Profit plan backfires in 2Q: Loblaw
Loblaw Companies Ltd. said on Wednesday that a plan to boost profit margins using algorithms backfired in the second quarter, leading to stingier promotions that weighed on food sales in its core grocery operations.
While the chain posted net earnings of $286 million in the quarter, roughly level with the previous year, its grocery division — including brands like No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore and Loblaws — saw a slowdown in same store sales growth, a key performance indicator in retail.
The setback comes as Loblaw, Canada’s largest grocer, pushes to transform itself into a company driven by data, efforts that include an expansion of its PC Optimum loyalty program.
Loblaw president Sarah Davis said Wednesday she planned to resist a “knee-jerk reaction” to the results and would instead focus on tweaking the their data-based strategy.
The company has been developing algorithms for more than a year, using historic customer data to help set product prices on in-store flyers and in personalized promotions for PC Optimum members.
But when your algorithms focus on profit margins, “that’s exactly what you get,” Davis told investors on a conference call Wednesday. “It actually does bring down the promotional intensity. So you end up with fewer items on promotion in your flyer and that does have an impact on sales.”
In an update on Wednesday, Loblaw reported $11.1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2019 — a $312-million increase compared to a year previous, driven by a strong showing from its pharmacy business, which includes the Shoppers Drug Mart chain.
“That’s the benefit of having a big enterprise,” Davis said.
But, as one analyst noted, the results were overshadowed by the grocery division’s “sluggish” same store sales growth.
“(The) story today is once again likely going to be sluggish SSS growth in food segment,” RBC analyst Irene Nattel wrote in a research note on Wednesday morning. “It appears as though Loblaw’s focus on profitable sales may be costing the company a bit more than expected at the top line.”
Loblaw’s grocery division saw same store sales growth of 0.6 per cent in the quarter, down from 0.8 per cent the year previous and well below RBC’s forecast of 2 per cent.
Shoppers Drug Mart, however, saw same store sales growth of four per cent — its best quarter in three years — driven in part by inclement spring weather that, Davis said, provided a “very strong” cough, cold and allergy season.
“We were not satisfied with our supermarket sales slipping outside our stable trading range,” executive chairman Galen Weston told investors. “The team is now making the appropriate adjustments to bring food sales back into balance.”
Davis said Loblaw started using algorithms in specific grocery categories to boost profits in the first quarter of 2018. The team saw promising results early on, so they expanded to other categories and into Loblaw’s discount grocery chains this year.
“In the excitement of seeing margin improvements in certain categories,” Davis said, “people were overzealous.”