Loblaw made an extra $1 million per day during year of inflation: report

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Loblaw Companies Limited made an extra $1 million per day in “excess” profits this year, according to a new report analyzing food inflation and its relationship with the grocery industry.

The study, conducted by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, found that Canada’s three largest grocers made above-average profits this year amid rising food costs.

Empire (the company that owns Sobeys) earned an excess of $56 million and Metro earned an excess of $7 million.

Leading the pack is Loblaw Companies Limited, which earned a whopping excess of $436 million in 2022.

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These numbers may be confirmation to many Canadians who suspect that these supermarket chains are trying to profit off of inflation.

However, authors of the report Samantha Taylor and Sylvain Charlebois say they did not find these companies guilty of “greedflation,” which the report defines as taking advantage of high inflation to earn excessive profits at the expense of consumers.

“Rather, we conclude that based on the performance of their gross profit, Loblaw Companies Limited are outperforming even their best gross profit performance in recent years. While at the same time, many Canadians face tremendous financial hardship attempting to satisfy their basic needs of heat, shelter, and food,” reads the report.

This financial pressure is evident in a recent report that found the use of food banks rose to the highest levels in Canadian history this year.

The authors combed through public data to look at the gross profit of the big three Canadian grocers, calculating their average best performance for the past five years.

They then compared those numbers with each company’s profits from the most recent two quarters of 2022 to find the excess.

In total, Loblaw’s gross profit so far in 2022 beats its best performance of the past five years by $180 million, according to the report.

Agri-food Analytics Lab

“Companies need to make a profit to survive, and the capitalistic nature of our economy incentivizes innovation and funds food safety,” acknowledged the study. “But when food inflation reaches record levels, knowing what the threshold of moral acceptability for profits is for the sector would be key.”

The report comes just a week after the Competition Bureau launched an investigation into the rise of food prices at grocery stores.

Loblaw has implemented a price freeze on all No Name products in an effort to help customers with food inflation, but it was met with backlash.

Daily Hive has reached to Loblaw for a statement.