Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this yearly Metro stockholders meeting. My name is Réal Raymond. I am happy to see all of you here today. As Chair of the Board and Chair of this meeting, thank you for having come. Your presence shows the keen interest you are showing the corporation, and I thank you for this. I would like to salute all of the shareholders who have granted us their trust over the past year. Welcome to this annual meeting of Metro Inc. My name is Réal Raymond. As Chair of the Board of Directors and of this meeting, it is a pleasure to meet with you again this year. The meeting will be held in French, but we have arranged for English translation service, and anyone who wishes to use this service should ask for a headset at the desk located at the entrance of the room.
There will be a question period at the end of the meeting, and any question you may have may be asked and will be answered in the language of choice. Only questions from shareholders will be permitted during the question period. Please note that it is strictly forbidden to record or take pictures during this meeting. I have with me our CEO, Mr. Eric La Flèche, as well as our Legal Affairs Vice President and Corporate Secretary, Mr. Simon Rivet. I also have members of the Board, as well as senior management, who are sitting in the first two rows of the room. The meeting will unfold as follows. Firstly, I will say a few words, then Mr. La Flèche will speak, our CEO.
Following this, we will proceed with voting for administrators, or Directors rather, the nomination of auditors, and a vote on the motion relative to the corporate policy concerning senior management's compensation. A short presentation by a shareholder having submitted a proposal will not be subject to a vote. Finally, we will have a question period at the end of the assembly. Only shareholder questions will be allowed during the question period. Please note that it is forbidden to take pictures or to record during the assembly. Pursuant the corporate internal rules, I will act as Chair for this meeting and Mr. Simon Rivet, as Corporate Secretary of the corporation, will act as Secretary for this meeting. Madame Francine Beauséjour and Madame Isabelle Vachon of AST Trust Canada are acting as scrutineers for this meeting. The scrutineers have already handed in their report indicating that we have quorum.
Therefore, I declare this meeting legally constituted, and I will ask the Secretary to enter the scrutineers' report regarding quorum into the meeting's files. The Corporate Secretary has a copy of the call to meeting and the related documents which have been sent out to the shareholders. On behalf of those who will speak today, I would like to point out that certain comments may include forward-looking information. A detailed notice regarding forward-looking information appears on the screen and on page 31 of our annual report for 2019. These prospective statements offer no guarantee regarding future performance of the corporation and presuppose some known and unknown risks, as well as certain forms of uncertainty which may make it so that they will not actually occur. Financial statements and auditor's report.
The financial statements management report for the year ending 28 September 2019, as well as the auditor's report, have been sent to shareholders who have made a request for this. Additional copies in French and English of this report are available at the front door of this room and are available on the corporate website as well. Metro has seen yet another great year in 2019, with results that have gone beyond our planned objectives. These great results are all the more remarkable given that the teams have been very busy integrating The Jean Coutu Group and Metro operations following the purchase of The Jean Coutu Group in 2018. This performance reinforces our belief that the Metro strategic plan and the senior management's capacity to carry out that plan is the right plan. These results also show the commitment of our employees and their know-how.
We have a senior management team that is experienced and passionate, which implements solid business plans. Our strategic priority this year was to bring together Jean Coutu and Metro operations. This is taking place as planned so far, and synergies of CAD 65 million annualized are compliant with our expectations. The CEO will tell us more about this in a few moments. I would like to express the board's satisfaction regarding the milestones that have been reached thus far. Regarding governance, the board has remained very active in 2019, as is proper. We've adopted a written policy regarding shareholder engagement, describing how the board should communicate with shareholders and how shareholders can contact the board and senior management at Metro. This policy also establishes the topics on which the board can communicate with shareholders, namely
Governance, continuous information disclosure, board performance, compensation and performance of senior management, and the makeup and qualifications of board members, as well as those of the members of the various committees. We intend to remain committed in 2020, and senior management can depend on our active support in order to carry out its strategic priority. I'd like to thank on behalf of all the shareholders, on behalf of the board and management, I'd like to thank therefore Marie-Josée Nadeau and Marc DeSerres, who are going to be retiring as directors. Madame Nadeau joined the board in 2000. Over the years, she has worked on the three committees at the board and had been chairing since 2015, the Governance Committee. Mr. DeSerres joined the board in 2002 and has also sat at the three committees.
We would like to point out the important contribution made by Madame Nadeau and Mr. DeSerres during all of these years. They have been diligent and highly committed administrators who have played, rather, a strong role in the evolution of our corporation in terms of its shareholders, and I'd like to thank them for their collaboration. In the context of the succession process, Mr. Pierre Boivin has been named a director last September. Mr. Boivin is a candidate to become a director for the first time. Mr. Boivin has solid experience. He has occupied a number of important management positions and has sat at a number of important boards in publicly listed corporations in Canada. The second seat will not be filled at the board.
The board considers that 13 directors will be sufficient so that the board can do the work it must with the corporation. Even if Nadeau is leaving us, we'll continue adhering to our minimum target of having 30% women at the board of directors for 2020. I'd like to congratulate and thank Eric La Flèche, as well as all the members of the Metro team for their results and their good work over the past year. Thank you to my colleagues on the board as well, and all of you, shareholders and partners, thank you for your trust. Now I'll pass the floor, the microphone rather, to Eric La Flèche, CEO.
Thank you, Réal. Good morning, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for attending this year's AGM. As you know, Metro has had a great year in 2019.
We've had results that have overshot our objectives, and our strategic initiatives have progressed as planned. Our sales figure has grown by 16.6% and 3.2%, excluding the Jean Coutu Group. Comparable food sales have increased by 3.6%, while the comparable pharmacy sales have increased by 2.4%. The net adjusted earnings have been CAD 732 million, for an increase of 26%. All of our banners have performed well. All the food banners have increased the number of customers they serve, the basket value, and have seen an increase in customer satisfaction, which has led to an increase in market share. We're proud of our success, but we are taking nothing for granted because competition is still very stiff and customer expectations are changing and increasing constantly. The consolidation of McMahon and Pharmacie Jean Coutu operations are ongoing. Our teams have worked very hard on consolidating these activities while developing our banners.
For instance, the substantial promotional campaign celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Jean Coutu banner, which has been a success. A unified operational chain implementing systems and processes that are common to the entire pharmacy division. This entire project is moving ahead as planned. We will become more efficient while still respecting the specific strategy for each of the Jean Coutu and Brunet banners. We're on the right track to deliver CAD 75 million yearly synergies after three years, as announced. We've generated annualized value of CAD 65 million so far, primarily through cost reductions and a reduction in administrative expenses. The other synergies will come from consolidating distribution activities later on this year. We've begun implementing within the Brunet Pharmacies, the computer systems used by the Jean Coutu network. These are the most high-performance solutions on the market, which give us competitive advantage.
This is a major project with technological change that requires adaptation for all the staff in the establishments, but the change has been well-planned and its implementation is going well. Commercially speaking, Personnelle brand products, which is the emblematic Jean Coutu brand, will now be available in the Brunet stores and increasingly, progressively at Metro, Super C, and Food Basics. Also in Pharmacie Jean Coutu stores, Selection and Irresistible products are becoming available, and these are the Metro's private brands. Our new automated produce warehouse has begun its construction in September with a bit of a delay because it took a little longer than foreseen to obtain permits, but construction is underway. The new distribution for frozen products has seen the beginning of its construction.
These new infrastructure, which represent a CAD 400 million investment over six years, will allow us to pursue our growth in the Ontario market while offering better service to our stores, as well as a greater variety of products and increased efficiency. Alongside this, with affiliated Metro owners and the pharmacist owners, we are modernizing our retail network. We're increasingly improving the customer experience through modern and consumer-friendly stores. We have, therefore, 10 new food stores, including two relocations, and 20 major renovation projects. Notably in Ontario, we've continued investing substantially in our corporate stores, and we've restructured our network, which has impacted about 12 stores. We've also opened a third Adonis store in Toronto last spring, as well as another one in Ottawa last fall, the fourth of the network in Ontario and the 14th overall. Adonis is a unique concept, which represents a great growth potential.
On the pharmaceutical side, we've had to sell 10 of our pharmacies in order to comply with the requirements of the competition authorities, and a few unprofitable pharmacies have closed their doors within the consolidation process. Jean Coutu and Brunet together are present across Quebec as a whole, with a modern network that is in excellent shape. Regarding our partnerships, we finalized the repurchasing of our actions from our partners in Première Moisson stores. We'd like to thank the Fiset family for their collaboration ever since the beginning of our partnership in 2014. Technology plays a growing role in consumers' lifestyle habits, and we're adapting our operations to this new reality. While the demand for online grocery shopping remains small for the moment, it is showing a growth rate that is worthwhile.
Our offer is now accessible to 60% of Quebec's population, and since May 2019, it's also been available in the Toronto region. Our operational model, starting with a smaller number of stores, allows us to be agile, and while we're still in investment mode, our performance indicators are improving every month. Furthermore, our digital platforms, our web, mobile, and social media presence, have generated more than 10 million impressions per month, allowing us to offer greater value still to our customers, thanks to personalized discounts and content. Another technological evolution which simplifies the customer experience is the installation of automated checkout facilities. More than 100 stores now offer this option, and we intend to double the number in 2020. Customers do like this experience, and it also accelerates the payment process at checkout. As I said earlier, our team have accomplished remarkable work when it comes to customer experience.
Metro has kept its number one position amongst food distributors, as seen by Léger's WOW Index, as well as the Super C, which is the number one discount banner. For the first time, Léger has assessed the online companies' performance, and we are amongst the first on online sales. This shows the commitment and passion of all our team and our partners. We've also made some changes in senior management. François Coutu has retired as CEO of The Jean Coutu Group last May, as foreseen when we made the transaction. François is a great builder who has contributed much to the group's success since 1983, and we will still get the benefit of his expertise and experience because he will remain a member of our board of directors.
Alain Champagne, with 30 years of experience in major pharmaceutical distribution companies, as well as consumer goods companies, will follow on Monsieur Coutu as the CEO of our pharmacy division. Christian Bourbonnière, Executive VP and leader of the Quebec division since 2008, has decided to undertake the final phase of his career at Metro by becoming the CEO of the Adonis Group on the 1st of October last. Christian has made a great contribution to Metro's success ever since he joined us in 1997, and I want to congratulate him for his receiving the Golden Pencil Award, the highest distinction within our industry. Congratulations. Marc Giroux, who was Senior VP for the Metro banner, will follow in Christian's footsteps as VP and leader of the Quebec division. He will also be responsible for online operations within the company. He joined Metro in 2009.
He's an excellent leader who has a proven track record operationally and strategically. I'm sure the Quebec division will be in good hands with him. We've also seen last year that our customers and employees became more keenly interested in knowing what sort of action we have in terms of social and environmental concerns. We've disclosed our policy regarding packaging and printed materials, and have taken the commitment, along with other industry players, to reduce by 50% the food waste in our activities between now and 2025. Relative to what prevailed in 2016. Today, we are publishing our ninth ESG report, and I invite you to consult it so that you can take knowledge of the different measures we've implemented. 2020 is well underway and will be full of challenges from competition, from the fact that consumers are changing their habits, and because there's a labor shortage.
We must continue excelling, and our team is well aware of this. Here are the salient features of the first quarter 2020, which finished 21st December last. Sales of CAD 4.3 billion, an increase of 1.3% and 1.6% excluding the impact of IFRS 16 accounting standards. The food stores, the sales have increased by 1.4% and an increase of 2% taking into account the changes in the Christmas sales. In the pharmacies, sales have increased by 3.6%, and the net adjusted earnings were CAD 180.9 million, an increase of 5.1%, and a diluted net earnings per share of CAD 0.71 for an increase of 6%. This is a good start for 2020, and we're confident that we'll be able to reach our growth objectives. Given our excellent financial situation, the board has approved a change to our dividends policy.
We are aiming now for an annual dividend, varying from 30%-40% of net earnings from the preceding year, as opposed to 20% or 30%, which was the case thus far. Yesterday, the board declared a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.225 per common share, an increase of 12.5%, which is the 26th annual consecutive increase of our dividend. The share price reached new heights in 2019, in spite of a difficult month of December in the stock market for our industry. We've seen an increase of the Metro share to the tune of 12.5%, which has been the best performance for shareholders amongst the three major distributors for one, five, and 10 years. We have a solid financial situation. We have everything we need, all the resources in order to implement our business plans and make the best of development opportunities as they occur.
I'd like to thank all of our employees and their devoted work. This has been a major factor in the success of the company. Thank you to my colleagues and senior management as well. Thank you to the members of the board as well for their support and wise counsel. Finally, thank you to you, our shareholders, for your trust.
Thank you very much, Mr. La Flèche. I'll now invite the secretary of the assembly, Mr. Simon Rivet, to explain the voting process that will be used during this meeting.
Thank you, Mr. President. In compliance with the total regulations of the company, the vote with regards to all questions on which we will have a vote to be done by the use of a ballot only. Those shareholders are registered, and the proxies authorized have right to vote. If you've already exercised your voting rights attached to your common shares, either through a proxy form or any other way allowed, your votes will be exercised by your proxies and therefore you do not need to vote once again.
If you have not exercised your voting right attached to your common shares, you can fill out your ballot, which will be handed to you, or which was handed to you by scrutineers when you arrived at the assembly. If you are an eligible shareholder, eligible to vote, and have not obtained your ballot upon coming in, please raise your hand so that scrutineers can give you one. The scrutineers will pick up the ballots at the last point, which will be the object of vote. That is immediately after the vote with regards to the remuneration of senior management or compensation thereof.
Thank you, Mr. Rivet, for these explanations. I'd like to say that we invite some of our shareholders to move and to second some of these motions at the appropriate moment. We'll now proceed with the election of the board members.
The company can have from seven and a maximum of 19 board members. The board has set at 13 the number of directors to be elected. The regulation of the company has planned that each representative would be elected for a term of one year, beginning at the date of this meeting and coming to an end at the next assembly. The company management will propose certain people as candidates to the board. Here are the candidates proposed, and I would ask them to please stand up when their names are called. Madame Maryse Bertrand, Monsieur Pierre Boivin, François J. Coutu, Michel Coutu, Stephanie Coyles, Monsieur Claude Dussault, Russell Goodman, Marc Guay, Christian Haub, Eric La Flèche, Madame Christine Magee, Monsieur Réal Raymond, and Madame Line Rivard. Thank you. Now, as you know, the company has adopted the regulation on the advance notice for the nominations.
Since no other nomination has been proposed and described delays, it is now time to vote on the 13 candidates that have been proposed by the management. We would like to remind you that the board recommends to vote for all of the 13 candidates to the role of director. May I have a motion to that effect by our Vice President, Madame Mireille Desjardins. Mr. President, my name is Mireille Desjardins. I'm shareholder of the company. I propose that the 13 nominations to the board of directors be submitted to a vote at this meeting. Thank you, Madame Desjardins. May I ask Monsieur Claude Paradis to co-propose this motion? Mr. President, my name is Claude Paradis. I'm shareholder of the company, and I second this motion. Thank you, Monsieur Paradis.
I will take a few minutes to allow those shareholders who have not yet voted to vote for each of the candidates by filling out the ballot that's been given to them upon arrival. I want to remind that the scrutineers will pick up the ballots immediately after the vote on the resolution that deals with the compensation of senior management. To be elected, the candidates must receive a vote favorable to at least majority of voices expressed by the shareholders with right to vote at the meeting. The scrutineers have informed me the preliminary results of votes by proxy, as received by the company, already assure the election of the 13 candidates proposed by management.
The preliminary results for each board member are now displayed on screen, the final results will be made available at the end of the assembly with our Corporate Secretary. If you wish to consult them, they'll also be published on SEDAR tomorrow. I declare all 13 candidates, nominees proposed, elected as board members of the company. Ladies and gentlemen, I congratulate you to your election as a board director. The following point is the nomination of the auditors of the company. The board recommends to vote in favor of nomination of Ernst & Young chartered professional accountants. May I have a motion from our Metro merchant, Monsieur Denis Messier, to that effect?
Yes. Mr. President, my name is Denis Messier. I am a Metro merchant and shareholder of the company.
I move Ernst & Young chartered professional accountants be named auditors for the company for the present fiscal year. May I ask our Metro affiliate merchant, Monsieur Gabriel Rondeau, to co-move this proposition? Yes, Mr. President. My name is Gabriel Rondeau. I'm Metro merchant and a shareholder of the company, and I second this motion. Thank you. We'll now take a few minutes to make it possible for those shareholders who have not already vote to do so by filling out the ballots that were handed out to them upon arrival. To be adopted, the motion must receive favorable vote of at least a majority of voices expressed by the shareholders with right to vote at the assembly.
The scrutineers, however, have informed me that results of votes by proxy received by our company already assure the nomination of the auditors, and the preliminary results of this vote will be displayed on the screen and published tomorrow on SEDAR. I declare the resolution or the motion passed. We will now move to the vote on the advisory consultation vote on the compensation of senior management. The complete text of this resolution is found on page five of the circular, dated December 12, 2019. The board of directors recommends to vote in favor of this resolution. May I have a motion to that effect from Monsieur Guy L'Espérance? Thank you, Mr. President. My name is Guy L'Espérance. I am a shareholder of the company.
I move that the advisory resolution, as described on page five of the circular in 2019 relative to the advisory vote on the compensation of senior management, be adopted. Thank you very much, Monsieur L'Espérance. May I ask our affiliate Metro merchant, Monsieur Stéphane Beaulieu, to co-move this proposition. Good morning, Mr. President. My name is Stéphane Beaulieu. I am a Metro merchant and shareholder of the company, and I second this motion. Thank you, Monsieur Beaulieu. We will take a few minutes to allow the shareholders who may not have already voted to do so by filling out the ballot that has been handed to them upon arrival. To be carried, the resolution needs to receive an affirmative vote of at least a simple majority of the expressed votes during the meeting by the common shareholders.
The scrutineers have informed me the results of the votes by proxy received by the company already assure the adoption of this resolution. The preliminary results of the vote for this resolution are now displayed on the screen and will be published tomorrow on SEDAR. I declare this motion passed. A motion has been submitted by a shareholder, the Mouvement d'éducation et de défense des actionnaires, MÉDAC. The company has agreed to reproduce the text of this proposition and to put it on MÉDAC on page 54 of circular 2019 under Addendum A. The MÉDAC proposal aims at the production of a report by the Human Resources Committee on the integration of ESG criteria and evaluation of their performance and compensation of senior management.
Since companies have already implemented measures to ensure the priority of the sustainability of its undertaking with matters of corporate responsibility by integrating factors of environmental, social, and governance in its strategy, and has been added to page 50 of the circular. It has been agreed with MÉDAC to not hold a vote on this motion. Therefore, this motion will not be submitted to a vote by the shareholders. However, we have agreed to allow a representative of MÉDAC to say a few words to briefly expose the elements of that proposition. I will therefore invite representative of MÉDAC, Monsieur Willie Gagnon, to present his position on the subject. Mr. President, thank you. Monsieur Willie Gagnon on behalf of MÉDAC.
The proposition on the implementation of ESG, to have a report on the importance and the integration of the criteria and ESG with regards and connection to the performance of senior management and in the determination of the compensation. We quote Madame Marie-Claude Bacon, a quote that comes from your social responsibility of last year, where she said that we recently saw growing interest to obtain information on strategies and practices with regards to the ESG integration factors in our corporate management, as well as on the interest of our financial community. It is not only us that input these objectives. We are very happy, however, to see the substantial enrichment on page 50, the involvement of your governance. The board is also involved in the monitoring of the taking of corporate responsibility by approving each plan and annual reports.
The board has approved as well the strategic plan of company and monitors its accomplishments, which underlies the undertakings of the company. This is what we were looking for. We understand that the supervision of the board is aligned with the fact that you could take that into consideration with regards to your compensation. We obtained what we wanted to have. I'd also salute the fact that you've adopted a very formal policy of commitment towards the relationship and relationship with your shareholders. We believe that this policy will have a positive effect in our relations. What you are doing here, well, you're about the only one to go as far as that. Your practice is exemplary. We will use your circular to present it to other companies and show them how things should be done. Thank you.
We're very happy to not hold a vote on this issue. We anticipate with pleasure the new levels of our relationship. Thank you for your comments, Monsieur Gagnon. Now we will move on to the shareholder question period. As mentioned earlier, only those shareholders or their proxies can ask questions. We ask any shareholder wishing to intervene in the question period to please clearly identify themselves. Please keep your questions brief. If you have many questions, please choose one, with possibility of coming back later with other questions, that make it possible for many people to intervene. We're listening to you. Thank you. Michel Gauthier, I'm a shareholder. I would have two questions. The easiest one, why have you sold MissFresh? Well, it was a very small company. It was an experiment of sorts for us.
We thought that with our digital platforms, as I mentioned earlier, that we would have access to many customers who would be interested in this model, that we would sell kits in stores. Well, this did not turn out to be the case. It was not a great success for us. We reached a conclusion that we may not be the best owners for that business. It's a startup company. Requires important marketing. We determined that it'd be better to withdraw from this sector. Yeah, go ahead with your second question. My second question, a shareholder of Metro. I have been for more than 15 years. I'm proud and very happy of the results that you've obtained since then. Congratulations. I'm a little concerned with regards to the future when I see the return for the shareholder capital that is diminishing.
6% growth, adjusted earnings per share. You're increasing dividend 30% or 40%. It seems like it's a mature company. I'm wondering if it's still growing, or if you think you'll be able to increase the return on the equity once you have. Yes, we do plan to do so at a sustainable rhythm, as we've always done. We are a mature and growing company. Return on equity, well, depends on the denominator. When we acquired Coutu, we had to pull out quite a bit of equity, and of course, that dropped our return in that respect. We will continue to have returns that are even higher. It's just a matter of time. With regards to the growth of the first quarter, there were some changes in the Christmas sales. We're satisfied with our Christmas sales.
We thought that we would better measure our performance by taking into consideration the first two quarters. It would meet our expectations, and we feel that we will recoup any discrepancy very quickly. Thank you. Yes. Any other question? Mr. President, Nancy Brien, shareholder of the company. I came here three years ago to ask a question with regards to the genetically modified salmon, rather specific salmon. Now, for the first time on the market, we see such an animal on the market. Since that question was asked, two companies displayed on their site that level of transparency, saying they had no intention to buy any. That's Costco and Sobeys. We're waiting for this same transparency from Metro. I know that you have policies with regards to traceability, I'm stuck on that point, as we say in Quebec.
With the industrial productions of this GMO salmon, we hope that'll be transparent, and we'd like to know if that salmon will or will not be sold in the grocery stores. Yes, I do remember your questions. We took the commitment three years ago to not sell GMO salmon, and we've respected that. We have not sold any for three years now. We have a policy of sustainable fishing, which is a fine point. We have traceability of all the fish we buy. We're very proud of what we do in the industry from that. With regards to that, we've not put an announcement on our website that we will not sell GMO salmon, we do not want to make particular statements on each item that we sell. Some may contain GMOs. I can assure you that we do not and will not sell GMO salmon.
That is the commitment that we have made and that we will keep. That's not part of your sustainable policy. Well, we can never say never. We didn't think that it was useful at this stage to display that loud and clear on the Metro site. It's more important to have it in our practices. We do respect that. You don't think societal expectations are sufficient pressure to do that? We follow that very closely. For now, we have chosen to not announce that specifically on the website. I do want to tell you that yes, we do follow it. Thank you very much.
Yes. Good morning, Mr. President. Paul Boucher, shareholder. We would like to know why you've invited people in one of your circular of last July to use this part of the circular under the title, Proud Company from Here. You know what I'm talking about?
Proud Company from Here, I don't remember the July circular. Metro is a company based in Montreal. We're proud of our Quebec roots. The fact that we have headquarters here in Montreal, too. That is how it was expressed, therefore.
Why did you take that company? We're speaking of Metro here. We're talking about a bar or a brasserie that's situated in Montreal.
I do not name it. Molson. Are you talking about Molson product? No. There was a title that gave information or a bit of bragging on that company. Do you want me to read you the text? It may not be necessary. The circular and the promotions every week, I don't know them all by heart. Certainly not the one from last July. We do have promotions with other Quebec companies.
I don't know which promotion you're referring to in particular. We could speak about it after the assembly.
Thank you for your answer. Another question. There are two stores, I believe, in the Lévis area where the roofs have weakened. Could you tell us what has been the cost for repairing the weakening or breakdown of these roofs?
It was a substantial amount of money. Last winter, as you'll recall, there was a lot of snow, and we had to clear the snow from roofs across Quebec. For competitive reasons, I can't tell you the exact amount, it was a fair bit of money. We had two roofs that caved in partially, and they were quickly repaired. It was expensive. We did have insurance for that purpose, we made our way through it. We recovered.
I imagine it was a fair bit of money because when steel structures give way, I'm sure it becomes quite a bit of money to get the repair done. Correct. Also, I'd like to point out
Perhaps this. There are two persons at headquarters who have helped me to replace the company that sends out all the documents. Danielle Fontaine is one of them. She did great work for me, and a lady as well, Frappier at Metro headquarters. She also did good work on my behalf, I'd like to thank them. We'll transmit your thanks. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Next question, please.
Thank you, Paul Bennetto, shareholder. Congratulations for your performance. My question is a question about your vision for Metro's future. I get the feeling that the Canadian food market is concentrated amongst three major players. There's Metro, Sobeys, and other Toronto companies, in fact. Do you still think that the Canadian market is sufficiently concentrated? Does this, in fact, limit your possibilities for expansion across the Canadian market by acquiring other companies, independent companies, smaller companies?
Also, are you considering if there's sufficient concentration, the added value for Metro, where do you see it? Do you see it through organic or internal expansion? Also, in light of Couche-Tard's experience, are you thinking of expanding in the U.S., for instance, or in Europe, away from the Canadian market? Thank you.
Thank you for the question. I'll begin with the final question. We're not planning to expand operations to the States or to Europe. We're concentrating on the Canadian market. It's a market that we are fully familiar with, it's a market within which we can carry out synergies if we acquire other companies in Canada. It's a pretty consolidated, concentrated market in Canada, it's true, there are still opportunities available, we have to be patient, have the right timing, particularly have the right financial position to seize the opportunities.
We've always been financially solid. We don't make acquisitions every year, we have made a number of important strategic acquisitions over the years, this has contributed much to our growth. We think that we can continue along the same lines, perhaps with smaller acquisitions at one point, maybe larger ones at another moment. There are fewer targets remaining in the market, there are still some. We're always looking out for opportunities. In the meantime, we have a very good platform with growth opportunities in the Quebec market, in the Ontario market too, both in the food and pharmaceutical sectors. We think that we can make the best of this grow a little more than inflation gradually increase market share to offer increase in our earnings a return to shareholders. This is what we've always done, we intend to continue.
There don't seem to be any other questions. Since there are no other matters to be subjected to or presented to the meeting, I propose that we close this meeting. Perhaps our corporate secretary and VP of legal, Mr. Coallier.
Yes, my name is Robert Coallier . I'm a shareholder of the corporation, I move that we close this meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Coallier. Can we have a co-motion from our Global Compensation Director, Madame Andrée Bonneville?
My name is Andrée Bonneville. I'm a corporation shareholder, I second this motion.
Thank you. We adopt the proposal to close this meeting, the meeting is therefore closed. Before we leave, I'd like to thank all persons who were involved in preparing this meeting. Thank you as well to the shareholders, employees, and directors who have joined us today. That closes our meeting.
Thank you very much