CO-OPERATIVE stores in Aberystwyth and Cardigan have been sold to a rival supermarket chain.

The stores, which became Co-ops following the company buying out the Somerfield chain for £1.6billion in 2008, will be re-branded as Budgens supermarkets after 36 former Somerfield stores across the UK were snapped up by the Food Retailer Group for an undisclosed sum.

None of the staff at the Aberystwyth store on the Ystwyth Retail Park on Park Avenue or the Cardigan branch at Lower Mwldan will lose their jobs, with workers transferred to the new business under the agreement.

Earlier this year, speculation that the Co-Operative group were planning on selling off around 300 stores followed an announcement in 2014 that it planned to cut its network of shops by “around 15 per cent”.

The Co-op sold off 91 food stores in 2015, raising a total of £175million.

Steve Murrells, chief executive of Co-op Food, said: “It is essential that we have a proactive property programme in place to support our long-term growth strategy and this sale aligns with that approach.”

A spokesman for The Food Retailer Group said: “The change in ownership will not impact daily business and stores will continue trading as usual.

“All employees will transfer with the business, and there are no planned redundancies.”

The Co-Operative store in Penparcau, not a former Somerfield, is unaffected by the deal.