ORANGE COUNTY, CA-The US arm of Mexico-based grocery giant Grupo Gigante SA de CV has announced plans to build one new store in Santa Ana and another in Anaheim, hoping to cash-in on the Southland's burgeoning number of Hispanics.

The Mexico City-based company is currently talking with the owners of potential sites in both cities and also with developers, says Justo Frias, president of Gigante USA. “We hopefully will open the stores within a year,” Frias adds.

Grupo Gigante already operates more than 200 stores south of the border, making it one of Mexico's biggest grocery chains. After establishing a handful of stores in Southern California, its expansion plans here were slowed after it was targeted by the powerful United Food and Commercial Workers union for allegedly interfering with union-organizing activities at its stores and under-paying its workers.

Those issues were settled last month, when the company reached an agreement with the union to pay higher wages to experienced workers and to permit more labor-organizing activities. While Grupo Gigante stores in Mexico typically cover more than 100,000 sf and sell everything from appliances to food, Frias says his company plans to focus on grocery-only properties of about 50,000 sf in the US.