiction of the Baltimore operations.
The company operates 143 other Pantry Pride supermarkets, 117 in Florida, seven in Georgia and 19 in Virginia.
Lipskin said the Baltimore warehouse will remain open to supply the Virginia market, but that some warehouse employees will be laid off.
The company has closed more than 200 stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut since encountering financial difficulties in October 1978..
