SALISBURY, N.C., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Food Lion of Salisbury, N.C., said Wednesday it plans to acquire 10 Winn-Dixie stores in North Carolina and Virginia.
Food Lion said it will assume leases and acquire certain equipment and inventory from the Winn-Dixie Stores in Dunn, Elizabeth City, Elizabethtown and Havelock, N.C., and in Clarksville, Danville, Farmville, Martinsville, South Hill and Stanleytown, Va.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The company said the deal will carry out a key growth strategy to fill in and reinforce its presence in the company's current geographic footprint. Food Lion will pay for the stores in cash out of its planned 2004 capital expenditures budget.
Food Lion said it will re-brand the stores in Clarksville, Danville, Martinsville, South Hill and Stanleytown, with only a few-days gap in store operations. The store in Elizabethtown will be remodeled significantly to replace Food Lion's current location in that town.
Food Lion currently operates more than 1,200 stores and employs approximately 73,000 associates in 11 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.
Winn-Dixie of Jacksonville, Fla., currently operates approximately 1,073 stores across the southeastern United States and in the Bahamas and employs approximately 100,000 people.
