Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat, what do you think of Empire Company? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

A: Empire Company Ltd., $40.37, symbol EMP.A on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 238.5 million; Market cap: $9.7 billion; www.empireco.ca), is primarily a food retailer and also invests in real estate. The company operates through two segments: Food retailing, and Investments and other operations. Empire’s Food retailing segment does business through its wholly owned Sobeys business. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, the segment owns, partners with, and franchises more than 1,600 stores in all 10 provinces. Its retail banners include Sobeys but also Safeway, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, Farm Boy, Longo’s and Lawton Drugs. Sobeys also runs e-commerce businesses under the banners Voila, Voila par IGA, and ThrifyFoods.com. The segment first launched its Voila e-commerce platform in 2020, to bring online grocery home delivery to its customers. Sobeys also runs and/or supplies 369 retail gas stations under the Fast Fuel and Shell brands. Through its Investments and other operations segment, Empire invests in real estate. The company has a 41.5% interest in Crombie REIT (symbol CRR.UN on…