Empire Company Limited is a Canadian conglomerate engaged mostly in food retail and corporate investments. The company is headquartered in Stellarton,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. Empire Company also owns the

Sobeys Sobeys Inc. is the second largest supermarket chain in Canada, with over 1,500 stores operating across Canada under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales o ...

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

chain. The company was founded in 1963. In total, the company owns, affiliates or franchises more than 1,500 stores; in addition to Sobeys, brands include

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...

, IGA, Foodland,

Farm Boy Farm Boy Inc. is a Canadian food retailer operating in the province of Ontario. The company is based in Ottawa, Ontario. The retailer markets itself as selling fresh produce and food products, with an emphasis in their branding on farm-to-table. ...

, FreshCo,

Thrifty Foods Thrifty Foods (often shortened to Thrifty's) is a chain of supermarkets located in British Columbia, Canada. Background Thrifty Foods was founded by Alex Campbell and Ernie Skinner in 1977 when the first store was opened in Victoria's Fairfie ...

and Lawtons Drug.

Acquisitions

Empire Company has a long history of acquisitions: * 1976 Lawton's Drug Stores Limited, which operated 18 stores in Nova Scotia. * November 1980 - July 1981 Empire acquires Sobey Holdings Limited, gaining a 50.97% stake in the company. * February 1983 Empire ups its ownership of

Hannaford Bros. Co. Hannaford is an American supermarket chain based in Scarborough, Maine. Founded in Portland, Maine, in 1883, Hannaford operates stores in New England and New York. The chain is now part of the Ahold Delhaize group based in the Netherlands, an ...

, an American food retailer, to 25% (Sold in 2000) * June 1987 Empire buys the remaining 49.03% of Sobeys, making it an entirely owned subsidiary. (Sold in 1998, re-bought in 2007) * 1987 Empire buys out its partner in Empire Theatres, turning it into an entirely owned subsidiary. * May 1988 Empire buys a 25% stake in Provigo. * 1988 Empire acquires an additional 22% stake in Wajax, resulting in a total ownership of 45%. * June 1989 Empire re-purchases the outstanding share of Atlantic Shopping Centres, making it an entirely owned subsidiary. * December 1993 Empire Real Estate buys 64% of Halifax Developments, Ltd; making it an entirely owned subsidiary. * December 1998 Empire buys

Oshawa Group Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

for $1.5 billion. * January 2001 Empire Real Estate buys a 35.7% stake in Genstar Developmental Partnership for $29 million. * February 2004 Sobey's acquires Commisso's Food Markets, and Empire Real Estate acquires Commisso's real estate for a total of $103.5 million. * September 2005 Empire Theatres acquires 27 more theatres. * August 2006 Sobey's acquires Achille de la Chevrotière Ltée, including its grocery chain of about 25 stores in Quebec and Ontario. This costs $79.2 million. * July 15, 2007 Empire re-buys the remaining outstanding Sobey's share, making it once again an entirely owned subsidiary. * September 2007 Sobeys buys Thrifty Foods for $256.6 million. * 2011 Sobeys purchases 236 retail gas locations for $214.9 million in Québec and Atlantic Canada. * June 2013 Empire buys all of

Canada's stores for $5.8 billion * September 2018 Empire announces intent to buy

stores in an $800 million deal. * March 2021 Empire announces it will buy 51% stake in

Longo's Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc., known simply as Longo's is a chain of retail supermarkets and grocery delivery service serving Southern Ontario, Canada, controlled by Sobeys parent Empire Company in partnership with the founding Longo fami ...

and its Grocery Gateway e-commerce business for $357 million. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of Empire's 2022 financial year.

Sales of Subsidiaries/Interests

* 1998 Empire sells 38% of Sobeys, putting it out on the public stock exchange. * 2000 Empire sells its 25% stake in Hannaford Bros Co for $1.03 billion. * March 2002 Empire sells Serca Foodservice to SYSCO for $411 million. * June 2005 When Wajax became an income trust, Empire sold 2.875 million shares for $50.8 million. * 2006 Empire sells 44 properties to Crombie REIT. * April 2008 Empire sells another 61 properties to

Crombie REIT Crombie REIT (formerly ''Atlantic Shopping Centres'', then ''Crombie Properties'') is a Canadian unincorporated open ended publicly traded real estate investment trust which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and has an estimated market capitali ...

* 2011 Empire sells its remaining share of Wajax. * June 2013 Empire announces the sale of

Empire Theatres Empire Theatres Limited was a movie theater chain in Canada, a subsidiary of Empire Company Ltd., the holding company of the Sobey family conglomerate. In June 2013, Empire announced it would exit the movie theatre business, selling the vast ...

Cineplex Entertainment Cineplex Inc. (formerly Cineplex Galaxy) is a Canadian movie theatre and family entertainment centre chain headquartered in Toronto. The company was formed in 2003 via the acquisition of Loews Cineplex's Canadian operations (which included ...

and

Landmark Cinemas Landmark Cinema of Canada Inc. is a Canadian cinema chain. Based in Calgary, Alberta, Landmark operates 40 theatres with 325 screens, primarily in Ontario and western Canada. Its holdings include much of the former Empire Theatres chain which it ...

. The aggregate gross purchase price paid to Empire Theatres in the two transactions was approximately $248 million in cash. * October 2013 Sale of Empire Theatres to Cineplex and Landmark is complete. * August 2013 Sobeys sells the land of 68 Safeway locations to Crombie REIT for $900 million. * Oct/Nov/Dec 2013 Sobeys announces the planned sale of 23 of its stores in Alberta in preparation to the Safeway acquisition; this move was required in order to satisfy the Competition Bureau.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site
Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies based in Nova Scotia Conglomerate companies of Canada Conglomerate companies established in 1963 1963 establishments in Nova Scotia