The Co-operative Group has told 1,100 Kent staff employed by supermarket chain Somerfield that they have nothing to fear from a planned takeover.

The Manchester-based Co-op, the UK's fifth largest supermarket chain, announced on Wednesday (July 16) that it had agreed to buy smaller rival Somerfield, which has 28 stores in Kent, for £1.57 billion.

Joanna MacKerracher, spokesman for the Manchester-based Co-op said: "We have bought this business for growth, so hopefully it will be a case of job creation rather than anything else.

She said the deal had yet to be officially approved by the Office of Fair Trading, which the Co-op believed would be completed by September.

The 28 Kent stores, which include branches at Maidstone, Bearsted, Larkfield, Whitstable and Pembury would then all be re-named.

"All being well and we get the go-ahead then we will be re-branding them and re-naming them as "The Co-operative", she said.

"Obviously we would want to press ahead with that as quickly as possible."

She said it was a possibility that the Office of Fair Trading would require the Co-op to sell on some of the stores, to ensure fair competition in the market.

"If this happens they will be sold as going concerns and this will involve the transfer of staff," she said.

A Somerfield spokesman said the deal was "good news" for its staff.

He said: "It is all about building a stronger business."

Somerfield operates 880 local grocery retail outlets across the UK. In the year to April 2008 it generated net sales of £4.2billion.

Peter Marks, chief executive of the Co-operative Group said: "This is good news for consumers and for competition in the grocery market, where we will create a stronger fifth player in food and a convenience store chain with unrivalled geographic reach."