The Jean Coutu Group reports fiscal-year earnings

LONGUEUIL, Quebec The Jean Coutu Group reported $2 billion in revenues across its Canadian operations for its fiscal 2009 ended Feb. 28, up 6.5% as compared with fiscal 2008, and recorded a net loss of $1 billion for the year, primarily resulting from its Rite Aid holdings.

Jean Coutu recorded its share of Rite Aid’s loss during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009, which amounted to $635.2 million. For the year, the Rite Aid loss totaled $1.1 billion, compared with $324.9 million in the year-ago period.

“Canadian operations performed well during the fourth quarter,” stated Jean Coutu president and CEO Francois Coutu. “We have maintained our growth objectives and our network’s retail sales increased significantly in spite of the Canadian economic conditions. … In fiscal year 2010, we intend to maintain the rhythm of our network’s expansion and pursue the  development of our product offering to boost sales. We will also continue to analyze the progress made by Rite Aid’s management towards the implementation of their strategic plan.”

For the fiscal year 2009, on a same-store basis, total Jean Coutu Canadian network retail sales increased 3.8%, pharmaceutical same-store sales gained 5.4% and front-end sales increased 1.2% compared with the 2008 comparable period.