Loblaw Buying Canada's Biggest Asian Grocery Chain, T And T Grocery, Buying, Chain, Asian, And

吳孟達

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_36125.aspx

The largest Asian grocery chain in Canada is no more, as Loblaw completed its purchase of T&T Supermarkets.

The deal is worth $225 million, with Loblaw Companies Ltd handing over $191 million in cash for the stores.

The rest will be funded through preferred shares, tied to the future performance of the business.

T&T has a total of 17 locations across the country and five of them are in Toronto. There are others in British Columbia, Alberta, and elsewhere in Ontario.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to consents and regulatory approvals.

Last year, T&T boasted sales of about $514 million.

Catpiano

Yeah ...  more and more mainlanders coming .. more and more business ..

B2L2

Will we have all the Loblaw's discount soon in BC?  

yoursecret

I guess T&T isn't making money?

ACC-HE

shocking bor.

news

the chinese superstore yay!

pkphilip

With this new acquisition, Loblaws will be gaining quite a bit of market share in the grocery retailer within the West Coast. It successfully targeted to both the westerner with SuperStore and Asians with T&T.

Many may not know that Galen Weston is a relative young CEO; there was an "earthquake" couple years back where Loblaws got rid of quite a bit of older management who refuses to change. You just have to see how much Superstore (Weston Foods) had changed as soon as Galen took the CEO position.

We can all earn PC points in T&T and run PayPass at checkout, what a better deal... will they still charge for bags? lol

Philip

shutterbug

That's too bad...no more Chinese owned big supermarket!  Sigh...

If you can't beat it, just BUT it!  LOL

Lik

I guess T&T isn't making money?
yoursecret 發表於 2009-7-24 10:58

This is a pure guess with little factual evidence to support the claim, but I seriously doubt that T&T isn't making money.

Despite heavy competition in the market (esp in Richmond), I'd say T&T is likely doing quite well. They have supermarkets throughout the Lower Mainland, stores in Calgary and Edmonton, and have expanded into Ontario with numerous stores as well. Foot traffic is always heavy at a lot of their stores as well, and they have diversified into a wide range of products (including ready-made hot and cold food, pastries, etc.)

If I have to make a guess, I would say that the reasons for the sale is because of a combination of global economy outlook, expenditure incurred during T&T's expansion into the East, and stiffer competition from all over the place. The recession is making the business more challenging to run, as is the more competitive market. From the Ontario expansion, they must have build up a decent amount of debt as well. Even though the whole chain is still making money, it might be less worrisome / risky for the ex-owner to just take Loblaws $200M and call it a day.

Overall, I would say it was simply a smart business decision to reap your profits while it's there and gracefully bow out from the market.

-Lik

zoids

I am actually surprised how cheap T&T got sold for..... man, that is a steal!