Shaw's will close six locations in Massachusetts and Rhode Island by early August, the company says. Owner Cerberus Capital Management has been seeking to make the supermarket profitable since it purchased the chain from SUPERVALU in January. "The stores identified have not been profitable for quite some time, and despite the best efforts of the company and our associates, we have not been able to reposition them to better compete in the marketplace and don't anticipate being able to change this trend," Shaw's spokesman Steve Sylven said.

The six stores slated to close by Aug. 3 are located on Winthrop Street, Taunton; William S. Canning Boulevard, Fall River; Berdon Way, Fairhaven; Washington Street, Stoughton; and two Rhode Island locations. The Rhode Island stores are located in Westerly and Woonsocket.

Former Shaw’s parent company Supervalu Inc. sold the supermarket chain in January to an investor group headed by Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus, a private investment firm, also owns Steward Health Care, the company that runs Morton Hospital in Taunton, Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and several other community hospitals in Massachusetts.

Reports surfaced last year that Supervalu faced $6 billion in debt. Months later, Supervalu announced that it had reached a deal to sell Shaw’s, Star Market, Albertson’s, Acme and Jewel-Osco to the Ceberus-led group for $100 million. As part of that deal, the company assumed more than $3 billion of Supervalu’s debt.

In November 2012, Shaw’s began laying off 700 employees across its 169 New England stores.

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