Company Overview:
Name: Loblaw Companies Limited
President: John A. Lederer
Industry: Grocery Stores
Position: Market leader in Canada (24th largest in world)
Strategy: - Drive costs down (through size and operational efficiencies)
- Differentiate its products and stores (using its own brand/private brands and multi-format stores)

Industry Overview:
- Food retailing was a $66.8 billion business in Canada in 2002.
- Grocery retailers occupied 4 of the 10 top retailer rankings in Canada in 2002.
- Canada grocery stores co-operate on the supply side while competing on the demand side.

Consumers Overview:
- 3 generic ways to build revenue: Penetration (number of shoppers)
Frequency (number of shopping trips)
Basket Size (amount spent per trip)
Essential: Low Price, Quality Service, Quality Products, Variety of Products

- Increase in demand for ready-to-heat / ready-to-eat food (less demand for unprocessed cooking ingredients).
New categories: Home Meals Replacement & Franchised restaurants on premise

Supplier Overview:
- Supermarkets are like landlords offering shelf space for rent.
- Supplier’s with higher market share have more power to command grocers
- Mega-grocers have long-term vision of relationships with suppliers
- Suppliers push for standardization of ERP systems (avoid 1 system per customer).

Competitors Overview:
- Variety of Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Affiliated Independents, and Unaffiliated Indpn.
- Independent sector represents 39.3% of grocery market sales.
- Unaffiliated independents facing tough time  a lot going out of business.
- 44 Grocery Chains, 4 leading competitors: Sobeys, Metro, A&P, and Canada Safeway
- Wholesale Clubs: Costco (first-mover advantage) competes with Wal-Mart
- Specialty Chains (niche segments): Whole Foods competes with Loblaw’s PC Organics products
- Convenience Stores: higher