Bi-Lo Holdings LLC, the parent company of Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, will buy an additional 165 stores.
The deal announced Tuesday includes 72 Sweetbay and Harveys sites each. As part of the transaction, Bi-Lo Holdings will also acquire leases for 10 prior Sweetbay locations. Delhaize will retain Sweetbay’s distribution center.
Bi-Lo is paying $265 million in cash to purchase owns all the Sweetbay, Harveys and Reid’s stores throughout the Southeastern United States from the Delhaize Group, the company said in a news release Tuesday. The stores employ about 10,000 workers
Greenville, S.C.-based BI-LO emerged from bankruptcy protection in May after spending a little over a year there.
It had filed for bankruptcy in March 2009, as a weak economy and intense competition weighed on the supermarket industry, joining other grocers such as Bashas' Inc, Arizona's largest family-owned grocery chain and regional supermarket chain Penn Traffic Co.
BI-LO was reportedly put up for sale in August 2010; Kroger and Publix were said to be interested in acquiring the chain, but nothing ever developed from these rumors.
BI-LO operates 207 supermarkets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. About 75 percent of the company's stores are in markets where it ranks as the number one or two conventional grocer, Reuters reported in April, citing company data.
Dallas-based Lone Star, a large private equity firm with $24 billion of capital, bought BI-LO in 2005 for $660 million from Dutch supermarket group Royal Ahold. Ahold had owned the chain, which was founded in 1964, since 1977.
In April, BI-LO said the reorganization plan approved by the court included a $150 million equity investment by Lone Star and $200 million in committed term loan financing from Credit Suisse. In addition, GE Capital provided a $150 million revolving credit facility.
They have came far from what they were, I know Winn-Dixie stores were common up here in NC, then they all packed up and left, but I remember that they were nice stores. I'm glad to hear that Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo are making a come back. One of the stores in the group that I work for, used to be a Winn-Dixie, It turned out to be a very nice store once the owner of my company bought it and remodeled it. It's been open for over 2 years now, but people still call it the Winn-Dixie, I get a kick out of it every time.
-- Edited by camorrisiii on Tuesday 4th of June 2013 09:00:12 PM
