2023-11-16 05:00:00
Customers of Metro and Super C supermarkets managed to beat food inflation this summer, says the big boss of the Quebec retailer.
• Read also: Stabilization of food prices: the big grocery store bosses arrive in Ottawa looking downcast
• Read also: Metro profits jump more than 26%
“People adjust their behavior. They buy less expensive foods, private label products, they buy on specials. All this means that the real inflation we are experiencing is lower than the published inflation [par Statistique Canada]which is that of a static basket,” said Metro CEO Eric Richer La Flèche on Wednesday during an interview with The newspaper.
Metro estimates that its “internal inflation” (the increase in prices of products sold this summer compared to those of products sold last summer) amounted to approximately 5.5% during the months of July, August and September, compared to 7.1% for food inflation calculated by Statistics Canada.
Market share gains
This did not prevent Metro from seeing sales of its “comparable” supermarkets (those that have been open for at least a year) increase by 6.8% compared to last year. To explain this growth, the company says in particular that it has gained market share.
Including online sales as well as those from new supermarkets and the pharmaceutical sector (Jean Coutu and Brunet), Metro’s quarterly revenues increased by 14% to exceed $5 billion. As for net profits, they jumped 32% to reach $222 million – an increase attributable, among other things, to an unusual loss recorded last year.
In the pharmaceutical sector, “comparable” sales increased by 5.5%.
For its entire fiscal year, Metro reaped net profits of more than $1 billion on sales of $20.7 billion.
Stock fall
Despite these good results, Metro’s stock fell more than 6% on Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company announced that its profits will be flat in 2023-2024 mainly due to expenses related to the commissioning, in September, of a new automated warehouse, located in Terrebonne.
For its part, the giant Loblaw, owner of the Maxi and Provigo chains, announced Wednesday that it had generated net profits of $621 million, up 12%, on quarterly sales of $18.3 billion, up 5%. .
Like Metro, Loblaw assured that its “internal inflation”, in the food sector, had been lower than that of 7.1% measured by Statistics Canada, without however quantifying it.
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