Sunbury, PA– Regional food retailer Weis Markets, Inc., announced Wednesday, July 13 that it has reached a definitive agreement with Food Lion, LLC, to purchase the assets of 38 Food Lion supermarket locations operating in the states of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. The Company plans to complete the purchase of these locations pending regulatory approval.
Weis Markets expects to complete the conversion process for the majority of these stores in September and October and is interested in hiring current Food Lion store teams for the purchased locations.
“This transaction provides us the opportunity to expand into markets that are contiguous to our current trade area, particularly in Maryland where we are adding 21 stores— essentially doubling our store count in a state where we have steadily grown in recent years,” Weis Markets Chairman, President and CEO Jonathan Weis stated in a press release.
The list of Food Lion store locations Weis Markets intends to purchase in the agreement with Food Lion, LLC includes seven stores in the three Southern Maryland counties – California, Callaway, La Plata, Lexington Park, Lusby, Prince Frederick and Solomons.
Local Food Lions not on Weis Markets’ purchase list include those located in Charlotte Hall, Waldorf and Leonardtown.
The Weis Markets purchase of several Food Lion stores sheds some light on the concerns about what will occur when the Ahold/Delhaize merger is fully implemented. The marriage of those two European-based grocery behemoths will impact the futures of several Giant, Food Lion and Mars grocery stores in the Mid-Atlantic region.