Royal Ahold (Giant, Stop & Shop) to buy Delhaize (Food Lion, Hannaford)

[store215]

 :o
The Dutch supermarket operator Ahold and the Delhaize Group of Belgium said on Wednesday that they had agreed to an all-share merger that would create one of the largest supermarket chains in the United States.

The deal would combine Delhaize, the owner of the American supermarket chains Food Lion and Hannaford, with Ahold, which owns the Stop & Shop and Giant stores in the United States, amid increasing competition in the grocery sector.

The combined company would be called Ahold Delhaize and would be worth about 26.2 billion euros, or about $29.5 billion, based on market capitalization. It would have more than 6,500 stores and 375,000 employees in the United States and Europe, and sales of â,¬54.1 billion.

[BillyGr]

Silly question - but is this in the stores shutting down forum for some reason?  The two companies are merging, but not necessarily closing stores.  Not to say that it won't happen, but probably if so only in limited areas as much of the two brands to not overlap.

[ynkeesfn82]

Will they keep all the separate banners? Will the Stop & Shop banner return to New Hampshire? (replacing the Hannaford Banner) Or will the Hannaford banner come to Connecticut? (replacing the Stop & Shop banner) Will the Giant banner come south? (replacing the Food Lion banner_

[MikeRa]

Will they keep all the separate banners? Will the Stop & Shop banner return to New Hampshire? (replacing the Hannaford Banner) Or will the Hannaford banner come to Connecticut? (replacing the Stop & Shop banner) Will the Giant banner come south? (replacing the Food Lion banner_

In regards to the Fredericksburg, VA area, will they convert the Fod lion to Martin's, or vice versa.  The small sampling of Food Lions in Pa most likely will convert to GIANT [PA]

[store215]

Silly question - but is this in the stores shutting down forum for some reason?  The two companies are merging, but not necessarily closing stores.  Not to say that it won't happen, but probably if so only in limited areas as much of the two brands to not overlap.

Wasn't sure where else to place it...grocery/supermarket forum didn't really feel right. Maybe we need a new topic section of 'News' type business stories.

[TheFugitive]

Interesting.  I wonder if Bottom Dollar would still be around if this deal had happened a year
and a half ago?

Did not have my reading glasses on and the start of title of this thread looked like "Royal Ahole."
LOL!

[BillyGr]

Interesting.  I wonder if Bottom Dollar would still be around if this deal had happened a year
and a half ago?

Did not have my reading glasses on and the start of title of this thread looked like "Royal Ahole."
LOL!

I'm sure I've seen people call them that. :)

Although, in terms of the overall markets, I think the Giant / Stop and Shop sections cover most of the former Bottom Dollar footprint?  So in the long run, less of an overlap.

[JoshAustin610]

Selling off Bottom Dollar may have been necessary for the merger to go through, at least the Philly-area stores.

[retailisking]

Will they keep all the separate banners? Will the Stop & Shop banner return to New Hampshire? (replacing the Hannaford Banner) Or will the Hannaford banner come to Connecticut? (replacing the Stop & Shop banner) Will the Giant banner come south? (replacing the Food Lion banner_

Stop & Shop and Ahold have collectively come and gone at least three times in New Hampshire, and the brand is absolutely toxic at this point, so I would say there is zero chance of that banner re-entering the Granite State. Hannaford has strong brand equity in Northern New England and Ahold would be insane to make any banner changes there. Where Food Lion and Giant/Martin's overlap you might see some switching back and forth as Kroger has done with Harris Teeter.

[AmesNewington]

I don't think the Stop and Shop name will go anywhere in Connecticut. It is just too popular a brand in the state to just disappear. However, I think a clever idea if they ever wanted to test the waters would be to try out some Stop and Shop locations that are close to each other/not needed (like the Newington and Vernon Shaw's locations) as Hannaford's or Food Lion. I doubt S&S will ever give up those locations anyway. Plus, the Newington location alone is in a very busy area and would be a good test spot.

[MikeRa]

I don't think the Stop and Shop name will go anywhere in Connecticut. It is just too popular a brand in the state to just disappear. However, I think a clever idea if they ever wanted to test the waters would be to try out some Stop and Shop locations that are close to each other/not needed (like the Newington and Vernon Shaw's locations) as Hannaford's or Food Lion. I doubt S&S will ever give up those locations anyway. Plus, the Newington location alone is in a very busy area and would be a good test spot.

In New York, I can still see both Stop & Shop and Hannaford there, since they are in different parts of that state, with S&S in the NYC metro area, and Hannaford in the upstate area.  I can also see the Food lion name staying in North Carolina and South Carolina since Giant [MD] and Martin's are not in those states.

Will they keep all the separate banners? Will the Stop & Shop banner return to New Hampshire? (replacing the Hannaford Banner) Or will the Hannaford banner come to Connecticut? (replacing the Stop & Shop banner) Will the Giant banner come south? (replacing the Food Lion banner_

In regards to the Richmond, VA area, will they convert the Food Lion to Martin's, or vice versa.  The small sampling of Food Lions in Pa most likely will convert to GIANT [PA]

As for the rest of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, it's a tough call, since there is Food Lion, Martin's (in western VA, MD, and WV), and Giant [MD] (in the northern VA by DC and Eastern MD, and DE)

[BillyGr]

In New York, I can still see both Stop & Shop and Hannaford there, since they are in different parts of that state, with S&S in the NYC metro area, and Hannaford in the upstate area.

There are only a handful of questions.

Stop & Shop goes as far north as Rhinebeck, NY.
There is a Hannaford on the Rhinebeck/Red Hook border - the two are probably about 3-4 miles apart (maybe less).
In addition, neither town has another supermarket.  This is one spot where it seems there could be a mandated divestiture of one or the other (in order to maintain competition).  PC or ShopRite would be the most likely candidates (unless someone totally different wanted to come in).

Further south, there are several spots where both exist in (relatively) close proximity, but those areas also have ShopRite, Price Chopper and/or A&P within range so it shouldn't be a competition issue there.

Between Hannaford and S&S, the only other overlap is in the Eastern part of MA - Hannaford had purchased a chain (Victory Markets) there a number of years ago, but I think their site shows 29 stores in MA, which is a small # when compared to S&S, so no idea if they'd switch names or keep both - not sure exactly how close the store chains are. 
Additionally there are Shaw's/Star and probably others as well so again not the competition issues.

[JimSawhill]

Interesting.  I wonder if Bottom Dollar would still be around if this deal had happened a year
and a half ago?

Did not have my reading glasses on and the start of title of this thread looked like "Royal Ahole."
LOL!

I'm sure I've seen people call them that. :)

Although, in terms of the overall markets, I think the Giant / Stop and Shop sections cover most of the former Bottom Dollar footprint?  So in the long run, less of an overlap.

I called them that... Those Royal AHole wrecked S&S...IMHO....