Sobey’s parent Empire Co. Ltd, reported increased sales in the third quarter, but one-time charges related to a major shift in its e-commerce Voilà operations resulted in a net loss.
Besides Sobey's, Empire owns Safeway, IGA, Farm Boy and FreshCo stores.
It wrote off $746-million because the online business failed to meet financial expectations.
“While this impacted reported earnings, it resets the cost structure and sharpens our focus on profitable growth,” chief executive officer Pierre St-Laurent said during a conference call.
Its sales increased by 10 per cent to $79 billion, but the loss was $385 million compared with a profit of $146 million for the same quarter last year.
