Thrifty Foods is downplaying the suggestion it will be closing its administration offices in Victoria as its parent company, Empire, considers cutting operating costs.
Thrifty Foods’ spokesman Ralf Mundel said Friday that Empire is looking at integrating the support systems of Thrifty Foods, Sobeys and Safeway, but at this point there are no definitive plans in place.
“What is known is there is going to be an office in Calgary to house many support functions, but there have been no plans made to close this office or otherwise,” Mundel said. “This is the beginning of a phase of integration.”
Thrifty Foods employs about 130 staff at its Victoria head office.
Mundel said the company recently completed an integration of back-end infrastructure of the three companies.
“Now attention has turned to the other part of integration — leveraging the collective talents of Safeway, Thrifty Foods and Sobeys to put the overall organization for that western business unit in a stronger position,” he said. “How that looks and what that entails has yet to be fully defined.”
While Mundel stressed the Thrifty Foods brand was not going anywhere, it is clear Empire is keen on trimming its operations. In its third quarter financial report released in March, Empire chief executive Marc Poulin noted the company is looking for major savings.
“We remain confident in our ability to achieve $200 million in annual run rate cost synergies and will be focused on securing operational efficiencies and cost reductions across the organization,” he said.
Sobeys bought Thrifty Foods — then with 20 stores and 3,700 employees — from Alex Campbell in 2007 for $260 million.
Thrifty Foods now has 26 stores, 11 on the Island, and nearly 5,000 employees.
