Metro encounters ongoing worker shortage, higher overtime pay to maintain grocery stores

Metro Inc. has revealed that its members of staff are working overtime to keep stores open as the company struggles with an ongoing labour crunch.

“There’s a lot of open positions out there and there’s not enough workers to fill them,” Metro president and CEO Eric La Flèche said during a call to talk about the third-quarter results of the company.

He said there were “more open positions than we are used to” but did not provide the exact number of vacancies across the company’s warehouses and stores as well as conventional supermarkets like Metro and Metro Plus, discount grocery chains Super C in Quebec, Food Basics in Ontario and drugstores Jean Coutu and Brunet.

He said: “Labour shortages are causing pressures … because that increases overtime to supply our stores.

“We have higher overtime percentages than we’re used to.”

His comments came at a time when the grocery retailer reported a third-quarter profit of $275 million against $252.4 million that was reported a year earlier, as sales increased by 2.5 per cent.

The profit rose to $1.14 per diluted share for the period ended July 2 from $1.03 cents per diluted share the previous year.

On an adjusted premise, Metro disclosed that it earned $1.18 cents per diluted share for the quarter, against $1.06 per diluted share a year earlier.

However, Metro warned that persistent inflationary pressures and labour shortages could start to weigh on margins.

Metro’s Chief Financial Officer François Thibault said: “If this high inflationary, high price environment continues it will continue to put pressure on margin.