Grocery giant Sobeys will close around 50 “underperforming” stores across Canada – most of which are in Western Canada – following the completion of its acquisition of Canada Safeway, the company announced June 26.
A Sobeys in Fort St. John is the only outlet set to close in B.C., Sobeys spokeswoman Keri Scobie confirmed.
But not all the locations throughout Western Canada have been announced, and it is not yet known which banners the stores in question will be under, as Sobeys owns Safeway, IGA, Thrifty Foods and Foodland, among others.
The stores being sold represent less than 4% of Sobeys’ total retail network in terms of square footage, the company said in a press release.
The company said the move will improve net earnings as a result of cost savings, but did acknowledge that it will lead to a drop in future sales of 1.9% or $400 million.
Sobeys announced June 26 that its total sales for the fiscal year ended May 2014 were $21.9 billion – an increase of $3.59 billion or 20.6%. Most of this growth relates to the Safeway acquisition, the company said.
Sobeys entered into an agreement in June 2013 to buy Canada Safeway for $5.8 billion; this acquisition was completed in the company’s 2014 fiscal third quarter.
