Grocer Metro to expand online grocery sales to Ontario
Metro Inc. is looking to expand its online grocery offerings to Ontario next year as the food retailing industry ramps up e-commerce options for shoppers.
The company already offers “click and collect” in seven stores and home delivery service in Greater Montreal, Quebec City and Gatineau, Que., covering 60 per cent of the population of Quebec, Metro CEO Eric La Fleche said Wednesday.
“We are pleased with the way we have set it up so far and we’re going to start the same way in Ontario,” La Fleche said on a conference call to discuss the company’s latest financial results.
“It is still small in relative terms for the company, obviously, but it is certainly showing good growth,” he said of the e-commerce business.
La Fleche said the plan is to launch its online grocery business in the Ontario market late in the company’s 2018 financial year, which began Oct. 1, or early in its 2019 financial year. The company’s grocery banners include Metro, Food Basics and Metro Plus.
The comments by Metro came after it reported a fourth-quarter profit of $154.9 million, up from $145.0 million a year ago.
Sales in the quarter ended Sept. 30, which included an extra week compared with a year ago, totalled $3.23 billion, up from $2.93 billion, while same store sales gained 0.4 per cent.