Eden Prairie-based Supervalu, Inc., announced Wednesday that it has entered into a stock purchase agreement for the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Total Logistic Control (TLC).

TLC, which provides logistics and supply chain management solutions to food, beverage, and consumer packaged goods companies, will be acquired by Ryder Integrated Logistics-the supply chain solutions division of Miami, Florida-based Ryder System, Inc. Ryder System provides transportation, logistics, and supply chain management solutions.

The sale-of which financial terms were not disclosed-is expected to close on December 31. Ryder intends to retain TLC's current management and employees.

“TLC has been a strong and growing part of our supply chain services organization,” Janel Haugarth-executive vice president, and president and chief operating officer of Supervalu's supply chain services-said in a statement. “[The acquisition] positions TLC to become part of a company that will take them to the next level of expansion and growth in their field of expertise servicing [consumer packaged goods] companies.”

Supervalu announced that it will focus its efforts on the grocery retail business, while continuing to provide supply chain services to its independent and owned stores.

Supervalu operates a network of approximately 4,290 stores-ranging from hard discount to traditional and premium grocery stores-and employs about 160,000. It is Minnesota's fourth-largest company based on revenue, which totaled $40.6 billion in its most recently completed fiscal year.