<p style="text-indent:0px; line-height:12px;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"> Montréal, Québec-</span><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">By ANUK Staff<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">01.29.13</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Metro, Inc has announced its 2013 First Quarter Financials. The company has reported sales in the first quarter of 2013 were up 2.7% from $2,632.6 million last year to $2,704.7 million. Same store sales increased by 1.5%. The first quarter for fiscal 2013 includes the sales for the week preceding Christmas whereas, in fiscal 2012, the sales for that week were included in the second quarter, according to a press release. EBITDA for the 2013 first quarter was up 4.8% from $179.5 million to $188.2 million. First-quarter EBITDA represents 7.0% of sales versus 6.8% last year.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Net earnings for the first quarter of 2013 increased 17.1% from $103.7 million to $121.4 million. Fully diluted net earnings per share rose 21.8% to $1.23 from $1.01 last year.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">“We are pleased with our 2013 first quarter results which were achieved in a challenging economic environment of very low food inflation, intensifying competition and cautious consumers. Our teams executed well on our business plans and we are confident that we can continue on our growth path in the coming quarters,” stated Eric R. La Flèche,<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">President and Chief Executive Officer.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">In other highlights, net earnings from continuing operations were up 11% from $103.6 million to $115.0 million for the first quarter of 2013. Fully diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations were up 14.9% from $1.01 to $1.16 for the first quarter of 2013. Gross margin as percentage of sales in the first quarter of 2013 was 18.7% versus 18.4% in the corresponding quarter last year. First quarter net financial costs increased from $10.1 million to $11.1 million in 2013.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://metro.ca/corpo/accueil.en.html" target="_new"> Metro, Inc. </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
