COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie is being bought by the Greenville, S.C.-based Bi-Lo Holding, which owns that supermarket chain, for $560 million, the companies announced. The buyer says the purchase won’t result in the closing of any stores, but no decision has been made yet on whether Winn-Dixie, which emerged from bankruptcy five years ago, will keep its corporate headquarters in northeast Florida.

Privately-owned Bi-Lo operates 207 supermarkets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. With 480 stores, Winn-Dixie also operates in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The only potential for overlapping markets is in Georgia, where Winn-Dixie operates 21 stores. Together, the newly merged company would operate nearly 700 stores in eight states with 63,000 workers.

A company spokesman was quoted by the Florida Times-Union as saying that the merger would have "minimal impact" on the Jacksonville office, which employs 1,100 people. Winn-Dixie reported annual revenue of $7.2 billion and it is in the Fortune 500.

Will keep names

Bi-Lo believes acquiring Winn-Dixie will boost sales growth, reduce costs and expand into four new states. The takeover will help Bi-Lo compete with larger rivals such as Wal-Mart and Food Lion.

Winn-Dixie stores will maintain their name, as will Bi-Lo stores. Officials said the deal will close early next year. Bi-Lo stores will incorporate Winn-Dixie’s efforts to stock its supermarkets with a variety of ethnic and local foods.

Both chains have come out of bankruptcy – Winn-Dixie in 2006 and Bi-Lo in 2010. As a consequence, many of their underperforming operations have already been shut down. The deal is the fourth-largest acquisition of a food retailer in the U.S. in the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

HBCU supporter

Winn-Dixie was founded by the Davis family – brothers Artemus Darius Davis, James Elsworth Davis, Milton Austin Davis and Tine Wayne Davis – who controlled Winn-Dixie until 2005.

In 1960, after reading Booker T. Washington’s book "Up From Slavery," James E. Davis began his support of Black colleges. Through the subsequent years, Winn-Dixie supported Bethune-Cookman College, (now University) the National Council of Negro Women, Rust College, Florida Memorial College, Tuskegee Institute (now University), and many others.