Financial Update for Employees

Safeway employees,

Earlier this week our CEO Michael Medline announced quarterly results for Empire Company, the company that owns Sobeys and Safeway.

These results are important not only to our shareholders, but also to you, our employees. Ultimately you, are a big part of tackling our challenges and securing our future. These results are a measure of how we are all doing. The numbers Michael announced this week told us we are on the right track. But they also confirmed there is much more to be done.

As Michael said, “we are not where we want to be and we are most certainly not out of the woods yet. Although we are doing a better job of managing our day-to-day business, we remain in the nascent stages of delivering significant cost savings while addressing a number of brand and customer offering opportunities that will provide a compelling reason for consumers to shop us more.”

What does this mean for Safeway? It means we are at the very early stages of getting back to being the place where customers want to shop. That is how we will build a strong and growing company, with stable jobs for our people. To be able to do that, we have to do many things at Safeway — including getting a handle on costs which, right now, are among the highest in this crowded and brutally competitive industry. We have to address this issue since doing nothing won’t make our challenge go away. Addressing it gives us a path forward.

For more information on the results, you can find the full comments here.

You can also read some of the coverage here.

We’re in this together.

Jason Potter

A Summer Worth Celebrating!

Our company, like this great country of ours, is shaped by the many people, cultures and communities that make us great.

2017 marks Canada’s 150th anniversary. We want to get the party started and celebrate this special summer in communities across Western Canada. Whether you’re a new employee or have worked with us for years, we have plenty of ways to get involved.

You likely already know that we had special t-shirts made for the occasion. You’ve been wearing them and it seems these beauties have created the right atmosphere in our stores. What else? Our Pier 21 initiative is something we’re especially proud of. We’ve partnered with Pier 21 to support their collection of stories on how Canadians became Canadians.

Before we explain, a bit of history for you: Pier 21 opened in 1928 in Halifax. It was the point of entry for some one million immigrants and has been called the Gateway to Canada.  Our founder, J.W. Sobey, was a member of the British Royal engineers and formally immigrated to Canada in 1867. Pier 21 is now the site of the Canadian Museum of Immigration.

With 125,000 employees from coast-to-coast, we’re inviting you to share your own stories and favourite family recipes, through www.sobeys.pier21.ca and help us create a living legacy for future generations.

Once you read our stories, we hope you will tell us yours! Talk to your Store Manager to find out how you can get involved.

We should all be proud to contribute to making Canada a stronger, healthier nation.