(Press Herald) -- Delhaize Group, the parent company of the Scarborough-based Hannaford grocery chain, is merging with Royal Ahold, another big European supermarket chain with U.S. holdings.
The companies said that once the merger is complete next year, they will have more than 6,500 stores and about 375,000 employees in Europe and the U.S.
Hannaford, which was founded in Portland in 1883, was purchased by Delhaize in 1999. Hannaford currently operates 186 stores, all in the Northeast, and has about 26,000 employees. It is Maine's largest private employer, with 7,500 to 8,000 workers.
In addition to Hannaford, Delhaize owns Food Lion in the U.S. Ahold's U.S. holdings include the Stop & Shop chain in New England; the Giant chain, primarily in the mid-Atlantic; and Peapod.
There is no overlap between chains owned by Delhaize and Ahold in Maine, and very little throughout the East Coast, which analysts said would make it easier for the merger to sidestep any antitrust concerns.
The companies did not disclose how the merger would impact each individual chain. For instance, it isn't known whether Hannaford stores would be converted to Stop & Shop stores, or vice versa.
According to consumer surveys by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Center for the Study of Services, Hannaford stores tend to be smaller and less expensive than Stop & Shop stores.
The combined companies will be led by Mats Jansson, who is currently chairman of the Delhaize, the companies said. The combined operation would have had sales of 54.1 billion Euros in 2014. The combined net income of the two companies last year would have been 1 billion Euros, Delhaize and Ahold said in a statement.
Stock analysts lauded the merger announcement Wednesday, saying it would benefit shareholders by lowering overhead costs and increasing the combined company's purchase power in Europe and the U.S.
The merger announcement said synergies created by the deal would save the combined company about 500 million Euros – or $550 million – annually within three years.
