Canadian Business Thread

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by vid

We won't have a more competitive grocery market though. We currently have five food suppliers here: Weston (serving Superstore and Wholesale Club), Walmart (three locations), Safeway (three locations), McDonalds Consolidated (a Safeway affiliate serving two Family Foods stores, and two local stores called Renco Foods), and Metro (three locations). If Metro buys out Safeways, McDonalds Consolidated will probably switch their private label supplier, which means we will have 10 grocery stores here in the Metro supply chain, and only three major players in our grocery market. We will have five Metro-supplied stores within a 1.5 mile radius of each other. All but one grocery store in Fort William will be supplied by Metro. The only competition will be a Walmart.

You're making a lot of assumptions, the biggest being that Metro will be the acquirer.

Originally Posted by vid

As I have explained many times before, Safeway has had a presence in this region for over 80 years. It is the only grocery store brand left in Thunder Bay that was here when I was a kid.

I get that, but McDonald's has likely been around since you were a kid too.

[vid]

McDonald's isn't a grocery store. And I don't know many people that actually like McDonald's and go there regularly. I've gone to McDonald's maybe 7 or 8 times in the past decade?

McDonald's doesn't have the sentimentality that Safeway does. Safeway is more like A&W. People have fond memories and a very positive opinion of the brand. Metro is like McDonalds. You go there, but you don't enjoy. It's like Zellers in that it manages to survive in spite of inefficient store layouts and really bad customer service. Metro and Walmart are pretty much the only two stores where I've abandoned my purchases out of frustration.

[thomax]

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anchor Bar is expanding into Canada:

The American restaurant chain is expanding into Canada with it's first location in Jackson Square in downtown Hamilton. The first Canadian Anchor Bar will open this Friday.


Anchor Bar ready for downtown Hamilton wingding: VIDEO

Meredith MacLeod - thespec.com
Wed Jan 30 2013 09:32:09


Hamilton’s newest restaurant will be used as a template to expand the chain in Canada.

The highly anticipated Anchor Bar will open in Jackson Square Friday. It’s the first location north of the border, but plenty of southern Ontario residents have eaten at the iconic location in downtown Buffalo — the home of the original chicken wing.

Plenty of people are also lining up for a chance at a Canadian franchise, says co-owner David Copperthwaite of Burlington. He and business partner Gary Reed of Oakville have received more than 100 applications so far.

But for now, they’re focused on getting this 5,000-square-foot wing joint off the ground.

It’s Tuesday morning and a painting crew is putting finishing touches on the ceiling, a construction crew is working on the pizza assembly area and black-clad servers are being trained.

A group of offices workers from neighbouring towers has been invited to lunch. It’s a part of a series of soft openings to test the restaurant’s technical, food and service operations.

The menu includes a lot of variations on its main theme, including chicken wing soup, chicken wing lollipops and Buffalo chicken poutine. There’s also pizza, burgers, pasta, steak, salmon and a variety of salads.

The Buffalo Anchor Bar, still family-owned, is jammed, with patrons and memorabilia both. There, the personality is all roadhouse.

The Hamilton location will be more upscale, but nods to the founding restaurant are everywhere. Huge murals of the Buffalo landmark take up a number of walls, there are many pictures of its founders, Frank and Teressa Bellissimo. A large portrait of “Mother Teressa” — credited with the birth of the chicken wing — hangs over the wood-burning, rotating pizza oven imported from Italy. Licence plates and signed celebrity pictures hang everywhere, just like in Buffalo.


FAST FACTS about the Anchor Bar in downtown Hamilton:

•8 wings for $11.99 (99 cents more for suicide flavour, $1.99 for Abandon Ship!)

•seats 150

•120 staff

•9 TVs, from 60-inch to 80-inch

•custom 5,000-pound Italian wood-burning oven cooks 180 pizzas an hour

•hemlock bar is 1,200 pounds

•desserts come from the Cheesecake Factory Bakery

•work will soon begin on a rooftop patio to seat 125 people

•According to the menu: “Not responsible for misplaced property, political unrest, coaching decisions, bad punctuation, misspelled words, the economy.”


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nations Fresh Foods is opening it's flagship store in Jackson Square:

- The Redevelopment of Over 55,000 Square Feet of Jackson Square
- Nations Flagship Store
- Hamilton's New Downtown Supermarket
- Opening Spring 2013

• Video Link

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[isaidso]

Nova Scotia Michelin plant gets $73m expansion

WATERVILLE — MICHELIN IS UNDERTAKING a major expansion of its Waterville truck tire plant, with some financial help from the province. The project is expected to create 50 new jobs in the Annapolis Valley, with construction to begin immediately and hiring to start early next year.

The global tire manufacturer, which has three plants in Nova Scotia, will kick in $64.1 million and the province will invest $8.9 million, company officials and Premier Darrell Dexter announced Thursday.

The Waterville plant, which employs about 1,300 people, will expand its existing building by about 32,000 square feet, improve equipment and increase production capacity over the next four to five years, said Dana LeBlanc, president of Michelin North America (Canada) Inc.

He said the company has invested more than $2 billion in its Nova Scotia operations since locating here more than 40 years ago.

Michelin currently employs 3,500 Nova Scotians at 3 tire plants: Waterville, Bridgewater, and Pictou County.


Full article: http://thechronicleherald.ca/novasco...-73m-expansion

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by MeIsThomas

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anchor Bar is expanding into Canada:

The American restaurant chain is expanding into Canada with it's first location in Jackson Square in downtown Hamilton. The first Canadian Anchor Bar will open this Friday.
...

FAST FACTS about the Anchor Bar in downtown Hamilton:

•8 wings for $11.99 (99 cents more for suicide flavour, $1.99 for Abandon Ship!)

As I posted in the Hamilton Cuisine thread, I think it's pretty awesome that Hamilton is getting the first Canadian operation of Buffalo's Anchor Bar (as opposed to usual suspect, Toronto) but the wing pricing is a bit high.

Buffalo Anchor Bar - 10-$13, 20-$20, 50-$41(82cents/wing)
Hamilton Anchor Bar - 8-$12, 16-$23, 30-$42, 50-$65($1.30/wing!) price gouging in effect!

anyways, good on ya, Steel Town

[davidivivid]

Very good news for the CSeries:

Russian leasing company signs deal to buy up to 42 Bombardier CSeries planes

MONTREAL – A Russian leasing company has agreed to purchase up to 42 Bombardier CSeries aircraft in a potential $3.42-billion deal, the aircraft manufacturer announced Wednesday, shortly after it disclosed Transport Canada has certified the plane’s Pratt & Whitney engine.

Ilyushin Finance Co. seeks to acquire 32 of the larger CS300 planes at a list price of about US$2.56 billion, and has options for 10 additional planes, making it one of the largest CSeries orders to date.

The transaction signed Wednesday at Bombardier’s final assembly facility in Mirabel, Que., follows a letter of intent signed in 2011 for 30 CSeries planes. The agreement is subject to approval by Ilyushin’s shareholders.

[...]

http://www.570news.com/2013/02/20/ru...series-planes/

[thomax]

CBC Hamilton - Anchor Bar set to expand across Ontario

The owners of Anchor Bar are expanding less than a month after the Hamilton opening of the first Canadian location of the restaurant touted as the home of the original buffalo wing.

Anchor Bar, a buffalo wing restaurant with two locations in Buffalo, launched its first Canadian location last month in Hamilton's Jackson Square. Now, co-owner David Copperthwaite says he and his business partner Gary Reed are already moving to expand to three more locations: Burlington, Toronto and Mississauga, although not necessarily in that order.

"It depends on which one comes through first," Copperthwaite says. "We've already got a couple of locations in mind. There are a few things we need to get sorted with landlords."

Copperthwaite and Reed were frequent customers of the Buffalo establishment that ships its wings across the United States. When they decided to bring the franchise to Canada, the acquired the sole rights to any Canadian locations.

According to Copperthwaite, they always intended to expand to other cities in Canada and they're not wasting any time.

The Hamilton restaurant opened its doors in January, with the official opening (including Mayor Bob Bratina tossing the first batch of wings into the fryer) Feb. 1. Since then, business has been going well, Coppethwaite said.

He and Reed settled on Hamilton for their Canadian debut after doing market research. The downtown development sold the pair on Hamilton as the first location of the famous wing joint north of the border.

[SteelTown]

Tim Hortons co-founder joins Forbes’ tally of billionaires
Tim Hortons co-founder Ron Joyce sold the company to Wendy's for about $600 million in 1995. Now, Forbes says he's worth twice that much.

http://www.thespec.com/news/business...f-billionaires

The list of the world’s ultimate 1 per cent now includes Tim Hortons co-founder Ron Joyce. Forbes magazine said its tally of billionaires around the globe climbed 16 per cent from last year.

Forbes says it added Joyce, whom it calls Canada’s “Doughnut King” after it uncovered previously undisclosed assets. It puts his net worth at $1.2 billion.

Joyce sold the doughnut chain to Wendy’s for $600 million in 1995.

[Jeff]

Winnipeg class A office rates reach new high:

Raising the rent is a good sign

After decade of stagnation, net rental rates hit new high

Net rental rates have hit a new high in one of the city's premier downtown office towers as landlords start to play catch up after nearly a decade of little or no increases.

The owners of 360 Main -- Winnipeg-based Artis Real Estate Investment Trust -- recently began asking a net rate of $20 per square foot for space in the highrise portion of its 32-storey building on the southwest corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street.

That's the first time in the city's history the asking net rate in an existing office building has reached the $20 threshold, said Wayne Sato, Cushman & Wakefield's vice-president of office...

Full article:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bus...204044361.html

[shreddog]

Sigh, the world seemed so much simpler 6 years ago ... and I think we all miss WaterlooInvestor's enthusiasm! Especially MolsonExport ....

Originally Posted by WaterlooInvestor

This thread is to discuss Canadian Business. I'll start things off with the latest headline:

RIM shares hits fresh high on China deal
Teams up with telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent to sell BlackBerrys in China
David George-Cosh, Financial Post
Published: Tuesday, October 23, 2007


...
Investors yesterday sent Research in Motion Ltd.'s stock to a record high, at one point making it the most valuable company in the country during trading yesterday, after revealing it had partnered with telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent to sell BlackBerry wireless devices in China.

The manufacturer saw its stocks surge to $120.42 on the TSX, up 8.19% following the announcement that their 8700 BlackBerry model would be distributed in the booming Chinese market later this year, though no specific date was given for distribution. The stock jumped US$11.15, or 9.8%, to close at US$124.53 on the Nasdaq market.

...
"This is going to be the biggest company in Canada," said Mr. Misek, who rates RIM as a "buy." "The company is a world beater and its technology is second-to-none. It's got an excellent execution engine and tremendous earnings growth."
...

[kwoldtimer]

Living here in K-W and with no involvement with the high tech sector, I have been intrigued by the calm with which the Blackberry news is being received locally (it was similar at the time of the last big round of layoffs). Nobody would describe it as good news for the local economy, but the sense seems to be that the high tech boom that the Region is experiencing has not been dependent on Blackberry and, even if another Blackberry is not on the horizon, the sector as a whole will continue to grow. As I understand it, there are now over 800 "high tech companies" in the Region and the University of Waterloo shows no sign of losing its capacity to crank out new startups. Whistling in the dark perhaps? It will be interesting to see how things unfold over the next couple of years.

[Taeolas]

As a UW grad, I'd agree wiht your assessment. RIM may have been one of UW's most well known spinoffs, but it's just the biggest fish in a very crowded lake. As long as the University's reputations stay strong, the spinoffs it keeps pumping out should keep the High Tech industry in KW roaring long after RIM's a memory.

[kwoldtimer]

As if to make us feel better, Google today announced that it has chosen Communitech in Kitchener as one of seven North American "tech hubs" (the others are in the USA). Google already has a substantial presence in Kitchener, in the same building (The Tannery) as Communitech. Also today, Motorola Mobility announced that it will be establishing an engineering hub in the Breithaupt Block in Kitchener, just down the street from Google. Last week, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced at UofW that mobile payments start-up, Square, would be opening an engineering office in K-W in 2014, employing about 30 engineers.

The Financial Post article, below, in particular makes some interesting observations on K-W's post-Blackberry prospects (if it comes to that).

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/...-hubs-network/

http://business.financialpost.com/20..._lsa=9a41-95b3

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitche...fice-1.1860638

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by The Gibbroni

No, they're planning on starting up a regional service. You don't replace a 160 seat jet with a 76 seat turboprop just for the hell of it.

You could always, I dunno... maybe read the article?

Yes, everyone could leave the thread and visit an external site to read an entire page long news article. Much easier than you simply adding an additional sentence to your post for clarity.

[casper]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Usually when consolidation takes place, there is over lap. The acquirer invariably takes the best locations then sells the remainder to the competition. If/when Safeway divests its Canadian stores, Thunder Bay would likely end up with a more competitive grocery market and cheaper prices.

That said, I do find the western Canadian loyalty to Safeway a little bizarre. It's a foreign company for starters. It's like being loyal to Air France over Westjet and Air Canada.

Sobey's purchased all the Safeway stores in Canada and the Canadian rights to the brand about 5-10 years ago. It has been Canadian for a long time.

It was a very costly acquisition due to IT. Safeway operated custom inventory control/ERP software running on AS/400s. One of the first things Sobey's did was rip all of that out and try to make SAP work. As a result for several quarters they were losing $1-2B per quarter. They dropped many of the house brands Canadians liked replacing them with Sensations. Then discovered Canadians actually like Edwards coffee and had to bring them back. The SAP transition resulted in a lot of empty selves and being out of stock of sale items at periods.

The competition authorities had problems with certain markets. Here on Vancouver Island, Sobey's operates under the Thrifty's banner and adding Safety would have result in to high a market concentration. They were forced to sell many of those stores to Safe-On-Foods. Federated also picked up some of the stores in Edmonton for similar reasons.

I don't think Sobey's will be selling those to Metro any time soon.