Nov 10, 2004 11:20 AM, from staff and wire reports

Food Lion LLC has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 10 Winn-Dixie stores in North Carolina and Virginia.

The supermarket chain will assume leases and acquire certain equipment and inventory for stores in Dunn, Elizabeth City, Elizabethtown and Havelock NC; and Clarksville, Danville, Farmville, Martinsville, South Hill, and Stanleytown VA. The stores will be paid for in cash from the firm’s planned 2004 capital expenditures budget.

Food Lion will rebrand the stores in Clarksville, Danville, Martinsville, South Hill, and Stanleytown. The store in Elizabethtown will be remodeled to replace Food Lion’s current location in that town.

A subsidiary of Delhaize America, the United States division of Brussels, Belgium-based Delhaize Group, Food Lion operates more than 1,200 stores and employs about 73,000 associates.