42 Facts About Loblaw

Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners, as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel.

Loblaw operates a private label program that includes grocery and household items, clothing, baby products, pharmaceuticals, cellular phones, general merchandise and financial services.

Loblaw is the largest Canadian food retailer, and its brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh.

Loblaw had expanded into the United States with Loblaw Groceterias Inc outlets in Buffalo, New York.

Loblaw retained its 50stores in Buffalo, New York, which were profitable operations.

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Loblaw began introducing other modern amenities such as "electroniceye" automatic doors and mechanical ventilation systems for the comfort ofshoppers.

In particular, the Loblaw promoted its new "rear entranceand exit stores, " with checkout counters at the back that allowed shoppers, increasingly motorized and suburban, direct access to their cars.

In 1953, Loblaw Groceterias acquired majority control of Loblaw Inc, the former American branch of the company with stores in New York State, Pennsylvania, andOhio, through a purchase of stock from George Weston Limited.

That same year, Loblaw announced a major new thrust into Western Canada with 32 supermarkets slated forconstruction.

Loblaw introduced new design elements such moveable binsand huge photo enlargements of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats to graphicallyconvey quality and freshness.

Loblaw initiated a similar program of rationalization and renewal which saw hundreds ofstores closed and others remodelled.

In 1976, Loblaw suspended the dividend on both its Class A and B shares asmanagement cited "anticipated large extraordinary losses" by year's end.

Loblaw moved to rejuvenate its own private label program byallocating millions of dollars to the development of in-store brands.

When one competing food industry executive was critical of Nichol, noting the irony of heavily advertising No Name when generics typically went unadvertised to hold down costs, Nichol pointed out that Loblaw had not increased its promotional budget but simply redirected its advertising dollars towards the new line.

InWestern Canada, Westfair Foods, a Loblaw subsidiary, unveiled its firstsuperstore in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1979.

In 1985, with nine Real Canadian Superstores across Western Canada, Loblaw tried to duplicate their success in Eastern Canada with the opening of its first combination store at Pickering, Ontario.

President's Choice, the upscale private label at Loblaw's supermarkets, has been a resounding success in the United States - and has fired a rebellion of consumers and retailers against highly advertised, and therefore pricey, national brands.

News reports later indicated that Loblaw, post-Nichol, was experiencing stronger-than-ever corporate earnings.

Loblaw further statedthe company's intent to enter the Quebec market.

TheProvigo acquisition meant that Loblaw had become the leading food retailerin Quebec, with Metro a close second.

That same year, Loblaw madeanother regional acquisition with the purchase of the 80 store Agora chain inAtlantic Canada.

Loblaw keeps expanding its fleet of 900 stores, adding about 10 percent to its floor space and sales each year, while increasing its profit margin.

Loblaw began losing money, quarter after quarter, and by the end offiscal 2005 the company had recorded its first year-end loss in almost twentyyears.

Loblaw publicly declared that it would take at least three years to turn operations around as the company continued to work out kinks in its supply chain and upgrade computer systems.

Since the departure of Dave Nichol a decade and a half before, Loblaw had been without a spokesman to pitch its brands and supermarkets.

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Joe Fresh sales soon exceeded the company's own projections and Loblaw began expanding into children's wear, shoes, lingerie, beauty and bath products.

Under Weston, Loblaw refocused its efforts in the area of corporatesocial responsibility, and in particularly on the environment, in issuing annual CSR reports.

Loblaw unveiled one energy efficient, low emissions environmentalflagship store in Scarborough, Ontario, and became the first Canadiansupermarket chain to install a wind turbine to supply renewable electricityto one of its stores.

In November 2008, Greenpeace alleged that Loblaw was selling 14 out of 15 fish species on that organization's "redlist" of those considered to be the most destructively farmed, and staged protests at some Toronto-area locations.

Loblaw denied the allegations, while the accuracy of the redlist itself has been challenged by US government regulators and by the fish industry.

Loblaw has since committed to sourcing all of its seafood from sustainable sources by 2013, and now features several Marine Stewardship Council-certified products under its President's Choice product line.

Loblaw rented a Toronto avant garde art gallery as backdrop to the launch of its new "Black Label" line of gourmet food products.

In 2004, Loblaw Companies purchased Maple Leaf Gardens, a former hockey arena in Toronto.

In December 2012, Loblaw announced that it would spin-off most of its real estate properties into a new publicly listed real estate investment trust.

On July 15,2013, Loblaw announced that it would acquire Canada's largest pharmacy chain, Shoppers Drug Mart, for in a cash and stock deal.

Galen G Weston indicated the possibility for store brands from the two chains to appear in each other's stores following the merger, and that the merger would give Loblaw greater buying power for health and wellness products.

Loblaw operates under many banners throughout Canada, so as to appeal to different niches but to present the illusion of greater competition.

Additionally, as part of a 2006 agreement with unionized employees in Ontario, Loblaw announced that it would introduce a new food-centred supermarket format for locations not converted to the Superstore format.

Loblaw has a number of common products and services at many of its stores regardless of banner.

Loblaw formerly operated gas stations co-located with 213 of its stores, under brands such as Gas Bar, At The Pumps, A pleins gaz, and Refuel.

In 2017, Loblaw announced that it had sold these operations to Brookfield Business Partners for $540 million.

Loblaw hiked employee pay in March 2020 for the coronavirus pandemic, upping wages by $2 per hour.