Grocery chains Loblaw and Metro say price of food continues to fall
TORONTO — Food prices, especially those for meat, continue to fall from recent highs, Metro and Loblaw said Wednesday as both grocery chains reported strong quarterly results.
“During the quarter, we saw the grocery market shift from an inflationary environment to a deflationary one,” said Galen G. Weston, executive chairman and president of Loblaw Companies Ltd. (TSX:L), in a conference call with analysts.
Food inflation was particularly high last year — it reached nearly four per cent in the company’s third quarter in 2015, said Loblaw spokesman Kevin Groh.
Weston said the grocery industry is cycling through that unusually high inflation, and that’s the “biggest force” behind the transition to declining prices.