An ongoing strike at Metro Inc.‘s produce distribution centre in Quebec is denting the company’s bottom line as the work stoppage enters its fifth month.
“Our third quarter was certainly challenging,” Metro chief executive Eric La Flèche, who retires from the top job next month, told analysts on an earnings call Wednesday.
The grocery and drugstore retailer reported its third-quarter profit fell to $211.3 million from $323 million a year earlier — a 35 per cent plunge.
The strike at the Laval, Que., distribution centre began on March 30, with 550 unionized workers demanding better pay and working conditions. It’s the only produce distribution centre Metro has in Quebec and supplies more than 350 stores in the province, including Super C and Metro Plus.
La Flèche said there haven’t been any formal negotiations for a few weeks, but in his opinion, the ball is in the union’s court.
“We’re prepared to resume discussions with the union, but these discussions have to take place in a realistic framework that reflects the competitive market that we compete in,” he said.
The Metro-Richelieu United Grocers Workers Union (CSN), which represents the 550 workers at the centre, said Metro has the necessary resources to end the labour dispute.
“Our demands are reasonable and have been from the beginning,” said union president Matthieu Lafontaine in a news release on Wednesday.
“We are asking for fair working conditions, a salary adjustment that allows us to recover the purchasing power lost due to inflation, and genuine recognition of the employees’ contribution to the company’s success.”
Metro presented an offer in June, which it said included “significant increases” for wages and working conditions and that the offer was comparable to similar roles in the market. The union later came back with a counter-offer, which the grocer said it could not agree to.
An estimated $90 million was lost in profit and direct costs related to the strike in the third quarter, said Nicolas Amyot, Metro’s chief financial officer.
The labour disruption is expected to weigh on fourth-quarter results as well.
“Given that we do not have a clear resolution timeline for this conflict, we expect that our fourth-quarter results will continue to be significantly impacted,” Metro said in its outlook in a news release on Wednesday.
It added that its same-store sales were already down 1.5 per cent in the first four weeks of the current quarter.
While it deals with those issues in Quebec, over in Ontario, the grocer said it’s rebranding 10 conventional Metro banners into its discount banner Food Basics, including in the Toronto area and Ottawa.
“This initiative should allow us to grow market share, strengthen our competitiveness in key markets and generate returns above our typical investment thresholds,” said Marc Giroux, chief operating officer, who will take over as chief executive on Sept. 27.
Major grocers including Loblaw and Empire have aggressively expanded their footprint in discount banners in recent years as cash-strapped consumers continue to hunt for deals.
Metro’s sales for the third quarter totalled $6.97 billion, up from $6.87 billion a year earlier. The increase came as food same-store sales were down 1.5 per cent for the quarter.
Pharmacy same-store sales were up 4.8 per cent, boosted by a 6.4 per cent increase in prescription drugs and a 1.4 per cent increase in front-store sales.
The company said its profit amounted to $1.00 per diluted share for the 16-week period ended July 4 compared with a profit of $1.48 per share in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Metro said it earned $1.24 per diluted share in its latest quarter, down from $1.52 per diluted share a year earlier.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX: MRU)
