Canadian grocery consumers are crying over spilled milk after the country’s largest food retailer reported blowout profits and hiked its dividend 15% on Wednesday.Loblaw Companies reported first quarter revenue of $13.58 billion, up 4.5% from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.72 were up 11%, the company said in a release before markets opened.Then, as if to add insult to injury, Loblaw cranked its quarterly dividend up 15%, prompting calls for a boycott on social media. .A ‘loblawisoutofcontrol’ page on Reddit reportedly has more than 56,000 members calling on people to support local, independent grocers.“We don’t have a contract with our customers,” said Loblaw CEO Per Bank. “They can choose to shop elsewhere tomorrow if they don’t like the offer that we’re giving.”Loblaw operates in Western Canada as Great Canadian Superstore, No Frills and Shoppers Drug Mart, in addition to T&T Asian supermarkets. It owns Dominion Stores in Newfoundland and Labrador..That’s not including financial services, real estate, pharmacare and clothing manufacturing, prompting economists to call it a new class of “everything company.” Choice Properties, its real estate investment trust, even owns the former Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and runs strip malls and shopping malls using its retail stores as anchor tenants.That said, about 70% of its profits last year came from grocery sales. The record numbers come at a time when food inflation is running rampant and the Liberal government in Ottawa has vowed to crack down on profits from the large grocery chains.Threats to impose a windfall tax failed to materialize in this months federal budget, but Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told CTV News this weekend that the problems stem from a lack of competition and he’s working to open the Canadian market to foreign chains..That’s despite the fact that big American retailers like Target — a major grocery retailer — closed up shop and went home packing after its miserable Canadian expansion.“We’ve been in touch with foreign grocers to see whether we can entice some of them to come in the Canadian market,” he said.“Because if you look at what’s happening in Australia and New Zealand, in markets in Europe, we have too much concentration when it comes to grocery in the country and certainly, the rules that we made, the change that we made on competition, the biggest reform since the act has been enacted, you know, decades ago, that is already more conducive to bring foreign entrance.”Loblaw shares were up $1.78 in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday, near a 52-week high of $152.74.
Canadian grocery consumers are crying over spilled milk after the country’s largest food retailer reported blowout profits and hiked its dividend 15% on Wednesday.Loblaw Companies reported first quarter revenue of $13.58 billion, up 4.5% from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.72 were up 11%, the company said in a release before markets opened.Then, as if to add insult to injury, Loblaw cranked its quarterly dividend up 15%, prompting calls for a boycott on social media. .A ‘loblawisoutofcontrol’ page on Reddit reportedly has more than 56,000 members calling on people to support local, independent grocers.“We don’t have a contract with our customers,” said Loblaw CEO Per Bank. “They can choose to shop elsewhere tomorrow if they don’t like the offer that we’re giving.”Loblaw operates in Western Canada as Great Canadian Superstore, No Frills and Shoppers Drug Mart, in addition to T&T Asian supermarkets. It owns Dominion Stores in Newfoundland and Labrador..That’s not including financial services, real estate, pharmacare and clothing manufacturing, prompting economists to call it a new class of “everything company.” Choice Properties, its real estate investment trust, even owns the former Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and runs strip malls and shopping malls using its retail stores as anchor tenants.That said, about 70% of its profits last year came from grocery sales. The record numbers come at a time when food inflation is running rampant and the Liberal government in Ottawa has vowed to crack down on profits from the large grocery chains.Threats to impose a windfall tax failed to materialize in this months federal budget, but Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told CTV News this weekend that the problems stem from a lack of competition and he’s working to open the Canadian market to foreign chains..That’s despite the fact that big American retailers like Target — a major grocery retailer — closed up shop and went home packing after its miserable Canadian expansion.“We’ve been in touch with foreign grocers to see whether we can entice some of them to come in the Canadian market,” he said.“Because if you look at what’s happening in Australia and New Zealand, in markets in Europe, we have too much concentration when it comes to grocery in the country and certainly, the rules that we made, the change that we made on competition, the biggest reform since the act has been enacted, you know, decades ago, that is already more conducive to bring foreign entrance.”Loblaw shares were up $1.78 in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday, near a 52-week high of $152.74.
