Market News

Shoppers Q2 Results Beat Bay Street Estimates

Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. posted second-quarter results that beat Bay Street estimates and showed up very well against other major publicly owned drugstore chains in North America. Same-store prescription sales climbed 6.4% from a year earlier, while front-of-the-store sales rose 3%. Vishal Shreedhar, who follows Shoppers for UBS Securities Canada Inc., compared Shoppers' latest numbers with those of Walgreen Co., Rite Aid Corp., CVS Caremark Corp. and Jean Coutu Group Inc. and found they are among the strongest in North America. Rite Aid, for example, saw its drug sales increase just 1.9% in the latest quarter and its front-of-the-store sales increase by just 0.8%. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080722.REDGE22//TPStory/Business Source: Canadian Grocer E-Newsletter, July 25, 2008