"On a customer's $25 grocery basket, we earn just $1 in profit," Weston said. On food alone, Weston says Loblaws profit margins are as thin as ever - about four per cent.
#BILL EVANS FURTHER CONVERSATIONS WITH MYSELF PC#
Galen Weston, the head of the Loblaws chain, echoed that sentiment in his remarks, noting that while sales, profits and margins are up overall across the company's various holdings, most of the improvement has come from booming trade of higher margin goods like cosmetics and medicine at Shoppers Drug Mart, clothes at Joe Fresh, and the company's financial services arm, PC Financial. He noted that the company's profit margin on food items actually declined last year, a slowdown offset by improving margins at the company's Jean Coutu pharmacy chain. His compatriot at Montreal-based Metro Inc., Eric La Flèche, was singing from the same songbook in his testimony, saying it is "simply untrue" that the company is using food inflation to inflate its profits, noting that their costs are up by a similar amount. All three pushed back forcefully against allegations they are profiteering from high inflation.
"We are not profiting from inflation," said Michael Medline, the head of Halifax-based Empire Company, which owns Sobey's, Safeway and other chains. "It doesn't matter how many times you say it, write it or tweet it - it is simply not true."ĭuration 4:12 Featured VideoAt a committee hearing in Ottawa this week, the heads of Loblaw, Metro and Empire Foods faced tough questions from parliamentarians about why food prices continue to skyrocket. But the CEOs of Empire Company, Loblaws and Metro say nothing could be further from the truth. To Canadians like Butterworth, the problem of high food prices has a simple explanation: corporate profiteering. Parliamentarians summoned the heads of Canada' three biggest domestic grocery chains to Ottawa this week, to testify in front of an agricultural subcommittee tasked with finding solutions to the ongoing food affordability crisis. "They think they can get away with such a deep deception, I think is really what it is." Tough questions asked "I feel like they're all in cahoots," said Caitie Butterworth, summing up a view held by many Canadians. While all those excuses played legitimate roles to varying degrees, lately it has been the retail grocery chains shouldering much of the blame, as they rake in record profits. Analysis Inflation biting into your grocery bill? Follow the food from farm to fork to see why
0 kommentar(er)
