Delhaize America confirmed Tuesday that its distribution center in Green Cove Springs, Fla., will close after a previously announced deal with Bi-Lo Holdings is finalized next year.
Christy Phillips-Brown, director of external communications and community relations for Delhaize America, told the Jacksonville Daily Record in an email that the distribution center will close after the sale of its Harveys, Reid’s and Sweetbay banners to Bi-Lo. The Green Cove distribution center at 4627 J.P. Hall Blvd. services Harveys’ 73 stores in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, she said.
Delhaize America LLC notified the state Monday that 116 management employees would be laid off Feb. 9 in Green Cove Springs. Delhaize America, a subsidiary of Brussels-based Delhaize Group, described the affected jobs in the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed with the state as “management of companies and enterprises.”
Phillips-Brown said in the email to the Record that affected associates may apply for any open positions with the company.
Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings, which owns the Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo supermarket chains, agreed in May to buy the Harveys’ supermarkets along with 72 Sweetbay stores in Florida and 11 Reid’s stores in South Carolina from Salisbury, N.C.-based Delhaize America.
Bi-Lo has said it intends to retain all store-level employees after the deal is completed. The Delhaize stores have about 10,000 employees.
The Green Cove Springs warehouse was built to serve Delhaize’s Food Lion brand, which pulled out of Florida last year. Delhaize said in January 2012 that it was discontinuing the Food Lion banner in Florida and closing 113 stores, including 20 in the Jacksonville metropolitan area.
Delhaize continued to operate Sweetbay and Harveys, but announced in January that it would close 33 underperforming Sweetbay stores, leaving it with the 72 being sold to Bi-Lo.
