Canadian food retailer Loblaw has reported a 19 per cent fall in its second-quarter net earnings to C$159m (US$156m) or C$0.57 per share, according to a company press release.
The group’s second quarter revenue, meanwhile, rose 1.3 per cent to C$7.38bn (US$6.8bn) for the period ended 16 June 2012.
Retail sales and same-store sales growth came in at 1.1 per cent (or C$79m) and 0.2 per cent respectively, with the latter marking a 0.4 per cent decrease compared with the year-earlier period.
The retailer said same-store sales growth in food was “moderate”.
Gross profit fell by C$15m (US$14.5m) against the second quarter of 2011 while operating income contracted by C$58m (US$56m).
Loblaw mainly attributed the C$58m income decline to an increase in labour and other operating costs as well as declines in gross profit and foreign exchange gains, among other issues.
“In the second quarter we continued to execute our plan,” explained Galen Weston, executive chairman of Loblaw Companies.
“We are beginning to gain traction on the top line, particularly in our core food and drug businesses, as we continued our disciplined approach to improving our customer proposition.
“We remain confident that our ongoing investments in infrastructure, including the completion of our IT implementation, will enable efficiencies and expense leverage to drive future earnings growth.”
However, Weston admitted that Loblaw’s outlook for 2012 remains unchanged, with the company continuing to expect full-year net earnings to be down year-on-year.
