Chief executive officer Eric La Fleche said Metro will try
to offset the increase by cutting costs, but said it may not be enough and it
may have to increase prices.
He said it’s not a Metro, but an industry-wide issue.
Earlier Galen Weston, chief executive officer of Loblaws
Companies, said the increase will cost his company about $197 million.
That drew criticism from a number of quarters, most people
noting that Loblaws’ profits have steadily increased and that Weston has a
generous pay package.
It would be nice if Loblaws and Metro would say how many employees will be better off because of the increase.
The company also reported higher revenues and profits for
the most recent quarter that ended July 1 - profit of $183-million compared with $176.5-million a year ago and sales
of $4.07 billion compared with $4.01 billion last year.
All of the
sales increase came from opening new stores because same-store sales declined
by two-tenths of one per cent.
