Giant Food Stores/Martin’s has been granted FTC approval to complete the acquisition of five corporately-owned Shop ‘n Save stores from Supervalu, now a subsidiary of United Natural Foods (UNFI). The deal was first announced on November 6, 2018 and is part of Supervalu/UNFI’s plan to shed all of its corporately-owned supermarkets nationally.
The Carlisle, PA unit of Ahold Delhaize USA plans to convert the Shop ‘n Save stores into Martin’s Food Markets units.
The following stores are part of the sale: 22401 Jefferson Boulevard, Smithsburg, MD; 500 North Antrim Way, Greencastle, PA; 409 North McNeil Road, Berryville, VA; 147 Roaring Lion Drive, Hedgesville, WV; and 1317 Old Courthouse Square, Martinsburg, WV.
The five stores will temporarily close on March 27 at 6 p.m. to begin the conversion. All five stores will receive extensive remodels and reopen to customers on April 5 at 8 a.m.
“Our team is really excited to bring Martin’s Food Markets to these vibrant communities,” said Nicholas Bertram, president, Giant/ Martin’s. “We put our customers at the heart of everything we do, and with the addition of these locations, our new neighbors can count on farm fresh produce and quality products their families will love.”
In July 2016, Supervalu acquired 22 stores in the region from Food Lion, a unit of Delhaize America as part of a mandated divestiture by the FTC prior to the merger of Ahold and Delhaize. Those stores were re-bannered as Shop ‘n Saves (SVU has other stores in Western Pennsylvania that utilize that name) and were supervised by another Supervalu corporate entity – Shoppers Food & Pharmacy. In September 2018, a month prior to UNFI’s acquisition of the Eden Prairie, MN-based wholesaler/retailer, Supervalu announced it would close 13 stores in the original batch. Two months later, Giant/Martin’s said it would acquire five of the remaining units. The completion of the acquisition follows a series of strategic investments that the company has recently made to its store fleet and family of brands within Pennsylvania, including the recent opening of the first Giant Heirloom Market in Philadelphia, where three additional locations are planned to open this year; the grand opening of its new Giant Direct e‐commerce hub in the city of Lancaster and new stores opening this year in the East Stroudsburg and Walnutport communities.