The company's approach has helped it work around bottlenecks at ports and avoid surging spot market shipping rates, keeping store shelves stocked amid shortages elsewhere.
"We've once again chartered a dedicated ocean vessel and we've contracted it for the entire year," president and CEO
"It gives us greater control over the supply chain and limits shipping peaks, which would otherwise expose us to spot market freight rates."
The company has also contracted an additional three charter sailings in its current quarter, he said.
It's unclear how much added shipping costs could affect the company's gross margins and store prices in 2022.
At
Meanwhile, the company is also ordering goods early in an effort to sidestep ongoing hiccups across the supply chain.
"Given the ongoing and significant supply chain challenges, we are continuing to build lead times into our supply chain processes as we assume that from sourcing to arrival at our distribution centres orders will take longer than in previous years," Hicks said.
The retailer, which operates multiple stores including
The retailer's in-house brands, such as Noma, Canvas, Sherwood and WindRiver, made up 40 per cent of the retailer's total sales in its most recent quarter.
"Across the North American retail industry, scarcity of inventory and pricing have led to a tremendous amount of brand switching by customers and private labels have benefited from this trend," Hicks said.
The retailer also benefits from an assortment that can fit to customers budgets, he said.
"Over 90 per cent of our assortment at (
TJ Flood, president of
"We take great pride category-by-category making sure that we offer consumers choice at the good, better and best price levels," he said.
Meanwhile, sales of Christmas, automotive and hockey products bumped up
"We successfully anticipated the wants and needs of our customers who were facing another Christmas spent at home while also considering the needs of those getting back on the road and back to the rink," Hicks said.
The company topped expectations as it reported a net income attributable to shareholders of
Revenue for the 13-week period ended
In addition to a robust supply chain and in-stock inventory, the company's stores also benefited from strong e-commerce sales reaching
"We've invested in lockers at stores and technology to help our dealers pick and pack faster," Flood said.
On a normalized basis,
Chris Li, an analyst with Desjardins Capital Market, said the company's outperformance at the retail level was particularly impressive given it was being compared against a strong quarter from the previous year and had one fewer week of operations.
"The strength was driven by healthy consumer demand, strong execution and the in-stock position," he said in a client note.
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Companies in this story: (TSX:CTC.A)
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