SUPERMARKET chain Tesco is buying two former Safeway stores in the North-East from rival Morrisons.

Tesco is buying a total of ten stores around the UK, including Safeway stores in Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, and Redcar in east Cleveland.

Morrisons said it had agreed to sell the sites, which have a book value of £87.6m, for an amount in line with expectations.

The disposal is the latest move by Morrisons to sell off stores it acquired through the takeover of Safeway earlier this year.

In order to comply with a ruling by the Competition Commission, Morrisons was told to sell 52 sites.

The latest move brings the total number of disposals to date to 42. Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Co-op and Asda have already bought several former Safeway sites.

Last night, Anthony Platts, retail expert at Tees Valley investment managers Wise Speke, said: "We have known for some time that the lucrative store at Ingleby Barwick was to be sold to Tesco, but negotiations seem to have dragged on for an eternity.

"Tesco might just have found itself a little gem with the purchase of the Ingleby Barwick store.

"In a perfect world for Morrison's, it would have preferred to keep the store, but with a similar-sized store at Teesside Park so close, this was not to be allowed.

"Shoppers and staff will be relieved to know now whose produce they will be buying and selling respectively. The current situation, where some products are marked with the Safeway label and others with the Morrison label, has been confusing and may have led to some customer migration to other stores."

Bob Stott, Morrisons joint managing director, said: ''Our integration of the Safeway business is progressing and the announcement is a further step in the overall process.''

The group said it would give further details, including the amount received for the stores, once the sale was completed. The sale to Tesco is subject to approval by the Office of Fair Trading.

The poor sales performance of the unconverted Safeway stores recently led Morrisons to announce its first profits warning, although it said those stores that had been converted were trading well.

The group secured Safeway after a protracted £3bn battle involving Asda owner Wal-Mart, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Arcadia owner Philip Green.

Stores being sold, as well as the two in the North-East, are in Newton-le-Willows and St Helen's, in Merseyside, Garforth, in Leeds, Sheldon, in Birmingham, Carnforth, in Lancashire, Crewe and two in Sheffield.