The company, which includes the Metro grocery store chain and
The result compared with a profit of
For its full financial year, Metro said sales grew more than seven per cent, with net earnings up 11.5 per cent to
Metro chief executive
"After a strong first half of the year, our performance in the second half of the year was fueled in part by the sales growth caused by the pandemic," he told analysts during a conference call.
La Fleche said Metro expects food revenues will continue to grow at higher the normal rates over the short term as a portion of restaurant and food service sales continued to transfer to grocery stores.
For the quarter, La Fleche said in-store traffic improved, but remained down significantly year-over-year.
But he said the "larger basket" size – an increase in the amount of groceries people buy – more than offset the decrease in traffic.
Revenue for the 12-week period totalled
Food same-store sales gained 10 per cent, while pharmacy same-store sales rose 5.5 per cent.
On an adjusted basis, Metro says it earned
Metro operates a network of roughly 950 food stores under several banners including Metro, Metro Plus, Super C and Food Basics, as well as about 650 drugstores primarily under the Jean Coutu, Brunet,
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