Sobeys says it will close 50 to 60 of its least profitable
stores this year.
It is also converting some from Sobeys to FreshCo, such as
the supermarket it owns in Cambridge.
About 60 per cent of the closures will be in Western Canada
where the company bought Canada Safeway’s stores for $5.8 billion in the biggest supermarket
deal in a decade.
Loblaws bought the Shopper’s Drug Mart chain of pharmacies.
Kevin Grier of the George Morris Centre told Marina Strauss
of the Globe and Mail that he doubts Sobeys closures will be the only ones
this year.
Expansions by Wal-Mart and the arrival of Target have
increased the store space for marketing groceries, so analysts say something
has to give.
