TORONTO -- Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. overcame a number of negative factors to grow its profit in its fourth quarter, including lower prices for the gasoline it sells and unusually warm weather that depressed sales of some seasonal products, especially at its Mark's clothing chain.
The Toronto-based company (TSX:CTC) had $241.5 million or $3.01 per share of net income in the quarter ended Jan. 2.
That was up about 17 per cent from $206.6 million or $2.44 per share a year earlier, when several expenses were higher.
Its retail revenue fell 7.4 per cent to $3.38 billion from $3.65 billion, but that was partly due to one less week of selling in the latest quarter and also because of the warm weather, the downturn in the Alberta economy and lower gasoline prices.
Excluding petroleum sales, Canadian Tire's overall revenue was $3 billion -- down 5.8 per cent from a year earlier.
Same-store sales at Mark's were down 5.2 per cent and down 0.4 per cent at FGL Sports overall, although up 1.6 per cent at the Sport Chek stores. Canadian Tire same-store sales were up 2.0 per cent from the year-earlier quarter.
For the full year ended Jan. 2, 2016, the company had $735.9 million of net income, up from $639.3 million in fiscal 2015. Revenue was $12.3 billion, down from $12.5 billion.
