Food Lion launches new brand strategy in 268 stores in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina; new stores emphasize price, convenience, store-brand value, fresh produce

Cindy Allen

SALISBURY, North Carolina , March 28, 2012 (press release) – Food Lion launched today its new brand strategy in 268 stores in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. These markets are the first stores in 2012 to unveil the new strategy, which is based on customer feedback and continues to position the company for future success.

"We invite customers to visit their local Food Lion, where they will experience firsthand the enhancements we have made in our stores," said Cathy Green Burns, president of Food Lion. "As part of our new strategy, 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 fresh produce. We believe our new brand strategy enables us to better serve our customers in these markets."

To celebrate the launch, Food Lion is holding grand opening festivities at all of the 268 stores, including providing the first 200 customers at each location a bag of free groceries on March 28. In addition, the company plans to donate $50,000 in store brand food products to local charities, including $20,000 to Operation Homefront Hampton Roads, $10,000 to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, $10,000 to Feeding America Southwest Virginia and $10,000 to FeedMore.

Food Lion's new 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 fresh produce and an easy and convenient shopping experience.

The company launched the new brand strategy in cities across the states of Virginia and West Virginia, including stores in the greater markets of Richmond, Va.; Roanoke, Va.; Norfolk, Va.; Charlottesville, Va.; Harrisonburg, Va.; Charleston, W. Va.; and Bluefield, W. Va., along with several stores in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The company also remodeled 20 stores, including 18 locations in Virginia and two locations in North Carolina. In addition, as previously announced in January, the company transitioned eight Bloom and six Bottom Dollar Food stores in these markets to Food Lion stores today. A full list of stores may be viewed at www.foodlion.com/corporate/pressroom.

The new brand strategy first launched in the Raleigh and Fayetteville, N.C., markets, as well as Chattanooga, Tenn., in May 2011.

"We are very pleased with the reaction from our customers since we began rolling out our new brand strategy last year," Green Burns added. "We look forward to winning new customers and continuing to serve our existing customers with enhanced Food Lion stores, and bringing the strategy to life in additional locations across our footprint later this year."

In January, the company announced plans to accelerate the rollout of the strategy to an additional 600 to 700 stores by the end of 2012. Today's 268 locations are the first step in delivering the new brand strategy to additional customers since this announcement. Food Lion expects to be substantially complete with the implementation of its new strategy by year-end.

About Food Lion
Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., is a subsidiary 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.

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