The Empire Company

Business introduction

Empire Company is a Canadian Company that located in Nova Scotia, in the Eastern east of Canada. The company focuses its business on food retailing, real estate, and corporate investments, which can generate more than 98 percent of sales and 95 percent of operating earnings (Empire Company Limited, 2011).

The Empire Company carries on their food retailing through wholly-owned Sobeys Inc, which owns or franchises over 1300 stores throughout Canada. Sobeys, IGA, IGA Extra, Thrifty Foods, Foodland, FreshCo, and Lawtons Drugs all are part of Empire Company's retail operation (Empire Company Limited, 2011).

The other main business of the Empire Company —real estate investments—comprise a 44.6 percent equity accounted interested in Crombie REIT and an approximately 40 percent of ownership interest in Genstar. A diverse portfolio of commercial real estate is owned, managed and operated by Crombie, and residential Land development in Ontario, western Canada, and the United States is conducted by Genstar. Other investments and operations mostly consist of totally owned Empire Theatres and Kepec Resources Limited (Empire Company Limited, 2011).

The most representative and well-known businesses of Empire Company are Sobeys' stores, Lawtons Drugs, and Empire Theaters.

History

On February 12, 1963, Empire Company Limited was formed; it issued its first annual report in 1971. After five years, Empire Co. purchased Lawtons Drug Stores, which was operating 18 retail drug stores in Nova Scotia at that time. In 1981, Empire purchased Sobey Holdings Limited by issuing both cash and non-voting shares to Sobey's shareholders and gained the control of Sobey Stores Limited. The next year, Empire issued Non-Voting Class A shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange, thereby qualifying as a public company. Between 1983