AG announces Dollar Tree/Family Dollar settlement

Staff Report

 AUGUSTA — Maine Attorney General Janet Mills has announced the terms of a settlement that she and 16 other states have reached with Dollar Tree following their review of the company’s proposed acquisition of Family Dollar.

 The merger combines two large national chains of discount stores.

 With assistance from the Federal Trade Commission, the state attorneys general are requiring Dollar Tree to sell more than 300 Family Dollar stores to a new competitor in order to complete the acquisition.

 All of the affected stores are to be sold and rebranded as Dollar Express stores, a new chain of deep discount stores being launched by Sycamore Partners.

  Dollar Tree is headquartered in Chesapeake, Va. and operates more than 4,200 stores, including several in Maine. The closest ones to the Penquis region are in Bangor and Skowhegan.

 Family Dollar is headquartered in Matthews, N.C., and operates more than 8,000 stores nationwide including Dexter, Dover-Foxcroft, Milo and Guilford.

 Mills said she was concerned that the merger would substantially lessen competition in several Maine markets and is requiring seven stores in Maine to be sold to Dollar Express.

 Those stores are in Caribou, Gray, Lewiston, Livermore Falls, Old Town, South Portland and Waterville. In addition to these stores being sold to Dollar Express, Dollar Tree will be required to report or notify the Maine Attorney General’s office of future acquisitions, store relocations or closings.

 “These stores are located in both small towns and in our larger cities and suburbs,” said Mills. “We wanted to be sure that in areas where these stores were near each other that there would still be competition to offer the best prices and merchandise.”

 Sycamore Partners is expected to acquire the stores being divested over the coming few months and operate them under its Dollar Express banner.