CLOSING SHOP
Longtime customer Norma Trumble loads groceries into her car on Monday outside the Safeway store on 52nd Street NE. “I don’t know where I’m going to shop now,” she says, after parent company Empire announced the store will close Dec. 10.
A month after Sobeys owner Empire Co. vowed to cut costs amid dismal earnings, the national grocer said Monday it would close a northeast Calgary store where more than 100 people work.
Keri Scobie, a spokeswoman for Nova Scotia-based Sobeys Inc., said the company’s Safeway location on 52nd Street in the community of Marlborough will close Dec 10.
It’s the latest casualty following Empire’s acquisition of the Safeway chain in 2013, which led to five store shutdowns in Calgary.
“This store had been under-performing for quite some time and was no longer financially viable to keep operating,” Scobie said in a statement.
“This was a strategic business decision and puts us in a better position for success in a very competitive market.”
In its latest earnings report, Sobeys’ parent company Empire reported last month its profits dropped 40 per cent from a year earlier to $65 million, falling well short of analysts’ expectations.
The company said sales have sagged in Western Canada due to the economic downturn and its price reductions designed to attract more customers.
Francois Vimard, Empire’s interim CEO, said during a conference call after the earnings report that the company’s costs were too high, “given our sales challenges across the country.”
Vimard said the company would work over the following months to “identify additional cost reductions aimed at improving our efficiency.”
Scobie said the company’s latest store closure in Calgary emerged from its regular practice of reviewing “our store network to make sure we have the right store formats in the right market.”
About 110 people work at the northeast store.
Scobie said the company has no immediate plans for any further closures in Alberta.
This store had been under-performing for quite some time and was no longer financially viable.