Grocery company Empire Co. Ltd.
is pausing the opening of a fourth customer fulfilment centre in Vancouver, citing a smaller e-commerce market for groceries in Canada than the company anticipated when it launched its Voilà online delivery platform in 2020.
Medline said Empire had planned a phased timeline for opening its various fulfilment centres, which was designed to protect its profitability levels. He said the company hoped"rapid growth" in grocery e-commerce would compensate for the initial operating losses at the fulfilment centres."That's absolutely in our expectations, but they're all heading in the right direction," he said.
Medline said he has two theories of why grocery e-commerce hasn't caught on in Canada the same way it has in the U.S. and the U.K. "When Canadians really needed to count on grocery e-commerce during the worst days of the pandemic, it stunk," said Medline, recalling"terrible" offerings and substitutions.
The increased payment to shareholders came as the Stellarton, N.S.-based grocer reported a profit of $148.9 million or 61 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended May 4, down from a profit of $182.9 million or 72 cents per diluted share a year earlier.Same-store sales fell 0.3 per cent compared with the same quarter last year, while same-store sales, excluding fuel sales, rose 0.2 per cent.
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