Author: Consultant

• Private companies added 38,000 jobs in August, down from 46,000 and below the estimate for 47,000, for the slowest month since January, according to ADP.
• Three categories accounted for most of the job growth: education and health services, leisure and hospitality and construction. Manufacturing saw a loss of 17,000 jobs.
• The report comes ahead of the BLS nonfarm payrolls count, due out Friday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/02/private-payrolls-rose-by-38000-in-august-fewer-than-expected-adp-reports.html

Canadian manufacturers looking to learn about weathering market ups and downs could take notes from Linamar Corp., the Guelph, Ont.-based auto parts company.

Linamar has spent the last 60 years reinventing itself to stay relevant, and along the way has navigated technological disruption, shifting trade policies, a global financial crisis and the auto industry’s biggest transitions in decades. Linda Hasenfratz, the executive chair of the board, and the company’s former chief executive officer, points to a combination of innovation, flexibility and an unusually long-term plan as keys to Linamar’s longevity.

Linamar has always kept a close eye on industry transition. About a decade ago, reading the direction the automobile market was going, the company invested in electric vehicle (EV) technology. However, they also ensured the components it was producing for EVs could also be used for hybrid and internal combustion engine vehicles as well.

“When the battery electric [demand] didn’t materialize, we took all that equipment and shifted it into programs that were selling,” says Ms. Hasenfratz. “When you can’t predict the future, you don’t want to make a big bet on something that might not pay off.”

Companies like Linamar are “bridges of the competing automotive futures”, says Romel Mostafa, an assistant professor of strategy at Western University’s Ivey Business School. “They’ve been able to play both [markets] and that requires managerial astuteness. Fortune favours the bold, but also the astute.”

After immigrating from Hungary, Frank Hasenfratz started a one-man machine shop that became Linamar in 1966 (named for daughters Linda and Nancy and his wife Margaret). The company now has more than 37,000 employees and 87 manufacturing locations globally. It recently reported second-quarter net earnings of $183-million, up from almost $127-million in the same period last year, as sales increased by $500-million to a record $3.14-billion in Q2.

Linamar is now a diversified advanced manufacturing company. Beyond the automotive sector, it creates solutions for industries including agricultural, medtech, water, power, defence and robotics.

The company’s culture of flexibility also shapes how it responds to uncertainty. Instead of fearing periods of economic or technological change, Linamar sees them as opportunities, says Ms. Hasenfratz.

“We’ve always been quite conservative in how we run our balance sheets, so we don’t carry a lot of debt,” she explains. “So in those challenging economic times, there’s going to be companies that are struggling and that might create an opportunity from an acquisition perspective, for instance, to bring more technology in at a more reasonable price.”

Rather than developing every new technology or product internally, Linamar has used its acquisitions to expand into technologies it believes will be important for the next generation of vehicles.

In the last couple of years, Linamar has acquired a substantial part of Mobex Global’s U.S. operations and Dura Shiloh’s battery enclosures business. That expanded its capabilities in the EV market, and added propulsion-agnostic technologies that can be used in EV, hybrid and internal combustion engines.

Adapting to what’s happening in the moment has been part of the company’s fabric from the beginning. Underpinning all of the company’s business decisions is its “100-year plan” – a mindset designed to remind Linamar’s leaders that every decision should grow the business not just the next quarter, but well into the next decade.

“We’re 20 years into this 100-year plan, and we’re thinking generationally,” says Ms. Hasenfratz.

She says Linamar’s main objective is to build a business that can succeed regardless of how markets evolve.

Marvin Ryder, an associate professor at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, says manufacturing leaders must manage countless day-to-day challenges while continually adapting to new ones, as failing to keep pace can threaten the business’s survival.

“The people who run these businesses I describe as ‘jugglers’. The average Canadian hears a story like Linamar and takes it for granted that a business can be around for 60 years or 100 years or 150 years. In fact, it’s the opposite. These are rare and beautiful things.”

Long-term success depends not only on consistently delivering quality products, but also on anticipating changing customer demand through research and development or strategic acquisitions that bring new capabilities, says Mr. Ryder.

While manufacturers may start out as the makers of an item or two, top ones branch out based on the market. For Linamar, he says their core product is also their reliability and quality.

“I think Linamar’s success isn’t traced to a single product or piece of innovation, but to a consistent manufacturing standard,” Mr. Ryder says.

“It’s too hard to predict the future, especially these days with technology evolving so quickly,” adds Ms. Hasenfratz. “Just stay super flexible and try to develop a strategy that will be successful in as many different future scenarios as you can envision.”

Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T +2.41%increase is increasing the number of new stores it plans to open this year.

The company behind Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart said Tuesday it now expects to open about 75 new locations this year, up from earlier plans for about 70.

Loblaw chief executive Per Bank says Canadians are being thoughtful about every dollar they spend.

“We see that in how they shop our stores, the brands they choose, and how they use our loyalty and e-commerce solutions,” Bank said in a statement.

“We have a significant investment program underway, and we’re putting that capital behind the parts of our business that meets the needs of Canadians. That includes accelerating our network expansion efforts to reach more customers, faster.”

Loblaw has opened 38 new grocery stores and pharmacies in Canada, including 21 grocery stores and 17 Shoppers Drug Mart locations, so far this year.

The new stores are part of $2.4-billion in planned capital spending for 2026, the second year of the company’s five-year plan to invest $10-billion in Canada by 2030.

Loblaw said it has spent about half of the total for 2026 so far, with plans for the remaining money to include accelerating the opening of new stores, renovating existing locations and continuing to develop new store formats and concepts.

Bank said the company has been happy with how its new stores are performing.

“As they mature, we’re seeing strong double-digit same- store sales growth. That gives us confidence in our expansion strategy and in continuing to invest behind the formats customers are choosing,” he said.

Loblaw’s grocery expansion has been focused on its No Frills and Maxi banners.

Grocers have been expanding their discount footprint across Canada since 2023 as shoppers have been grappling with food inflation coming out of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, pharmacy and health-care services have been projected to grow significantly, partly led by sales of generic weight-loss drugs.

Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. ATD-T +0.97%increase tallied a fifth straight quarter of same-store sales growth in the United States over the summer, maintaining positive momentum in its biggest market as it works to expand its footprint in Europe with an US$8.7-billion deal for Polish retailer Zabka Group SA.

The Laval, Que.-based company, which owns the Circle K chain, on Tuesday published results for the first quarter of the company’s fiscal 2027, ended July 19. It included a 1.7-per-cent year-over-year increase in merchandise sales at comparable U.S. stores. Energy drinks and nicotine products performed particularly well, and the company is taking market share from rivals, it said.

Couche-Tard grows U.S. gas station profits during Middle East war

“We are encouraged by the start to fiscal 2027 and the continued progress we are making” with our strategy, Couche-Tard chief executive officer Alex Miller said in the release.

However, the sales increase isn’t as strong as in previous quarters. And analysts had warned that a sequential slowdown was coming based on the recent performance of some competitors, such as ARKO and Murphy USA.

Overall, net profit came in at US$828.5-million or US$0.90 per diluted share on total revenue of US$21.7-billion for the period, improving on the US$782.5-million during the same quarter last year, Couche-Tard said in a release after market close. The company reports in U.S. dollars.

On an adjusted basis, net earnings were US$827-million or US$0.90 per share. That’s roughly in line with the US$0.89 analysts were expecting. The company sold less gasoline overall but boosted its fuel gross margin in the U.S. and Canada.

After a solid trajectory of profit growth over the past two decades, Couche-Tard’s business has come under pressure more recently as consumers slash their spending to deal with higher levels of debt as well as inflation. Global conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere has added to those worries and industry observers are analyzing whether it will lead to any lasting change in consumer behaviour.

Mr. Miller and his team are trying to make Circle K’s offerings more attractive in response, launching meal deals priced from US$3 to US$6 in the United States and offering rebates on gasoline on certain days in a bid to build customer loyalty. The company has said it expects it can generate year-over-year adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 10 per cent or more from fiscal 2026 through 2030.

While the 15-per-cent EPS growth for the latest quarter is higher than that, “these results may raise questions,” Stifel analyst Martin Landry said in a research note published late Tuesday. “We believe that investors will focus on the deceleration of merchandise same-store-sales growth and the health of the U.S. consumer.”

Couche-Tard launches tender offer for all shares of Polish retailer Zabka

Couche-Tard announced in late July that it is making a multibillion-dollar takeover play for Poland’s Zabka, widening its footprint in Europe with a major push in one of the continent’s fastest-growing economies. Owners of about 57 per cent of Zabka stock are backing the deal and have signed agreements to tender their shares, Couche-Tard said.

The purchase still needs approval by European, Polish, and Romanian regulators, including clearance by the European Commission under the European Union’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

It’s the Canadian company’s biggest acquisition to date, further cementing its position in a key part of the world against global rival 7-Eleven. It’s also one of its most unique acquisitions as it takes control of a dominant, technology-powered retailer that could transform the way Circle K operates in other countries.

Couche-Tard has since launched a voluntary tender offer for Zabka at a price of 32 Polish zloty or about US$8.48 a share. That’s a premium of about 9.4 per cent from Zabka’s closing stock price the day before the offer was announced.

Analyst Janusz Pieta at mBank is among those who have argued that Couche-Tard’s offer is too low, raising the possibility that there could be shareholder pressure for better terms. But Couche-Tard’s chief financial officer Filipe Da Silva told The Globe and Mail it’s “already very attractive.”

https://www.thenewsforum.ca/series/stephenledrew?wix-vod-video-id=BmNS315CkkY&wix-vod-comp-id=comp-mrpslmqg

• TSX Composite: 36,553.92, −280.33 (−0.76%)
• Gold Dec futures: $4,529.9, −$134.1 (−2.88%) — same print Reuters used
• WTI settle: $83.40, −$0.13 (−0.16%)
• Capped indexes in the screenshot: confirmed for tech 324.49 (−1.17%) and discretionary 395.46 (+0.45%). Materials ETF XMA −2.78% lines up with TTMT −2.80%.

Gold / Materials — confirmed
Warsh at Jackson Hole: inflation not improving enough, 2% PCE is a “firm, fixed” target, Fed “has work to do.” Sept hike odds moved from ~35–36% to ~55–60% (sources differ inside that band; I over-specified 58–60%). Dollar up, gold sold. Materials followed gold miners. Extra fact I underweighted: some of the worst Composite names were uranium (Denison −7.1%, NexGen −7.0%, Energy Fuels −6.5%), not only gold. Baystreet miner prints (Eldorado ~−5.7%, Torex ~−5.2%, AbraSilver ~−6%) are recap figures, not exchange official lasts.

Energy / oil — confirmed, nuance added
Friday oil move was tiny. The weekly WTI drop was the real story (~−4% from $87.06 the prior Friday). Driver: Hormuz risk premium fading (Oman–Iran corridor talk + uneven but recovering Gulf flows). Energy index −1.0% is larger than WTI −0.16%, so it was oil + risk-off in producers, not a one-for-one oil print. Spartan Delta ~−4% is a recap, not independently verified here.

Tech — corrected
Keel on TSX: $4.49, −7.80% (Nasdaq KEEL was −8.26% to $3.22). I had rounded that to “~8%.” Company-specific: Q2 revenue halved, still pre-lease on the 2.2 GW AI/data-centre conversion. That, plus weaker U.S. chip/AI-infra tape, explains most of TTTK −1.17%. Celestica ~−5.5% was a secondary recap — treat as unverified.

Financials / discretionary — holds
Banks bid enough to leave TTFS +0.16% after earnings week + the GDP print. Discretionary +0.45% confirmed. Baystreet: Canadian Tire +$1.81 to $190.32, Magna +$0.73 to $91.77 — consistent with the sector, still recap-level.

Staples / industrials / healthcare / nat gas
No better single-name catalyst found. Small moves. Treat as tape/rotation, not a headline. Nat gas $2.888 (−0.89%) matches the screenshot and a weekly desk table; no separate gas shock.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2537604700000084

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2537604700000084

DO NOT TRUST CANADA’S LIBERAL MEDIA!

It is not about POLITICS…Its about PROTECTING your hard EARNED savings!