STELLARTON, NS – Today, Empire Company Limited (“Empire” or the “Company”) (TSX: EMP.A) introduces the arrival of its best-in-class online grocery home-delivery service, Voilà, to customers in Calgary, Edmonton, and surrounding areas*.
Voilà offers nearly 20,000 products from Safeway, Sobeys, Chalo! FreshCo and more, including fresh local favorites from Alberta. Products are guaranteed fresh at regular in-store prices with no hidden fees and delivered straight to customers’ homes in convenient one-hour delivery windows***. Starting June 19, Alberta customers will be able to order online at voila.ca or by downloading the Voilà mobile app.
Voilà is powered by Ocado Group plc’s (“Ocado”) world-class, industry-leading technology through its brand new 290,000-sq.-ft., state-of-the-art Customer Fulfillment Centre (“CFC”) in Rocky View County, Alberta, where robots help assemble orders and the Voilà team delivers them to customers in refrigerated vehicles. Voilà is already live in Ontario and Quebec, where it was voted #1 grocery delivery service** with over 99 per cent order accuracy and 95 per cent on-time delivery.
“Delivering directly from our dedicated facility allows us to provide customers with better product freshness and quality and more reliable delivery. At Voilà, we show up on time with everything our customers ordered,” says Sarah Joyce, Senior Vice President, E-commerce, Empire Company Limited.
Focused on freshness, the CFC team closely monitors the shelf life of products to ensure only the freshest items are selected for delivery. And if it’s not fresh, it’s free!
Fresh produce and meat are sourced from the best farms in Canada and around the world, there are no hidden markups on any products, and groceries arrive on customer doorsteps for a flat delivery fee or for FREE if customers purchase a Delivery Pass.
“Customers love Voilà because of our unparalleled home-delivery service. We are excited to bring that same service to Albertans,” adds Joyce. “Voilà truly is grocery delivery, reimagined.”
Voilà will provide customers in Alberta with the choice between home delivery and curbside pickup, with curbside pickup remaining available at 16 of Empire’s 141 stores in the region.
The Rocky View County CFC is Empire’s third grocery e-commerce facility, following the opening of their first CFC in the Greater Toronto Area in June 2020, and second CFC in Greater Montreal in 2022. The Company will launch a fourth Voilà CFC in Greater Vancouver in 2025.
* Customers in Calgary, Edmonton and the following Alberta communities can order online at voila.ca or through the Voilà app starting June 19: Airdrie, Beaumont, Camrose, Cochrane, Chestermere, Devon, Fort Saskatchewan, High River, Leduc, Morinville, Okotoks, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, St. Albert, Stony Plain, Strathmore and Wetaskiwin.
** Winner – Delivery Service Category in the Consumer Survey of Product Innovation 2022 by Product of the Year Canada. National Survey conducted by Kantar of 4,000 people.
*** For more information and terms and conditions, please visit voila.ca.
ABOUT EMPIRE
Empire Company Limited (TSX: EMP.A) is a Canadian company headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia. Empire’s key businesses are food retailing, through wholly owned subsidiary Sobeys Inc., and related real estate. With approximately $30.9 billion in annual sales and $16.4 billion in assets, Empire and its subsidiaries, franchisees and affiliates employ approximately 130,000 people.
