Empire Company Ltd Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Chris Li - Desjardins Securities Inc - Analyst : Michael, over the last couple of quarters, I think you've mentioned that you've seen some green shoots from the consumer. I was wondering, is that continuing? And are you continuing to see some trade-up in Fresh?

Question: Chris Li - Desjardins Securities Inc - Analyst : Great. And my follow-up is just, Michael, you also mentioned in your opening remarks about an uptick in square footage growth for the industry. Have you seen any notable changes just in terms of the general competitive environment recently?

Question: Vishal Shreedhar - National Bank Financial Research - Analyst : I was looking at the outlook commentary and nothing necessarily surprising there. But I was reflecting on the CEO transition and where Empire has gone from and to, and how there will be a transition in leadership. I'm just wondering, I know this may not be exactly a fair question for you to answer, but wondering how should think about Empire's evolvement on a management transition? Is it more of a -- will it be more of what we expected over the last several years? Or do you anticipate the company moving in a different direction to the extent you can answer. I know it's a tough question.

Question: Vishal Shreedhar - National Bank Financial Research - Analyst : Okay. And it does. Thank you, and I know it's more of a Board question, but thank you for your perspective. And with respect to the large initiatives that Empire is working on, could you help prioritize and help me understand what are the bigger initiatives? There's so many things going on, and I'm having difficulty of wrapping my head around what are the larger initiatives that are driving growth? Is that a fair question or is it really just a little bit of everything?

Question: +tienne Ricard - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : Thank you and good morning. It's interesting to see internal food inflation remaining below CPI. My question is how sustainable is this, given I presume you've had more difficult conversations with suppliers recently or is this is driven by partnering with new suppliers?

Question: +tienne Ricard - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : Interesting. Appreciate your comments. And I want also to focus on competitive dynamics in the province of Quebec, given some of your competitors have pulled back from the full service market, what traffic trends are you seeing there?

Question: Mark Petrie - CIBC World Markets Corp - Analyst : Again, on the gross margin, this isn't the first time you've called out shrink as a tailwind. But is it fair to say that the impact was bigger this quarter than maybe the last couple of quarters. And so you're still seeing incremental benefits sequentially? And would that remain a tailwind for the next couple of quarters? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 12:30PM, EMPa.TO - Q1 2026 Empire Company Ltd Earnings Call

Question: Mark Petrie - CIBC World Markets Corp - Analyst : Okay. And then on the ERP implementation, could you just walk through the time lines in more detail and how you see execution risk evolving over the two -year time frame?