By Noelle Edwards
nedwards@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó It’s unclear what consequence the Food Lion parent company’s planned acquisition of bankrupt competitor BI-LO will have on BI-LO stores here and elsewhere.
In Kannapolis, a Food Lion store and BI-LO store are less than half a mile apart, at 1746 and 1351 S. Cannon Blvd.
Christy Phillips-Brown, a spokeswoman for Food Lion, would not comment Wednesday on what will happen in such situations, whether one of the stores will close. She said it is too early to speculate about what will happen with specific BI-LO assets.
BI-LO operates grocery stores in about two dozen North Carolina cities and towns, according to the company’s Web site. The Kannapolis store is the closest one to Rowan County. There’s also a BI-LO store in Statesville.
Food Lion will acquire a majority of BI-LO’s assets, Food Lion’s parent company announced this week.
BI-LO filed for bankruptcy in March, and Delhaize Group, which is based in Belgium and operates the Food Lion company, paid $425 million in cash for what the company called “a substantial majority of BI-LO’s assets.”
A Delhaize Group press release said the agreement is nonbinding and “is subject to the satisfactory completion of the customary steps for such an acquisition including certain bankruptcy court approvals.”
The release said the companies plan to close the deal soon.
BI-LO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year and was in the process of restructuring.