SUPERMARKET group Morrison's has announced plans to sell the Whitehouse Farm Safeway store in Stockton.

The store is one of 13 Safeway sites in the North and the Midlands which will become a Sainsbury's supermarket.

Morrisons must sell 52 stores to comply with conditions set by the Competition Commission when it gave the company the go-ahead for the £3bn take-over of Safeway in March.

Though no price was put on the latest sale, which is subject to Government approval, the 13 supermarkets are thought to have a value of about £110m.

The move will increase Sainsbury's selling space by more than 400,000sq ft and the acquisition of the Stockton store will be completed by the end of the summer.

A spokeswoman for Sainsbury's said: "Generally, there are about 250 members of staff at each Safeway store and hopefully all of them will transfer to Sainsbury's.

"Each store will be looked at and any changes made will be done on a store-by-store basis."

She said that Sainsbury's aimed to continue with development at any of the stores where planning permission had been granted.

Other Safeway stores which will be taken over by Sainsbury's include Victoria Road, Darlington, Tadcaster, Scarborough, and the Morrison's store in Ripon.

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

Morrison's has now sold 28 of the required 52 stores. The others remaining to be sold include those at Ingleby Barwick, Redcar, Loftus, Guisborough and Coulby Newham.