BRAMPTON, ON, Nov. 13, 2019 /CNW/ - Loblaw Companies Limited (TSX: L) ("Loblaw" or the "Company") announced today its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended October 5, 2019. The Company's 2019 Third Quarter Report to Shareholders will be available in the Investors section of the Company's website at loblaw.ca and will be filed on SEDAR and available at sedar.com(Open in a new tab).

"With a focus on improving sales performance, we delivered solid financial results in the quarter," said Galen G. Weston, Executive Chairman, Loblaw Companies Limited. "We continue to accelerate strategic investments, evolving the customer experience to deliver long-term shareholder value."

2019 THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Unless otherwise indicated, the following highlights represent the Company's results from Continuing Operations and include the impacts of spin-out related incremental depreciation, the implementation of IFRS 16, "Leases" ("IFRS 16") and the consolidation of franchises. See "Other Business Matters" of this News Release for more information on the spin-out related incremental depreciation and the implementation of IFRS 16.

• Revenue was $14,655 million. When compared to the third quarter of 2018, this represented an increase of $336 million, or 2.3%.

• Retail segment sales were $14,420 million. When compared to the third quarter of 2018, this represented an increase of $315 million, or 2.2%.

  • Food retail (Loblaw) same-store sales growth was 0.1%. Food retail same-store sales growth was approximately 1.0% after excluding the unfavourable impact of the timing of Thanksgiving.

  • Drug retail (Shoppers Drug Mart) same-store sales growth was 4.1%, with pharmacy same-store sales growth of 5.3% and front store same-store sales growth of 3.1%. The timing of Thanksgiving had a nominal impact on same-store sales growth for Drug retail in the third quarter of 2019.

• Operating income was $690 million. When compared to the third quarter of 2018, this represented an increase of $98 million, or 16.6%.

  • Operating income included the year-over-year favourable impact of the implementation of IFRS 16 of approximately $104 million and the unfavourable impact of spin-out related incremental depreciation of approximately $28 million. Normalized for these impacts, operating income increased by $22 million, or 3.7%.

• Adjusted EBITDA² was $1,492 million. When compared to the third quarter of 2018, this represented an increase of $432 million, or 40.8%.

  • Adjusted EBITDA² included the year-over-year favourable impact of the implementation of IFRS 16 of $382 million. Normalized for this impact, adjusted EBITDA² increased by $50 million, or 4.7%.

• Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company from Continuing Operations were $331 million. When compared to the third quarter of 2018, this represented an increase of $357 million. Diluted net earnings per common share was $0.90. When compared to the third quarter of 2018, this represented an increase of $0.97.

• Adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company² from Continuing Operations were $458 million. When compared to the third quarter of 2018, this represented a decrease of $8 million. Normalized for the year-over-year impact of the spin-out related incremental depreciation of approximately $21 million and IFRS 16 of approximately $2 million, adjusted net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company² increased by $15 million, or 3.2%.

• Adjusted diluted net earnings from Continuing Operations per common share² were $1.25. When compared to the third quarter of 2018, this represented an increase of $0.01, or 0.8%. Normalized for the year-over-year impact of the spin-out related incremental depreciation of approximately $0.06 per common share, adjusted diluted net earnings per common share² was $1.31. This represented an increase of approximately 5.6% or $0.07 per common share. IFRS 16 had a nominal impact on net earnings per share in the third quarter of 2019.

• In the third quarter of 2019, the Company repurchased 4.3 million common shares at a cost of $309 million.

• In the third quarter of 2019, the Company invested $397 million in capital expenditures and generated $186 million of free cash flow².

Note: This is an excerpt from the full release. To view the complete document, please download the full Q3 2019 news release(Open in a new tab).

¹ This News Release contains forward-looking information. See "Forward-Looking Statements" section of this News Release and the Company's 2019 Third Quarter  Report to Shareholders for a discussion of material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forecasts and projections herein and of the material factors and assumptions that were used when making these statements. This News Release should be read in conjunction with Loblaw Companies Limited's filings with securities regulators made from time to time, all of which can be found at sedar.com(Open in a new tab) and at loblaw.ca.

² See Section 12 "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" of the Company's 2019 Third Quarter Report to Shareholders, which includes the reconciliation of such non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.