Loblaw adds a big facility

Article Excerpt

LOBLAW COMPANIES, $114.01, is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 328.1 million; Market cap: $37.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.4%; www.loblaw.ca) is Canada’s largest food retailer, with 1,096 supermarkets. It also owns the Shoppers Drug Mart chain of 1,346 drugstores across Canada. The retailer now plans to build a new 1.2-million-square-foot distribution facility on land just north of Toronto controlled by Choice Properties REIT (Toronto symbol CHP.UN, see page 51). Note that Loblaw and Choice Properties are majority owned by George Weston Ltd. (Toronto symbol WN). The development plan for the property is to build a multi-phase industrial park, with the potential to expand the plan to approximately 1.8-million-square-feet.of new-generation logistics space. The total initial cost of the project is $170 million. The new facility, which should open in early 2024, will also use automation to keep its labour costs down Loblaw Cos. is a buy. buy…