Article content material
Grocery big Empire Co. Ltd. reported a modest improve in general income for its fiscal second quarter, however posted decrease web earnings regardless of elevated profitability in its core meals retailing enterprise.
Empire, which oversees a community of round 1,600 stores under the Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland, Longo’s and Farm Boy manufacturers, reported web earnings of $181.1 million for the 13 weeks ending Nov. 4, 2023, down from $189.9 million for a similar interval final yr. Internet revenue was boosted by insurance coverage recoveries of $15.2 million associated to a significant cyberattack final yr.
Article content material
Gross sales got here in at a document $7.75 billion, up 1.4 per cent from $7.64 billion on the identical time final yr.
Working revenue within the meals retailing enterprise rose 9.2 per cent to $301.6 million because of larger gross sales and gross revenue, the corporate mentioned. It famous that inside meals inflation was beneath the 6.1 per cent determine proven within the Shopper Value Index for meals bought from shops.
“While higher interest rates and overall economic uncertainty are impacting customer purchasing behaviours, the fundamentals of our business remain strong,” chief executive Michael Medline mentioned in a press launch on Dec. 14. “We continue to attract more customers in our stores, our promotions are constantly improving, and we continue to protect our margins.”
The corporate additionally declared a dividend of 18 cents per share, up from 17 cents.
Associated Tales
The 2022 cyberattack stalled self-checkouts and prevented entry to reward playing cards, in addition to the corporate’s Scene+ loyalty program, for per week. Empire needed to shut down its pharmacies for 4 days and a few of its operational techniques remained offline for a number of weeks, in keeping with a March 16 earnings replace.
The insurance coverage funds have been delayed because of the “complexity of cyber insurance coverage and related claims,” administration mentioned, including that it expects extra payouts to proceed by the remainder of the fiscal yr.
• Electronic mail: [email protected]
Bookmark our web site and assist our journalism: Don’t miss the enterprise information you must know — add financialpost.com to your bookmarks and join our newsletters here.
Share this text in your social community
