Canada’s Competition Bureau says it is launching a study on competition in the grocery industry.
The agency said in a press release Monday that it plans to investigate various issues in the grocery industry, “with the goal of recommending measures that governments can take to help improve competition in the sector.”
The bureau functions as perhaps Canada’s most prominent consumer watchdog group by investigating anti-competitive practices that serve to push up prices for consumers, including things like deceptive marketing, price-fixing, and even outright fraud.
The bureau says the move isn’t in reaction to any specific allegation of wrongdoing, but it comes as consumers grapple with food prices rising at their fastest pace in more than 40 years.
Last week, new data showed that while Canada’s inflation rate eased to 6.9 per cent, the prices of food purchased at stores still rose by more than 11 per cent.
Many factors have been blamed for the rapid escalation in food prices, including extreme weather events, higher input costs, and temporary supply chain stresses such as the current invasion of Ukraine. But the bureau says it wants to try to understand if there are any anti-competitive factors at play, so it’s seeking answers to three broad questions:
To what extent are higher grocery prices a result of changing competitive dynamics?
What can we learn from steps that other countries have taken to increase competition in the sector?
How can governments lower barriers to entry and expansion to stimulate competition for consumers?
The bureau is seeking input from the public on the issue. Anyone wishing to contribute is invited to contact the bureau via its website before Dec. 16.
When its investigation is complete, the bureau says it plans on publishing its results, with a list of recommendations of how to fix problems it uncovers, if any. That report is expected next June.
Shoppers react to sky-high food prices
Increases in the price of food are out of control, and on the streets of Toronto on Tuesday, Canadians told CBC News about what they are doing to deal with them.
The major retail grocery chains have faced immense pressure of late on the issue, due to the perception that they are increasing their prices more than they need to, under cover of high inflation. Loblaw announced recently it would freeze prices on more than 1,500 products under its in-house brand, No Name, until the end of January, as a way to appease consumers.
But the move has only added to the scrutiny of the industry, with many observers saying it is common for grocery chains to demand price freezes from their own suppliers every year during the busy end-of-year holiday season.
“It is an industry practice to have a price freeze from Nov. 1 to Feb. 5 for all private label and national brand grocery products and this will be the case again this year in all of Metro banners,” a spokesperson for Montreal-based grocery chain Metro told CBC News this week.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.