Food sellers find new ways to grow

Article Excerpt

These two leading supermarket chains continue to expand into new areas. That helps them compete with big U.S. retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, which are aggressively expanding in Canada and selling more groceries. LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $35 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 281.4 million; Market cap: $9.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) recently formed a partnership with J.C. Penney (New York symbol JCP). Under this deal, Loblaw will build Joe Fresh casual-clothing boutiques inside 700 of Penney’s 1,100 department stores in the U.S. These outlets should open in April 2013. Penney will also sell Joe Fresh products through its website. As well, Loblaw continues to invest in new computers as part of a plan to improve its efficiency and avoid product shortages in its supermarkets. In the three months ended June 16, 2012, the company spent $20 million on these initiatives. That’s the main reason why its earnings fell 19.3% in…