North West Co. stores hit by Irma

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This article was published 07/09/2017 (2986 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At least two of the North West Company’s 12 stores in the Caribbean have been heavily damaged by hurricane Irma, a senior company official said on Thursday.

Edward Kennedy, the Winnipeg-based discount retailer’s president and CEO, said the stores are on two of the hardest-hit Caribbean islands — St. Maarten and St. Thomas.

He said early indications suggest the Cost-U-Less store on St. Maarten won’t be operational for at least a number of weeks and that the Cost-U-Less store on St. Thomas appears to have been hit especially hard.

“It may, in fact, be the most damaged of all of our stores,” he said, even though St. Thomas itself wasn’t hit as hard as St. Maarten.

Kennedy said it could be a while before the company knows whether the two stores can be repaired, or if they will have to be rebuilt. It’s looking for temporary sites from which to operate.

He said a store in St. Croix and its two largest stores in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) appear to be relatively unscathed

He said the two largest stores should be back in operation fairly quickly.

He noted the company does have insurance on its Caribbean operations and expects it to cover expected costs and losses, including loss of business.

Kennedy was commenting during a conference call with analysts to discuss North West’s second-quarter financial results. He stressed that is not the company’s primary concern at this point.

“Our first concern is with the losses people have suffered, including the hardships now faced by over 1,000 associates who work for us in the region,” he said. “This is a human catastrophe and as an essential food retailer and major employer in the affected communities, we are totally committed to safely getting back into operation at the earliest date possible, while working closely with local authorities to help in every way we can”.

North West said the two new companies it acquired last year — Roadtown Wholesale Trading Ltd. in the BVI and the Thunder Bay-based North Star Air Ltd. — continue to have a positive impact on its bottom line.

It said Q2 net earnings were up 42 per cent from a year earlier — $23.3 million, or 46 cents per share, compared to $16.4 million, or 34 cents per share.

Revenue increased by 10.3 per cent to $507.9 million from $460.6 million.

The North West Company Inc. is a leading retailer of food and everyday products in Canada, Alaska, the South Pacific and the Caribbean. It operates 243 stores under the trading names Northern, NorthMart, Giant Tiger (in Western Canada), Alaska Commercial Company, Cost-U-Less and RiteWay Food Markets.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca