Empire to Open More Stores in 2025
Empire Co. Ltd., the parent company of Canadian grocery banners that include Sobeys, revealed plans to open new stores and continue investing in digital and data in 2025.
The company discussed its growth strategy in a fiscal 2025 second quarter earnings call. (Sales for the quarter, which ended Nov. 2, 2024, totaled 7.78 billion Canadian dollars, up from 7.75 billion a year earlier.)
Going forward, Empire intends to invest 700 million Canadian dollars into its network in fiscal 2025, and renovate around 20% to 25% of its network between fiscal 2024 and 2026.
Michael Medline, president and CEO of Empire, told investors in the Dec. 12 call that the company is expanding its Farm Boy and Longo’s supermarket banners in Ontario, as well as its FreshCo discount chain in Western Canada and Ontario.
"You’ll see double the number of new stores next year. And we’re particularly bullish on the province of Quebec" as well as Farm Boy and Longo’s, Medline said, adding that some existing stores may be converted to Farm Boys.
RMS Canada
The Path to Purchase Institute is partnering with Loblaw Advance for its second Retail Media Summit Canada event. Industry leaders, innovators and experts in retail and advertising are gathering Feb. 19 in Toronto to discuss the latest trends, challenges and technologies shaping the future of omnichannel marketing and retail media in Canada and across the globe. Learn more here.
"We always are looking for opportunities to put stores up where we can make a lot of money and serve our customers and take market share from our competitors. So you'll see more FreshCo stores going up in Western Canada and Ontario," Medline said. "What we're seeing right now is, we can renovate stores at a lower cost and get a really good return, and we'll take the capital that we were spending on renovations and put up new stores in geographies where we don't have coverage, where we can take market share ... ."
Medline also said Empire is seeing consumer sentiment improve as inflation moderates and interest rates drop.
Earlier this year the executive said the same-store sales gap between its discount and traditional supermarket banners was narrowing.
"For the fourth quarter in a row, we continue to see the gap between full-service and discount same-store sales closing," he said. "We said this last quarter, and I'll say it again: We believe this will be advantageous to us as we continue to lean into our strengths as a full-service foremost grocer."
The focus on traditional grocery contrasts with competitors’ moves. Loblaw, for example, in recent months has opened several discount formats, with no plans of slowing down next year.
Empire revealed more 2025 plans in a media release, including:
- Continued focus on digital and data, through continued e-commerce expansion, and better personalization via the Scene+ loyalty program (including a deepened understanding of its customers to better allow the company to capture emerging trends).
- Improved store layouts, optimizing category and product adjacencies, and tailoring product assortments for each store.
- Enhanced efficiency and cost control through structured sourcing, optimized supply chain productivity and improved systems and processes, aided by its Voila e-commerce arm, pausing the opening of a fourth customer fulfillment center, and ending its mutual exclusivity with U.K. tech provider Ocado Group.
- Growing its own brands through increased distribution, shelf placement and product innovation.