Tausi Insider

An autonomous driving vehicle prepares to drive without a human driver behind the steering wheel from the Loblaw office to a Superstore in Brampton, Ont., on Oct. 4. Christopher Katsarov/Tausi Insider Two Canadian grocers reported growth in sales and profits in their latest quarters, as the sector continues to face scrutiny over food inflation and its impact on people’s ability to afford basic necessities. On Wednesday, Canada’s largest grocer, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T said its profits spiked by 29 per cent in the third quarter, which the company attributed primarily to growth in sales at its drugstores. Montreal-based Metro Inc. MRU-T reported that adjusted net earnings grew by 9.4 per cent in its fourth quarter. Canadian grocery store operators have faced increasing public pressure as food prices have risen at a pace not seen in decades. On Wednesday, Statistics Canada reported that food prices jumped 10.1 per cent in October, a rate that slowed only slightly from 10.3-per-cent food in...

An autonomous driving vehicle prepares to drive without a human driver behind the steering wheel from the Loblaw office to a Superstore in Brampton, Ont., on Oct. 4. Christopher Katsarov/Tausi Insider Two Canadian grocers reported growth in sales and profits in their latest quarters, as the sector continues to face scrutiny over food inflation and its impact on people’s ability to afford basic necessities. On Wednesday, Canada’s largest grocer, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T said its profits spiked by 29 per cent in the third quarter, which the company attributed primarily to growth in sales at its drugstores. Montreal-based Metro Inc. MRU-T reported that adjusted net earnings grew by 9.4 per cent in its fourth quarter. Canadian grocery store operators have faced increasing public pressure as food prices have risen at a pace not seen in decades. On Wednesday, Statistics Canada reported that food prices jumped 10.1 per cent in October, a rate that slowed only slightly from 10.3-per-cent food in...

Loblaw Companies Ltd. L-T saw profits spike by 29 per cent in the third quarter, which the company attributed primarily to growth in sales at its drugstores – and attempted to send the message that it is not profiting from food inflation. Canada’s largest grocer on Wednesday reported net earnings available to common shareholders of $556-million or $1.69 per share in the 16 weeks ended Oct. 8, compared to $431-million or $1.27 per share in the same period last year. In a release on Wednesday, the Brampton, Ont.-based company wrote that its gross profit margins in food retail did not increase compared to the same period last year, when inflation began accelerating. Loblaw profited from increased sales of drugstore categories such as beauty products and cough and cold medicines, which have high profit margins, according to the company. Canadian grocery store operators have faced increasing scrutiny as prices for basic necessities have risen at a pace not seen in this country in 40 years...

A labour expert said the tense bargaining between Loblaw and its distribution workers in Calgary is emblematic of the wider labour movement in 2022 amid the effects of the pandemic and rising inflation. The Teamsters Local Union 987 of Alberta said almost all of the 534 unionized workers at a Calgary distribution centre for Loblaw were served layoff notices effective this week amid ongoing contract negotiations. The union said workers have rejected two offers from the employer and are asking for better quality-of-life and wage increases. Simon Black, an associate professor of labour studies at Brock University, said while wage increases are important to workers at a time of high inflation, there’s also an increased focus on working conditions in negotiations, such as scheduling, time off and breaks. He said the recent strikes by education workers in Ontario are an example of this, where workers were asking for guaranteed staffing levels. “They’re not bargaining strictly around wages,...

A Loblaw grocery store in Ottawa on Feb. 14, 2019. CHRIS WATTIE/Reuters Canada’s major grocers would prefer you not refer to “greedflation,” thank you very much. “In every quarter since inflation took off last summer, gross margins in food have been essentially flat,” Loblaw Cos. Ltd.’s chief financial officer Richard Dufresne said last week on the company’s earnings call. “This gives us the confidence to say categorically that retail prices are not growing faster than cost and the company is not taking advantage of inflation to drive profit.” Those comments are of course much milder than what Michael Medline, the chief executive officer of Sobeys owner Empire Co. Ltd., said in September: Public criticisms of grocer profits were “reckless and incendiary attacks,” he said. The thing is, Canada’s major grocers, a group that also includes Metro Inc., have the ability to help lay the charges to rest. They decline to do so, however, using a loophole in accounting standards to obscure the ...

A Sobeys store in Toronto on April 3, 2020. J.P. MOCZULSKI/Tausi Insider A parliamentary committee wants the CEOs of major grocery companies to appear for questioning on record-level food price inflation after representatives for Loblaw L-T and Sobeys EMP-A-T said there’s little they can do to prevent passing on costs to consumers. Senior officials with the companies appeared in front of MPs on the agriculture committee on Monday as part of its examination into grocery business practices. The review – which saw MPs repeatedly questioning the officials on the issues of transparency and public trust – takes place against a backdrop of record-level rates of food inflation in Canada. Policy makers are scrambling to address a growing chorus of concerns over food prices. Last month, the committee had sent invitations to the grocery retailers, asking for representatives to attend the Ottawa meeting. Present on Monday were Jodat Hussain, a senior vice-president of retail finance for Loblaw (...

Galen Weston Jr., executive chairman of Loblaw, at a news conference in Toronto on July 15, 2013. Michelle Siu/The Canadian Press Sylvain Charlebois is professor of food distribution and policy and the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. It all started with one reporter taking a simple, trivial photo of an overpriced pack of five boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The price was $37 – $26.87 a kilogram – a world-class sticker shocker. That’s at least double what one would expect to pay for chicken breasts. Within hours, the picture became the lightning rod for frustrated consumers on social media. Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T and Galen G. Weston – Loblaw executive chairman, president and well-known public persona of the company’s brand – became public enemy No. 1. Attacks were instant, and mostly vicious. On the surface, the collective uproar against Loblaw lacked any rational thinking. The chicken breasts in the picture were skinless, boneless, and free from hor...

Metro bakery manager Gaynel Walkes prepares bags of bakery goods being sold at a discounted rate with the service Too Good To Go Toronto, a mobile application being used at the College Park location in Toronto, on Dec. 22, 2022. Tijana Martin/Tausi Insider Kelly-Anne Hollingshead is getting creative with cabbage. Seven bags of shredded cabbage mix, to be exact, which she bought on the Flashfood mobile app at two-thirds off the regular price and picked up at her local Real Canadian Superstore. One night, she will make salad. The next, she’s thinking yakisoba, and after that, soup. The 66-year-old Edmonton retiree regularly uses the app, which allows grocery chains to post and sell food close to its sell-by date at deep discounts. She says the products are generally in very good condition. “There is no reason it should go to the landfill to feed the seagulls,” Ms. Hollingshead says. She and her husband have noticed the difference the app makes in their grocery budget. “I’d really like ...