Food Lion buying Bi-Lo stores.

Food Lion plans to purchase 62 Bi-Lo and Harveys Supermarket stores in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia from Southeastern Grocers.

The transaction, announced today, does not include every Bi-Lo in South Carolina, but it does include about 15 in the Upstate (.pdf), according to a Food Lion representative.

Food Lion said in a news release that it plans to hire 4,650 employees across the 62 stores. That number includes employees who currently work at those stores who apply for and secure one of the jobs, according to Matt Harakal, Food Lion's manager for external communications. Each Food Lion employs 40 to 50 people.

In addition to the stores, Southeastern Grocers will sell a distribution center in Mauldin to Ahold Delhaize USA Distribution LLC, which will support the newly acquired stores and Food Lion's current network of stores, the news release said.

"We are so excited to add these new locations to our more than 630 stores across Georgia and the Carolinas," Food Lion President Meg Ham said in the news release. "We've been serving customers in these larger regions for almost 60 years. We're...