Grabbing Ahold of Bruno's

Royal Ahold NV (Zaandam, The Netherlands), the Dutch retail giant with a growing international supermarket empire, came closer to expanding that empire in the U.S. by getting Federal Trade Commission approval to purchase Bruno's Supermarkets (Birmingham, Ala.) for $500 million.

All Ahold has to do is divest itself of two of its Bi-Lo stores southwest of metro Atlanta. According to the FTC, Ahold will sell one store in Milledgeville, Ga., to Kroger and one in Sandersville, Ga. to Winn-Dixie. In return, it will get the 169 Bruno's supermarkets in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi that have been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since early 2000.

Royal Ahold owns or has interests in about 9000 supermarkets, hypermarkets and discount and specialty stores in 24 countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas. Its U.S. unit, Ahold USA (Chantilly, Va.), operates more than 1000 supermarkets, mainly under five banners: Bi-Lo (more than 420 stores, primarily in the Carolinas); Tops Markets (340-plus stores, mainly in New York), Stop & Shop (more than 270 outlets in New England); Giant-Carlisle (about 95 Giant Food stores in four northeastern states) and Giant-Landover (nearly 180 stores, mostly in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area).

Ahold USA also announced that Jon Wilken, formerly president and ceo of Bi-Lo, will become president of convenience stores, and will be succeeded at Bi-Lo by Dean Cohagan, currently executive vp of operations at Stop & Shop.