Fewer food items are seeing price increases related to tariffs despite the escalating trade dispute between Canada and the United States, executives from grocery chain Empire Co. Ltd. say.
“It is minimal impact on our business this time around,” chief customer officer Luc L’Archevêque told analysts during the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
While the grocery retailer — whose banners include Sobeys, Safeway, FreshCo and Farm Boy — received a handful of requests from suppliers to raise prices, L’Archevêque said it hasn’t accepted any so far.
“Our position will remain the same as the first time around: it’s too early, so we won’t accept any cost increases related to tariffs, and we’ll work very closely with our supplier partners to find solutions,” he said.
Earlier this week, Canada’s retaliatory duties, ranging from 15 to 50 per cent, kicked in on a laundry list of imports from the United States, including food products like dairy, molasses and honey, matching the dollar value of duties the U.S. imposed on Aug. 22. That further prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to introduce new tariffs and outright bans on some Canadian exports starting Sept. 29.
But grocers are finding themselves better positioned more than a year after the tariff war initially flared up between the two countries. Since then, all the major players — Empire, Loblaw and Metro — have established stronger relationships with local and non-U.S. suppliers to be able to offer more alternatives to tariffed food items and better respond to a resurgence of the buy Canadian sentiment among shoppers.
“We feel even better now than 18 months ago when we had the first counter-tariff situation,” Empire’s chief executive Pierre St-Laurent said.
“We have a large assortment, so customers can make many different choices to avoid U.S. products.”
St-Laurent said a broader product mix is also a reason why the company can deny cost increase requests because there are local alternatives available in the store.
The comments came as Empire reported net earnings of $233 million in its latest quarter, up from $212 million in the same quarter last year. The profit amounted to $1.04 per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 1, up from a profit of 91 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
Sales for Empire’s first quarter totalled $8.48 billion, up from $8.26 billion.
The grocery retailer has been expanding its footprint in discount and pharmacy. It opened its first two discount FreshCo stores in Atlantic Canada last month and expects to open 13 more stores across the country during its fiscal 2027 year.
Empire is expecting to spend $850 million in fiscal 2027, with about half of it going into renovations and new store expansion.
It also moved to acquire nine Morelli’s pharmacies in Ontario that are already situated within some Longo’s grocery stores.
Food sales totalled $7.92 billion, up from $7.79 billion a year ago, while fuel sales rose to $553 million, up from $467 million.
Same-store food sales rose 1.2 per cent, while higher oil prices helped boost same-store fuel sales 18.9 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX:EMP.A)
