Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

Sobeys to buy Safeway Canada for $5.8 billion


Arrow

Recommended Posts

For anyone that cares:

Sobeys to buy Safeway Canada for $5.8 billion

Empire Co. Ltd. (TSX:EMP.A), the Nova Scotia-based parent of the Sobeys chain, said the cash deal will give it $1.8 billion of real estate.

The transaction to buy Canada Safeway Ltd., which has 213 stores, will be completed through Empire's wholly-owned Sobeys Inc. subsidiary. Included in the transaction are 199 in-store pharmacies and 62 gas stations on the Safeway properties.

Empire Co. will also own 10 liquor stores, four distribution centres and 12 manufacturing facilities as part of the deal.

Empire said it expects to find cost synergies of about $200 million over three years by integrating the distribution, information technology and procurement divisions of both grocers.

The company also said it will cut its administrative and marketing costs by combining management teams, but would not comment on whether layoffs are expected.

"We have a need for great, talented people," said Sobey. "There's a great cultural fit in regards to the employee basis between the two organizations."

Marc Poulin, president and chief executive of Sobeys Inc., said the company is not sure whether it will be re-branding the Safeway stores.

"It's too early to tell, obviously, at this stage," said Poulin.

"We just completed the acquisition. We will do proper marketing and research to determine what will be the course on the bannering side."

Sobeys owns or franchises more than 1,300 stores across Canada under several banners that include Sobeys, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, and Thrifty Foods.

The company noted the acquisition positions it to compete more effectively within the changing and increasingly competitive grocery retail landscape in Canada.

Read more:

http://www.ctvnews.c...6#ixzz2W7f2Zt26

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Damn. I still remember the old style stores with the large arching roofs and liquor stores attached to them. I've grown up with Safeway all my life and always found it weird when I travelled back East how nobody had ever heard of them.

Progress I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do all my shopping at Safeway - have for years. It's right up the street from me and the employees are more like friends. Would be sad it they got laid off.

I love being able to whip up to the store and know exactly where everything is without having to search the aisles. I also do like some of their "Select" products (the tomato basil soup comes immediately to mind).

It's slightly over priced, but feels like home. Hate change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do all my shopping at Safeway - have for years. It's right up the street from me and the employees are more like friends. Would be sad it they got laid off.

I love being able to whip up to the store and know exactly where everything is without having to search the aisles. I also do like some of their "Select" products (the tomato basil soup comes immediately to mind).

It's slightly over priced, but feels like home. Hate change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great news for me. My work does business with both companies, and collecting money from Safeway stores is like pulling teeth, Sobey's has some odd hoops you need to jump through to make their national accounting office happy, but they at least pay their bills.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do a lot of my shopping at Safeway. Sure the prices can be a little higher, but if you shop the sales and use the Safeway card, there isn't a huge difference. I find it worth the cost not to have to deal with the 'Wal-Mart" type shoppers. Hopefully Sobeys won’t mess with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do all my shopping at Safeway - have for years. It's right up the street from me and the employees are more like friends. Would be sad it they got laid off.

I love being able to whip up to the store and know exactly where everything is without having to search the aisles. I also do like some of their "Select" products (the tomato basil soup comes immediately to mind).

It's slightly over priced, but feels like home. Hate change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Safeway has a much bigger brand presence here in BC and Alberta than Sobeys. I can't imagine for the life of me why a company would want to mess with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...