Empire Company Ltd., owner of Sobeys supermarket chain, has
declared a fourth-quarter loss of $912.6 million.
A year ago it had a
profit of $55.4 million for the same quarter.
It’s the purchase of the Safeway stores across Western
Canada that accounted for the loss.
The loss for the whole year amounts to $2.13 billion
compared with a profit of $419 million the previous fiscal year.
The company says one reason for the poor results is the
declining economic climate in Alberta and Saskatchewan where there have been
massive layoffs by oil companies.
Despite the gloomy results, the company increased its sales
by $690 million to $24.6 billion, but the fiscal year had 53 weeks, one more
than the previous fiscal year.
Sobeys is Canada’s second-largest supermarket chain. The
largest is Loblaws which last year bought the Shoppers Drug Mart chain.
