BRUSSELS — Delhaize Group here said Thursday it plans to shutter 113 Food Lion stores and eliminate the Bloom banner as part of a broader reorganization.
The company also said it would convert 42 of its Bloom stores to the Food Lion banner and shutter the remaining seven locations of the Bloom banner.
It will also convert 22 of its Bottom Dollar Food locations in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, and shutter the six remaining Bottom Dollar Food stores in those markets.
“We have decided to focus our Bottom Dollar Food brand on markets which provide the greatest opportunity for growth such as Philadelphia, where we have enjoyed considerable success, and Pittsburgh, where we will open our first stores in the first quarter of 2012,” the company said in a statement.
The company will also close a distribution center in the U.S. and 20 stores in Southeastern Europe.
In total the company is closing 164 locations in the U.S. and Europe and converting 64 Bloom and Bottom Dollar Food stores to Food Lion.
The company also reported that sales in the U.S. were up 1% in the fourth quarter, to $4.77 billion, and up 2.2% for the fiscal year, to $19.23 billion. Comparable-store sales in the U.S. were down 0.4% for the fourth quarter as "customers continued to reduce their spending," the company said.
