ETIBICOKE, Ontario -- Oshawa Group here reported increased sales and earnings for the first quarter ended April 16. Net income increased 17.1% to $6.4 million U.S. ($8.9 million Canadian), while sales increased 4.5% to $963.3 million. The figures were converted at a rate of $1.38 Canadian to the U.S. dollar.
lting from lower dispensing fees paid by the Ontario government for prescriptions for people over 65 or those on welfare. Food distribution sales increased 5.3% to $893 million due to higher wholesale and retail food volume in the western and central regions, as well as the acquisition of Argcen, a food-service business, late last year, the company said. Revenue growth in the central region was limited in the last six weeks of the quarter by intensified price competition that commenced after settlement of a labor strike at A&P's Miracle Mart, the company added. According to Allister P. Graham, chairman and chief executive officer, "Oshawa's position in regional markets remains firm. "However, the prospects of a major price war in Ontario [resulting from Miracle Mart's efforts to regain lost volume] have dampened short-term expectations. Oshawa's commitment to market-share growth will ensure that the Ontario challenge will be aggressively met, as was demonstrated in Alberta last year." Marilyn Brophy, a securities analyst with the Toronto office of Levesque Beaubien Geoffrion, Montreal, said reduced prices, buy-one-get-one-free offers and other promotional activities at Miracle Mart pressured Oshawa stores in Ontario.
