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About Us
Empire Company Limited is proudly Canadian, with more than 114 years of experience in the food retail business. As one of only two national grocery retailers in Canada, we serve the food shopping needs of Canadians with approximately 1,500 stores in all 10 provinces under retail banners that include Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, Farm Boy, Longo’s and Lawtons Drugs, as well as more than 350 retail fuel locations. Empire also operates e-commerce grocery retail businesses, including our newest banner, Voilà.
Our core retail food formats and related businesses are designed to ensure that we have the right offering in the right-sized stores for each individual market we serve — from our full-service format to the convenience format, each tailored to satisfy the unique shopping needs of our customers.
Our core values are our strength and the foundation of who we are: Customer-Driven, People-
Powered, Community-Engaged and Results-Oriented. And, our purpose — we are a family nurturing families — is our collective passion and mission to nurture the things that make life better, including great experiences, families, communities and the lives of our 134,000 teammates from coast-to-coast.
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Teammates
134,0001
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Total stores
1,581
(excluding fuel stations and related convenience stores)
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Total sq. footage
40.3 million
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Communities served
928
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1Employees of Sobeys Inc, our franchisees and affiliates
Our Strategy: Project Horizon
Project Horizon is our three-year strategy to deliver an incremental $500 million in annualized EBITDA by the end of fiscal year 2023. Building from the overwhelming success of Project Sunrise, our previous three-year strategy, we are well positioned to accelerate growth through our market share and build on cost and margin discipline.
Growth in Market Share
- Invest in Empire’s Store Network
- Improve Store Productivity
- Win Canadian Grocery E-Commerce
- Grow Empire’s Private Label Portfolio
- Provide Best in Class Customer Personalization
Building on Cost and Margin Discipline
- Drive Non-Merchandising Sourcing Efficiencies
- Continue Merchandising Sourcing Efficiencies
- Invest in Best in Class Analytics to Improve Customer Value Proposition
- Optimize Supply Chain Productivity
- Improve System and Process
Financial Highlights
Empire Company Limited (TSX: EMP.A) is a Canadian company headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia. Empire’s key businesses are food retailing, through wholly-owned subsidiary Sobeys Inc., and related real estate. With approximately $28.3 billion in annual sales and $15.2 billion in assets, Empire and its subsidiaries, franchisees and affiliates employ approximately 134,000 people. Additional financial information relating to Empire, including the Company’s Annual Information Form, can be found on the Company’s website at www.empireco.ca or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Sales ($ in billions)
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5.9%
10-year CAGR(3)
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4.4%
4-year CAGR
Adjusted EBITDA(1)
($ in millions)
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9.9%
10-year CAGR
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28.1%
4-year CAGR
Adjusted Net Earnings(1)(2)
($ in millions)
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8.8%
10-year CAGR
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38.4%
4-year CAGR
Dividends ($ per share)
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6.9%
10-year CAGR
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6.1%
4-year CAGR
- See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures & Financial Metrics” section of the Management’s Discussion and Analysis (“MD&A”) in 2021 Empire Annual Report (PDF 4.20MB).
- Attributable to owners of the Company.
- Compound annual growth rate
