This past weekend my wife, children and I shopped one of the few local Bi-Lo’s in the Charlotte area. I grew up shopping at Bi-Lo. My childhood home was less than a mile from the corporate headquarters, and our local Bi-Lo was my mother’s store of choice. So with the recent announcement that the Delhaize Group, parent company of my former employer Food Lion, intended to acquire Bi-Lo, I thought I would stop in one last time before the transition.  I understand that this is still pending and there are other suitors in the mix, but this is certainly the end of the Bi-Lo that I grew up with.

So it leaves a question for this blog: What will happen to their Private Brands? Southern Home is their mid-tier, national brand equivalent brand but with 214 stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, I would have to believe that an existing Delhaize would replace the Bi-Lo brands with their own Private Brands. The other brands in the Bi-Lo portfolio (Top Care, Full Circle, Clear Value and Paws Premium) are part of the Topco stable of brands and will certainly be replaced by the corresponding Delhaize brand:

Southern Home = Food Lion, Bloom or Hannaford brand

Top Care = Healthy Accents

Full Circle = Nature’s Place

Clear Value = Smart Options

Paw’s Premium = Home360 Pet