sources too closely associated with the subject potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral . please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable independent third party sources . april 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message empire company limited type public traded as tsx emp.a industry conglomerate holding company headquarters stellarton nova scotia canada key people fran ois vimard interim ceo revenue 20.993 billion cad 2014 operating income 328.5 million cad 2014 net income 235.4 million cad 2014 total assets 12.238 billion cad 2014 total equity 5.7003 billion cad 2014 1 number of employees 34 637 2008 2 subsidiaries sobeys crombie reit safeway canada freshco foodland price chopper website www.empireco.ca empire company limited is a canadian conglomerate engaged mostly in food retail and corporate investments . the company is headquartered in stellarton nova scotia . empire company also owns the sobeys supermarket chain . the company was founded in 1963 . 3 contents 1 acquisitions 2 sales of subsidiaries interests 3 references 4 external links acquisitions edit empire company has a long history of acquisitions . the ones worth mentioning are 1976 . lawton s drug stores limited which operated 18 stores in nova scotia . november 1980 july 1981 empire acquires sobey holdings limited gaining a 50.97 % stake in the company . february 1983 empire ups its ownership of hannaford bros. co. an american food retailer to 25 % sold in 2000 june 1987 empire buys the remaining 49.03 % of sobeys making it an entirely owned subsidiary . sold in 1998 re bought in 2007 1987 empire buys out its partner in empire theatres turning it into an entirely owned subsidiary . may 1988 empire buys a 25 % stake in provigo . 1988 empire acquires an additional 22 % stake in wajax resulting in a total ownership of 45 % . june 1989 empire re purchases the outstanding share of atlantic shopping centres making it an entirely owned subsidiary . december 1993 empire real estate buys 64 % of halifax developments ltd ; making it an entirely owned subsidiary . december 1998 empire buys oshawa group for 1.5 billion . january 2001 empire real estate buys a 35.7 % stake in genstar developmental partnership for 29 million . february 2004 sobey s acquires commisso s food markets and empire real estate acquires commisso s real estate for a total of 103.5 million . september 2005 empire theatres acquires 27 more theatres . august 2006 sobey s acquires achille de la chevroti re lt e including its grocery chain of about 25 stores in quebec and ontario . this costs 79.2 million . july 15 2007 empire re buys the remaining outstanding sobey s share making it once again an entirely owned subsidiary . september 2007 sobeys buys thrifty foods for 256.6 million . 2012 empire buys 236 retail gas locations in quebec and atlantic canada for 214.9 million . june 2013 empire buys all of safeway canada s stores for 5.8 billion sales of subsidiaries interests edit 1998 empire sells 38 % of sobeys putting it out on the public stock exchange . 2000 empire sells its 25 % stake in hannaford bros co for 1.03 billion . march 2002 empire sells serca foodservice to sysco for 411 million . june 2005 when wajax became an income trust empire sold 2.875 million shares for 50.8 million . 2006 empire sells 44 properties to crombie reit . april 2008 empire sells another 61 properties to crombie reit 2011 empire sells its remaining share of wajax . june 2013 empire sells all empire theatres some to cineplex entertainment and landmark cinemas . 4 5 august 2013 sobeys sells the land of 68 safeway locations to crombie reit for 900 million . oct nov dec 2013 sobeys announces the closure of multiple locations in alberta in preparation for the safeway acquisition . references edit 2014 annual report pdf . empire company limited . retrieved 2015 07 11 . company profile for empire company ltd ca ; emp.a . retrieved 2008 10 08 . company website empire company announces sale of empire theatres . www.newswire.ca . retrieved 11 may 2016 . empire company completes sale of empire theatres pdf . retrieved 11 may 2016 . external links edit official site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title empire company & oldid 732144079 categories companies listed on the toronto stock exchanges & p tsx composite indexcompanies based in nova scotiaconglomerate companies of canadacompanies established in 19631963 establishments in nova scotiahidden categories articles lacking reliable references from april 2015all articles lacking reliable references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 29 july 2016 at 23 01 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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