Loblaw extending delivery and pick-up service across Canada in battle with Amazon
TORONTO — Grocery giant Loblaw Companies Ltd. is adding more markets to its e-commerce home delivery and store pick-up service as supermarkets across the country mobilize for the battle with Amazon.
“As the retail landscape changes, we are now rapidly scaling our e-commerce pick-up and home delivery services to blanket Canada this year,” chief executive Galen Weston said.
Loblaw will also expand the number of its click-and-collect locations and will begin offering grocery pick-up at Shoppers Drug Mart stores, starting with nine stores in the Toronto areas in the coming weeks. Currently the service, now dubbed “PC Express” is offered at about 200 pick-up points outside Loblaw stores and Go Train commuter sites. Loblaw said Wednesday that number will rise to 700 locations by the end of the year. The announcement covers items currently for sale at Loblaw online, including fresh food and household items such as diapers, some health and beauty items, and cleaning products, but it does not include the broad range of cosmetics available at Shoppers, or prescription drugs.
The company also said it will add home delivery to five more markets this year to include a total of 16 Canadian markets, including Montreal, Halifax and Regina. Last year, the company partnered with California-based Instacart to launch home delivery after executives said home delivery, though a costly option, was a service some consumers clearly want.
The announcement came as Loblaw revealed higher than expected earnings in a period when it began to dispense $25 gift cards to customers. Loblaw introduced the gift cards after admitting it was a whistleblower in an industrywide 14-year scheme to fix the price of bread. An investigation by the Competition Bureau is ongoing.
The retailer reported revenue fell 0.4 per cent to $10.36 billion as the company disposed of gas bar operations. Excluding the gas bar figure, retail sales rose 2.9 per cent, with same-store sales at Loblaw rising 1.9 per cent and same-store sales at Shoppers Drug Mart rising 3.7 per cent.
Net earnings rose to $377 million, or 98 cents per share, up from $232 million, (58 cents) in the same period last year.
Adjusted net earnings were 94 cents, ahead of average analyst estimates of 91 cents and $10.36 billion in revenue from Thomson Reuters
Loblaw also raised its quarterly dividend to 29.5 cents per share from 27 cents.