DOLLARAMA EXCEEDS FORECASTS

Discount retailer Dollarama Inc beat estimates for quarterly sales on Wednesday, as consumers bought more groceries and other essentials per visit to its stores amid the coronavirus crisis. Deemed an essential business, Dollarama saw higher demand for basic products, including cleaning supplies and packaged foods, in late March and early April, as most of its stores stayed open while the crisis brought many Canadian businesses to a virtual halt. Dollarama said it witnessed a 22.6-per-cent increase in average transaction size even as the number of transactions declined 17.9 per cent, as consumers visited less frequently yet bought larger quantities of goods. Samestore sales, excluding temporarily closed stores, rose 0.7 per cent, while analysts on average had expected a 1.76-per-cent decline. As of June 8, 32 Dollarama stores were temporarily closed, it said.