{"id":70427,"date":"2025-08-15T01:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/70427\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T01:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:30:12","slug":"metro-ceo-says-20-of-grocers-suppliers-raising-prices-due-to-tariffs-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/70427\/","title":{"rendered":"Metro CEO says 20% of grocer\u2019s suppliers raising prices due to tariffs – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metro<\/a> says about a fifth of its grocery store suppliers have begun raising prices as a direct result of tariffs and counter-tariff measures from the trade war sparked by United States President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The company said that although it is working to keep prices relatively stable, customers may still start to see sticker prices rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe introduced tariffs and counter-tariffs are a contributing factor to food inflation as we continue to receive price increase requests from our vendor partners,\u201d CEO Eric R. La Fl\u00e8che at Metro Inc. said Wednesday on an investor conference call.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams continue to negotiate to minimize the impact on consumers, and for now, the effects remain manageable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trade war means there are tariffs imposed<\/a> by the United States on some food and drug products imported from Canada, and there are also counter-tariffs in place that would make prices for some U.S. goods higher once they cross the border into Canada.<\/p>\n

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This means some suppliers are now starting to increase the prices they charge to outlets like Metro Inc. before their products are sold directly to customers.<\/p>\n

These price increases, however, do not apply to goods that fall under the terms of the current free trade agreement, known as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTariff impacts on Canadian food exporters\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney is still working<\/a> on a more permanent trade deal with the United States that removes or minimizes the impacts from tariffs, and Carney has said he will only accept a deal that is \u201cgood for Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

To maintain customer loyalty without having to raise prices, many Canadian business owners have been \u201cabsorbing\u201d these tariff increases<\/a>, which may sacrifice profits.<\/p>\n

This may not be sustainable long-term as businesses need to remain profitable to thrive, and so increases for customers could happen the longer the trade war goes on.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe (Metro) negotiate as best we can (with suppliers) to minimize the impact on our customers in this environment where everybody\u2019s searching for value and everybody\u2019s more price-sensitive,\u201d La Fl\u00e8che said.<\/p>\n

La Fl\u00e8che also told investors on the conference call that in its latest fiscal quarter, or three-month period, Metro did see price increases that were in line with the May food inflation reading<\/a> of 3.1 per cent from Statistics Canada.<\/p>\n

This suggests that price increases in the past few months have been under normal economic circumstances \u2014 not directly tied to tariffs.<\/p>\n

Still, Metro did not rule out price increases for customers now that the company has confirmed suppliers are already raising prices.<\/p>\n

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A Global News request sent to Metro Inc. asking exactly how the company plans on keeping costs stable for customers as tariffs create more pressure to raise prices did not receive a response by publication time.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTariffs set to push grocery prices higher\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Metro says the \u2018Buy Canadian\u2019 movement<\/a> remains strong as customers look to support Canadian businesses in the face of the trade war and a soured sentiment about the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCustomers are responding well. Sales of Canadian products are outpacing total sales and the gap has accelerated over the past few weeks,\u201d said La Fl\u00e8che, who adds that Metro continues to seek alternative suppliers to the U.S., where possible, in order to minimize tariff impacts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, customers may still be prioritizing value and lower prices as inflationary pressures and affordability concerns<\/a> continue to weigh on household budgets.<\/p>\n

La Fl\u00e8che said in the earnings call to analysts that sales growth at the company\u2019s discount-branded stores like Food Basics continues to outpace that of its flagship Metro stores, and that the trend has been consistent \u201cfor the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its latest reporting quarter, Metro says its sales totalled almost $5 billion, which was an increase of 5.5 per cent compared with a year prior. The company saw a net profit of $220 million in its second fiscal quarter compared with $187.1 million in 2024.<\/p>\n

La Fl\u00e8che said these latest numbers are \u201csolid results.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Metro says about a fifth of its grocery store suppliers have begun raising prices as a direct result…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,1849,8334,46,44080,41525,9929],"class_list":{"0":"post-70427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-consumer","12":"tag-donald-trump-tariffs","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-food-prices","15":"tag-grocery-prices","16":"tag-metro"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}