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Canadian grocery retail holding company operating the Sobeys, IGA, Safeway and FreshCo supermarket banners.
Canadian grocery retail holding company operating the Sobeys, IGA, Safeway and FreshCo supermarket banners.
Sells groceries through corporate stores and franchised or affiliated banners, earning the retail margin on food plus the supply mark-up on franchise sales, and holds a significant interest in the property trust Crombie REIT. The Sobey family controls it through voting shares; this Class A line carries no vote.
In one line: Canada's Kroger-Albertsons hybrid at regional scale.
Moat: narrow (scale, brand, distribution). National multi-banner grocery network with regional brand strength across Canada.
Headquarters: Stellarton, Canada · Founded: 1963 · Employees: 130,000
Size Empire (EMP-A.TO) is a Canada Consumer Staples company (Food Retail) with a market value of $7.85B, the 89th largest of 420 Canada companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at C$49.39 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 6.6%, against +11.1% for the median peer and +5.2% for the Canada market (cap-weighted) — 9th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 2.5% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.1%); the operating margin is 3.7% (peer median 4.5%).
Valuation It trades at 13.6× forward earnings against a peer median of 20.0× (5th cheapest of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -3% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +2%, so the hurdle is -5 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.8 points above its cost of capital (5.0% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 10 Dec 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | C$32.2B | C$31.9B | C$31.3B | C$30.7B | C$30.5B |
| Revenue growth | — | +2% | +2% | +1% | — |
| Gross profit | C$7.52B | C$7.50B | C$7.26B | C$7.00B | C$6.76B |
| EBITDA | C$2.38B | C$2.32B | C$2.34B | C$2.26B | C$2.12B |
| Net income | C$219M | C$198M | C$700M | C$725M | C$686M |
| Free cash flow | C$1.31B | C$1.16B | C$1.43B | C$1.32B | C$982M |
| Capital expenditure | C$863M | C$831M | C$777M | C$799M | C$758M |
| Total debt | C$7.78B | C$7.86B | C$7.46B | C$7.36B | C$7.20B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empire EMP-A.TO | $7.85B | +7% | +2% | 4% | 13.6× | -2.7% |
| Loblaw Companies L.TO | $57.0B | +16% | +4% | 7% | 26.1× | -1.0% |
| Metro MRU.TO | $14.6B | +11% | +3% | 6% | 19.4× | -0.7% |
| Costco COST | $467B | +4% | +10% | 4% | 46.2× | 19.9% |
| Walmart WMT | $996B | -4% | +6% | 4% | 41.8× | 14.7% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | EMP-A.TO | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +1.1% | +5.5% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +6.6% | +11.1% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -6.2% | -12.2% | 6th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +2.5% | +4.1% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 3.7% | 4.5% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 13.6× | 20.0× | 5th cheapest of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -2.7% | 3.3% | 6th least demanding of 20 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +2.5% | +6.4% | 4th lowest of 20 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -5.2 pp | -6.6 pp | 10th most demanding of 20 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +1.8 pp | +3.6 pp | 7th lowest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 7.8× | 8.7× | 8th cheapest of 19 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.1× | 2.0× | 2nd most indebted of 20 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empire EMP-A.TO | Canada | $7.85B | +7% | +2% | 4% | 13.6× | -2.7% | +2.5% |
| Zabka ZAB.WA | Poland | $8.11B | +41% | +14% | 8% | 25.3× | 6.3% | +19.3% |
| Guming 1364.HK | Hong Kong | $7.08B | -4% | +47% | 25% | 14.8× | -4.1% | +29.4% |
| MIXUE 2097.HK | Hong Kong | $8.80B | -37% | +35% | 20% | 11.5× | -18.5% | +32.1% |
| President Chain Store 2912.TW | Taiwan | $6.62B | -6% | +5% | 4% | 17.0× | 3.3% | +6.3% |
| Dino Polska DNP.WA | Poland | $9.36B | +31% | +14% | 6% | 22.2× | 17.9% | +27.1% |
| Axfood AXFO.ST | Sweden | $6.26B | +4% | +2% | 3% | 24.3× | 3.2% | +10.7% |
| Albertsons Companies ACI | United States | $6.02B | -20% | +2% | 2% | 7.0× | -3.0% | +3.6% |
| J Sainsbury SBRY.L | United Kingdom | $10.4B | +16% | -3% | 3% | 14.9× | 7.8% | +3.0% |
| BBB Foods TBBB | United States | $10.8B | +72% | +52% | 1% | n/a | 49.9% | +37.1% |
| Kesko KESKOA.HE | Finland | $11.3B | +23% | +6% | 5% | 20.6× | 4.8% | +3.2% |
| DFI Retail D01.SI | Singapore | $5.06B | -11% | -3% | 4% | 13.2× | -0.4% | -2.9% |
| Uni-president Enterprises 1216.TW | Taiwan | $13.2B | +11% | +1% | 5% | 17.6× | 0.6% | +8.5% |
| Sprouts Farmers Market SFM | United States | $4.53B | -41% | +5% | 7% | 11.3× | -4.0% | +6.4% |
| Kobe Bussan 3038.T | Japan | $4.33B | +15% | +6% | 7% | 21.9× | -4.8% | +10.1% |
| Metro MRU.TO | Canada | $14.6B | +11% | +3% | 6% | 19.4× | -0.7% | +4.1% |
| Yonghui Superstores 601933.SS | China | $3.76B | -23% | -16% | -3% | 273.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Ocado OCDO.L | United Kingdom | $3.73B | +77% | -42% | 3% | n/a | 39.1% | -9.9% |
| Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentacion DIA.MC | Spain | $3.15B | +25% | +2% | 3% | 32.6× | 4.9% | -3.6% |
| Coles COL.AX | Australia | $21.0B | +7% | +3% | 4% | 24.4× | 5.5% | +3.3% |
| Kusuri No Aoki 3549.T | Japan | $2.88B | +26% | +13% | 5% | 21.2× | 4.1% | +13.1% |