CANADIAN TIRE

Canadian Tire Corp., the country’s biggest retailer of automotive and sporting goods, said profit rose 22 per cent in the third quarter as the company increased sales of kitchen appliances and backyard furniture. Net income climbed to $ 84.4 million, or $ 1.02 a share, from $ 69.4 million, or 84 cents, a year earlier, Toronto- based Canadian Tire said yesterday. Analysts had expected earnings of 97 cents a share. Revenue rose 11 per cent to $ 1.9 billion.

Sales of goods such as microwaves climbed as the company added new stores and expanded existing ones, part of chief executive Wayne Sales’s plan to increase profit by 15 per cent annually. The stores have wider aisles and attract more shoppers who tend to buy more merchandise, boosting sales by about 20 per cent compared with the smaller outlets, the company has said. About 69 per cent of new retail space planned for 2005 was scheduled for the last half of the year, compared with 38 per cent a year earlier, Scotia Capital analyst Ryan Balgopal says.

Sales is spending at least $ 1.75 billion over five years to increase the number of stores by 25 per cent.

Sales at stores open at least a year increased 2 per cent compared with a 1.2 per cent pace a year earlier. Some investors consider so-called same-store sales an important measure of a retailer’s performance because it indicates how much a company could grow without adding retail space.

“ Positive trends in all of our businesses elevated Canadian Tire’s performance,” the company said. The company, which operates about 1,100 stores, gas stations and car washes, said its flagship stores increased earnings before income taxes and minority interest by 26 per cent to $ 84.9 million. The Mark’s Work Wearhouse clothing chain more than tripled profit before taxes to $ 5.9 million, and earnings from the credit- card division on that basis rose 11 per cent to $ 39.9 million.