Sobeys’ parent company plans ahead for grocery war
As the grocery wars heat up with companies across the country ramping up their delivery and e-commerce efforts, Sobeys’ parent company is looking to play the long game.
Empire Co. Ltd. is waiting for the spring of 2020 to roll out its online grocery business that will be run in partnership with British firm Ocado, said CEO Michael Medline on an earnings call Wednesday.
“I’d rather be up and running with our system today, but I don’t want to put mediocre systems across the country when there’s much more modern ways to win over the customer.
“I see this as a marathon, and we’re in the first 100 meters.”
Empire’s chief financial officer Michael Vels further tempered
expectations by saying “the ecommerce online offering will not be immediately profitable,”
but that the company anticipates it will become a “growing and vibrant channel.”
The company’s e-commerce efforts will initially be concentrated on the Greater Toronto Area because Medline indicated “that’s a market we need to and will win,” but he acknowledged “there are three or four other markets in the country that we need to look at.”
He wouldn’t say how fast Empire will launch in other markets, but revealed that the company has secured its first customer fulfillment centre in Vaughan, Ont., a few hundred meters from its existing automated distribution centre.
The fulfillment centre will be kitted out with Ocado’s signature robotics, which U.K. reports say can put together an order of more than 50 items within five minutes.
“The issue for e-commerce in this country, in Canada, is that no one has given the customers a fantastic option,” said Medline.