Weston Ltd reports $42M profit in Q1

George Weston Ltd, the food giant that owns Weston Foods, Loblaw, among other brands, today reported earnings for the first quarter of 2010.

The food giant reported total sales across al segments of $7,177-million, up marginally from $7,022-million in the same period last year.

Aggregate operating income was $274-million in Q1 ’10, compared to $101-million in Q1 ’09.

Net earnings fell sharply from Q1 2009 from $863-million ($6.61 per share) to $42-million ($0.25 per share) in the first quarter of 2010.

 The large food grocer Loblaw saw a 3.1-percent surge in its sales in Q1 ’10 to $6,926-million compared to the same period last year.

The company says the increase in sales from Loblaw was helped by the Asian T&T Supermarket acquisition that was finalized on September 28, 2009 for $225-million. Weston says the T&T Supermarket sales positively impacted Loblaw’s sales by 2-percent.