GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Uncertainty Continues For Farmer Jack Sale

DETROIT-The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. announced last week that it was selling its 236-store Canadian division for $1.47 billion, but declined to comment on the pending sale of its 102-store Farmer Jack chain in southeast Michigan and northeast Ohio.

“We’re still waiting; we haven’t heard a thing yet,” an officer with Local 876 of the United Food and Commercial Workers tells GlobeSt.com. The union represents workers at Farmer Jack. “We’re anxious for news,” says the union official, who asked not to be named. “Now that they have Canada behind them, I imagine things will heat up on the Farmer Jack sale.”

As reported last week, Montvale, NJ-based A&P has entered into an agreement to sell A&P Canada to Metro Inc., a supermarket and pharmaceutical operator in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. In May, A&P announced its intention to sell or close all 102 of its Farmer Jack and Food Basics stores in Southeast Michigan and Toledo. A&P has said it is accepting bids for a group of 70 stores and has been marketing the 18 others separately. Jackson-based Kennedy Food Group said in June that it had agreed to sublease Farmer Jack stores in Chelsea and Saline.