Brands like Joe Fresh, President’s Choice set Loblaw apart, Weston tells AGM

TORONTO, Ont. — The founders of an Ontario frozen yogurt company are meeting today with Galen Weston Jr., the head of Canada’s largest supermarket chain after an emotional video about their business dealings with the grocery giant went viral. Amanda House says she and her husband, Chris Delaney, will meet with Weston at the Loblaw head offices at noon Friday to talk about their company, YoPro Treats Inc. The meeting was arranged after Loblaw became aware of a video the 35-year-old kinesiologist and personal trainer uploaded earlier this week to YouTube.

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Loblaw Cos. Ltd. filed a preliminary prospectus Friday for a planned $7-billion real estate investment trust for its sizable land portfolio under the name Choice Properties Real Estate. The units of the REIT will be priced at $10, comprised of 425 properties and 35.3-million square feet of leasable space. It includes 415 retail properties, an office complex and nine warehouse properties. The total number of units to be offered was not disclosed. A final prospectus will be released in July.

Loblaw Companies Ltd. executive chairman Galen Weston said Thursday he’s troubled by the “deafening silence” from many retailers in the wake of the collapse of a building in Bangladesh that housed one of the company’s suppliers and killed more than 400 people. Loblaw’s Joe Fresh clothing was being made at the building that collapsed last Wednesday. Weston said up to 30 companies had used the factory for manufacturing, but only two have spoken out since disaster.

TORONTO — Loblaw Companies Ltd. has reported a 40% increase in first-quarter net income and says it is raising its dividend just over nine per cent. The company also said it plans to transfer about $7-billion of property assets to a real estate investment trust (REIT) that will be spun off in an initial public offering in July.

The collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh that killed almost 400 people was inevitable, given the management track records of countries like Bangladesh, according to Galen Weston, chairman of retail giant George Weston Limited, which owns Loblaws. “It’s tragic. It’s tragic and it’s inevitable, I guess, in terms of the way things have been managed in some of these countries,” he said Monday.

George Weston’s net earnings dropped significantly in Q4 of 2012. In the last 12 years the annual return of China’s Social Security Fund reached at 8.4%. Beijing Enlight Media Co announced its annual revenue for 2012 of 1.03 billion yuan or $165.5 million. German group IG Metall expects to reach a deal with GM’s Opel branch next week.