What does the company do?
Safeway Inc. (Safeway) is a food and drug retailer in North America. During the fiscal year ended January 3, 2009 (fiscal 2008), the Company operated its business from 1,739 stores. The Company’s United States retail operations are located in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, the Chicago metropolitan area and the Mid-Atlantic region. The Company’s Canada-based retail operations are located in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba/Saskatchewan. In support of its retail operations, the Company has a network of distribution, manufacturing and food-processing facilities. Safeway owns and operates GroceryWorks.com Operating Company, LLC (GroceryWorks), an online grocery channel doing business under the names Safeway.com, Vons.com and Genuardis.com (collectively Safeway.com). In fiscal 2008, Safeway also has a 49% ownership interest in Casa Ley, S.A. de C.V. (Casa Ley), which operates 146 food and general merchandise stores in Western Mexico.
How much does the company sell and earn?
Investors need to know how much stuff or services a company sells, and how much of that total it keeps as income (or profit) to grow its business or return to shareholders. The more of each, the better. In general, look for companies that sell and earn more than peers.
- Safeway one-year sales: 41.97 Bil.
Difference from the average for the Grocery Stores group: 41.04% - Safeway one-year income: 849.60 Mil.
Difference from the average for the Grocery Stores group: 1.75%| Sales & Income (past 12 months) | Company | Industry |
|---|
| Sales | 41.97 Bil | 29.76 Bil | | Income | 849.60 Mil | 834.97 Mil |
How fast is the company growing?
- Safeway one-year sales growth: -7.00%.
- Safeway one-year income growth: -18.50%.
| Sales & Income Growth (past 12 months) | Company | Industry |
|---|
| Sales Growth | -7.00% | 2.30% | | Income Growth | -18.50% | 13.50% |
How profitable is the company?
Investors prefer companies that increase profit margins -- the percentage of sales that they keep -- every year. This is accomplished either by lowering expenses or raising prices. Look for companies that consistently find ways to squeeze more profits out of sales than their peers.
- Safeway one-year net profit margin: 2.0%
Difference from the company's 5-year average net profit margin: 0.1 pct. pts.
Difference from the average for the Grocery Stores group: -1.0 pct. pts.
| Net profit margins (%) |
|---|
| Company | 2.0% | | Company 5-Yr Avg. | 1.9% | | Industry | 3.1% |
How is the company's financial health?
The debt/equity ratio shows how much a firm has borrowed as a percentage of its stock equity. The lower, the better.
- Safeway debt/equity ratio: 0.77.
Difference from the average for the Grocery Stores group: 63.83%.
| | Company | Industry |
|---|
| Debt/equity ratio | 0.77 | 0.47 |
|
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