Marc Poulin
The architect of Sobeys disastrous purchase of Safeway Canada has paid the price. Marc Poulin, chief executive officer of Sobeys parent Empire Co. is gone, the company said Friday morning. The firm took a 1.3 billion impairment charge this week as Sobeys struggles with the integration of Safeway. Empire is replacing Poulin on an interim basis with chief financial officer François Vimard. Empire paid $5.8-billion to take over Safeway in 2013. Its stock has plunged 25.6 per so far this year, as of the close of trading Thursday. Last fall the firm admitted that the cost of lost and misplaced stock and confusion at the cash desk was costing it millions. All of this, it said, because Safeway employees had not been able to deal with Sobeys inventory and checkout software.
