Buy North West, hold on to BMTC

Article Excerpt

NORTH WEST CO. $30.91 (Toronto symbol NWC; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (604-231-1100; www.northwest.ca; Shares outstanding: 48.7 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Dividend yield: 4.1%) sells food and everyday products and services through 241 stores. Those locations are mainly in northern communities across Canada and Alaska. The company also operates in remote regions of Hawaii, the South Pacific and the Caribbean. North West signed a 30-year deal in 2002 with Ottawa based Giant Tiger for the exclusive right to open and operate Giant Tiger general merchandise stores in Western Canada. Giant Tiger operates 200 stores elsewhere in Canada. In the country’s northern regions, North West operates most of its stores under the Northern banner (121), followed by Giant Tiger (36), Quickstop (14) and NorthMart (6). The company gets about 60% of its revenue from Canada. The remaining 40% of sales comes from 33 stores in Alaska and 13 Cost-U-Less warehouse outlets. Those discount stores are in remote island communities across the South Pacific and…