Grocer Metro saw a moderation in food inflation last summer, but it remains much higher than before the pandemic. The annual rate of price increase fell from 8% to 5.5% in three months.
Food inflation thus reached 5.5% at Metro during the three-month period ending September 30. The Montreal company emphasizes that this threshold is lower than the national average.
In Canada, food inflation followed a comparable trajectory, going from 8.3% in June to 5.9% in September, according to Statistics Canada data. Metro’s results cover a period before the Trudeau government was convened, which asked grocers to find ways to lower their prices, while the threat of a special tax was raised.
The owner of the Metro, Jean Coutu and Super C brands revealed, on Wednesday, financial results lower than analysts’ expectations, despite an increase in its comparable sales of 6.8% in grocery stores and 5.5% in pharmacies.
The company revealed a net profit of 222.2 million, up 31.7%. Last year, Metro’s profit was reduced due to a charge linked to the abandonment of the Air Miles program by Jean Coutu. Without this charge, profit would have increased by 4.3%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share reached 99 cents.
The labor dispute in 27 stores in the Toronto area will have reduced the company’s profits in the fourth quarter by approximately $27 million.
Revenues, for their part, increased by 14.4% to 5.07 billion. The company points out that the 2023 financial year had one more week, or 53 weeks. Without this additional week in the fourth quarter, revenues would have increased by 5.4%.
Before the results were released, analysts expected earnings per share of $1.07 and revenue of $5.09 billion, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.