{"id":64103,"date":"2025-09-11T13:54:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T13:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/09\/11\/ceo-of-sobeys-safeway-parent-company-expresses-tariff-removal-relief\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T13:54:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T13:54:31","slug":"ceo-of-sobeys-safeway-parent-company-expresses-tariff-removal-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/09\/11\/ceo-of-sobeys-safeway-parent-company-expresses-tariff-removal-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO of Sobeys, Safeway parent company expresses tariff removal relief"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div><p> \n<br \/><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Grocery code of conduct could cut food prices\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rYEuw-8sYck?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> Empire Co. Ltd.<\/p>\n<p>                        \u2018s CEO expressed relief over Canada\u2019s recent removal of <\/p>\n<p>                        retaliatory tariffs<\/p>\n<p>                         on some goods, saying that any products in its grocery stores subjected to tariffs will no longer bear the additional costs. <\/p>\n<p> Michael Medline, chief executive of the parent company of <\/p>\n<p>                        Sobeys Inc.<\/p>\n<p>                        , Safeway, IGA and Farm Boy, said the grocery giant has been \u201censuring\u201d that reactionary or unnecessary costs related to tariffs were not accepted and passed onto customers. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe took a very hard stance on not accepting the vast majority of tariff-related cost increases, which is now proven to be the right approach for our customers and for Canadians,\u201d Medline said during Thursday\u2019s earnings call. <\/p>\n<p> The CEO made the remarks on Sept. 11 as the company reported its first quarter earnings results for the fiscal year 2026. On Aug. 22, <\/p>\n<p>                        Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/p>\n<p>                         announced his government would rescind retaliatory tariffs imposed on many incoming American goods effective Sept. 1. <\/p>\n<p> Medline said that given the company\u2019s approach to managing tariffs, tonnage was relatively flat in the quarter, which he said came as no surprise given the recent tariff removal. <\/p>\n<p> He said the company did take a small contribution to that lower inflation level, although it was immaterial. <\/p>\n<p> He added that, other than typical fluctuations on a few commodity-linked products such as coffee, the retailer is not seeing anything out of the ordinary in terms of price increases. <\/p>\n<p> U.S. products account for only 10 per cent of its overall offerings, he said, noting that it\u2019s not material to overall inflation. <\/p>\n<p> Even with the removal of some retaliatory tariffs, Canadian product sales continue to outpace sales of American products, the company said. <\/p>\n<p> However, it said that over the last few months, the \u201cbuy Canadian\u201d sentiment has moderated slightly from previous highs seen earlier in the year. <\/p>\n<p> For the quarter ended Aug. 2, Empire reported net earnings of $212 million, up from $208 million in the prior year. <\/p>\n<p> The company recorded its strongest ever earnings per share in the first quarter, reporting net earnings of $0.91 per share compared to $0.86 per share last year. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cFiscal 2026 is off to a solid start as we delivered another quarter of strong bottom-line growth \u2014 the strongest quarterly earnings per share in our history \u2014 underscoring the fact that our team\u2019s execution continues to improve,\u201d said Medline. <\/p>\n<p> The company reported a 5.1 per cent increase in gross profit to $2.235 million, driven primarily by higher sales and strong performance in full-service banners, it said. <\/p>\n<p> Gross margin increased to 27.1 per cent from 26.1 per cent in the prior year, as a result of targeted efficiencies in its stores, including initiatives aimed at inventory control and reducing shrink. <\/p>\n<p> Medline added that consumer sentiment is showing improvement, evidenced in part by improved basket size. <\/p>\n<p> Food sales for the quarter was up by 2.6 per cent, thanks to positive growth across the business, particularly in full-service and discount banners and its national wholesale distribution network, Empire said. <\/p>\n<p> Fuel sales, on the other hand, decreased by 13.7 per cent due to lower fuel prices resulting from the government\u2019s cancellation of the carbon tax. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Empire first to officially sign on to grocery code of conduct<\/li>\n<li>&#8216;We are not seeing inflation&#8217;: Empire CEO<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> The company said operating income from the food retailing segment increased 3.1 per cent to $369 million, mainly due to higher sales and gross profit, partially offset by higher selling and administrative expenses and an increase in depreciation and amortization. <\/p>\n<p> Its EBITDA increased to $671 million from $645 million in the prior year, mainly as a result of higher gross profit. <\/p>\n<p> <em>\u2022 Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com<\/em> <\/p>\n\n<br \/>CEO of Sobeys, Safeway parent company expresses tariff removal relief<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2025-09-11 13:54:31<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Empire Co. Ltd. \u2018s CEO expressed relief over Canada\u2019s recent removal of retaliatory tariffs on some goods, saying that any products in its grocery stores subjected to tariffs will no&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0912-bc-sobeys.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/64105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}