Food Lion Launches New Brand Strategy in 269 North Carolina and South Carolina Stores

SALISBURY, N.C., July 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Food Lion launched today its new brand strategy in 269 stores in North Carolina and South Carolina, including its headquarter city of Salisbury, N.C.  The new strategy is based on customer feedback and continues to position the company for future success. 

"Today's launch is a pivotal turning point for our company as we have implemented our new strategy in more than 700 stores," said Cathy Green Burns, president of Food Lion.  "We invite customers to visit their local Food Lion, where they will experience firsthand the enhancements we have made in our stores.  We are committed to being recognized as a price leader, making our stores easier to shop, offering the greatest value in store brands and providing the freshest produce.  We are pleased to bring the strategy to our hometown markets, where we have served Food Lion customers for 55 years." 

To celebrate the launch, Food Lion is holding grand re-opening festivities at the 269 stores, including providing the first 50 customers at each location a bag of free groceries today through Saturday, July 21.  The company also plans to donate $30,000 in store brand food products to local charities, including $10,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina in Charlotte, N.C.; $10,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina in Winston-Salem, N.C.; $5,000 to MANNA FoodBank in Asheville, N.C.; and $5,000 to Harvest Hope Food Bank in Greenville, S.C.

Food Lion's brand strategy offers customers lower prices on 6,000 items throughout the store and access to quality store brand products at lower prices, including the company's my essentials value tier, as well as enhanced produce and an easy and convenient shopping experience, such as faster checkout.  To support its new strategy, the company created approximately 800 new jobs.

The company launched the new brand strategy in cities across the states of North Carolina and South Carolina today, including stores in the greater markets of Salisbury, N.C., the company's headquarter city; Charlotte, N.C.; Greensboro, N.C.; High Point, N.C.; Winston-Salem, N.C.; Hickory, N.C.; Asheville, N.C.; and Rock Hill, S.C., and the upstate of South Carolina, including Greenville, S.C., and Spartanburg, S.C.  Food Lion also remodeled 28 stores in North Carolina.  A full list of stores may be viewed at www.foodlion.com/corporate/pressroom.

"We are very pleased with the reaction from our customers since we introduced our new brand strategy," Green Burns added.  "During the past year, we have continued to refine the strategy based on additional customer feedback and have made new enhancements for our customers.  We look forward to winning new customers and continuing to serve our existing customers with enhanced Food Lion stores in our home markets." 

With today's announcement, Food Lion has more than 700 locations operating under the brand strategy, representing more than 60 percent of its store base.  The brand strategy first launched in the Raleigh and Fayetteville, N.C., markets, as well as Chattanooga, Tenn., in May 2011, and the company announced an additional 268 rebranded stores on March 28, 2012 in Virginia, West Virginia and the outer banks of North Carolina. 

Food Lion was founded in 1957 as Food Town in Salisbury, N.C., and has since grown to more than 1,100 stores in 10 states.

About Food Lion
Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., is a company of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group (NYSE: DEG).  The company operates more than 1,100 supermarkets in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, and employs approximately 57,000 associates. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com.

SOURCE Food Lion