Annual General Meeting Transcript - DLMAY 2026-06-11

Speaker 2

Okay. Bonjour, mesdames et messieurs.

Speaker 6

Welcome to our 2026 AGM. I'm Steve Gumm. I am the chairman of the board of directors. With me this morning, we have Neil Rossi, Patrick Buick, CFO, and Laurence Labbé, Senior Vice-President, Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary.

Speaker 2

I would also like to welcome the other members of the Board of Directors, as well as the Director nominees who are present today. was another important year for dollarama despite a challenging macro environment the corporation delivered profitable growth and created shareholder value through disciplined execution of its long-term strategy capital continued to be deployed thoughtfully to support growth across our business and to return value to shareholders through ongoing share buybacks and quarterly dividends. One of the board's key responsibilities is to provide oversight and strategic guidance as management pursues the corporation's growth and international expansion strategy. Fiscal 2026 was a milestone year on that front. In Canada, we continue to strengthen and grow our core business, which serves as the foundation for Dollarama's long-term ambitions. That included expanding our store network and progressing towards a two-node distribution model in Canada, with the construction of a new logistics hub underway in western Canada. Internationally, Dollar City entered its fifth Latin American market with the opening of its first stores in Mexico. During the year, certain members of the board also travelled to Mexico to meet with local management and observe operations firsthand, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term opportunity in that market. Acquisition of a discount retail chain in Australia established a second international growth platform for Dollarama. This marked our first new market entry through acquisition of an existing business. The Board remained closely engaged throughout these developments with a focus on disciplined execution, long-term value creation, and prudent oversight. We're mindful that our complementary growth platforms each bring their own characteristics, and we're confident in the plans in place to support their continued development. In fiscal 2026, the board also focused on strong governance practices and director renewal. At this year's meeting, we're very pleased to propose two new independent director nominees, Horatio Barbato and Cord Carruthers. Horatio, or IO, is president and chief executive officer of Old Navy and brings more than 30 years of international retail leadership experience across merchandising, supply chain, and store operations. Cort is Vice Chair of Tricor Braun and is a seasoned global executive and board leader with extensive experience in growth strategy, operational excellence, and large-scale distribution and logistics businesses. Both bring highly relevant expertise, leadership, and fresh perspectives that will complement the existing strengths of your board. To make way for this board renewal, long-serving directors Greg David and Nicholas Namikos, as well as Thekla Sweeney, will not stand for re-election. On behalf of the corporation and the board, I'd like to sincerely thank them for their years of dedication and valuable contributions to Dollarama's success. With this refresh, your proposed board of directors represents a balance of shorter, mid, and longer-tenured directors with a strong and diverse mix of backgrounds, experience, and skills. Eight of the nine director nominees, myself included, are independent of management. All board committees are chaired by and composed exclusively of independent directors. I can assure you that we exercise our oversight responsibilities on your behalf with the utmost rigor and integrity. En conclusion, j'aimerais remercier les membres du...

Speaker 6

In conclusion, I would like to thank our employees, directors, and other cities for their execution and engagement all over the years. To our shareholders, thank you once again for your confidence and support.

Speaker 2

And to proceed with the formal items of business on the agenda today. Laurence, over to you.

Laurence Labbé, Other

Merci Steve. Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs. L'Assemblée est maintenant ouverte. Thank you Steve.

Speaker 6

The meeting is now open with the permission of the Chairman. I name Pina Pacifico and Teresa De Luca for computer share of scrutineers. The items on the agenda are described in the management proxy. Circular was made available to shareholders prior to the meeting. After the formal portion of the meeting, Neil Rossi and Patrick Bue will give an overview of Dollaramas activities. We'll respond to questions in both languages. First, as part of the formal portion of the meeting, we'll answer any questions related to the agenda. If you are a registered shale holder or proxy holder and you have a question, please raise your hand at the appropriate time and we'll bring you a microphone. Please identify yourself and show the card that was provided to you at the time of registration. Second, we'll answer questions from registered shaleholders and proxy holders regarding the activities of the corporation following management's presentation at the end of the meeting. So, we sent relevant documents to shaleholders, including management proxy, circular annual management discussion analysis, the consolidated financial statements, and the auditor's report for the fiscal year, ended February 1st, 2026, so shareholders received a copy of the notice of annual meeting and of available materials, a voting instruction form, and a form of proxy as applicable. Dalam Rama's bylaws provide that a quorum is present at a meeting of shareholders if the holders of no less than 10 percent of the shares entitled to vote of the meeting of present in person or represented by proxy and at least two person entitled to vote at the meeting or press sentence so we've established that we have quorum well above it so i declare this meeting regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of all business for which it was called the scrutineers report on quorum will be tabled later and will form part of the records of the meeting. Before we proceed, I would like to briefly comment on voting procedures. Each share confers upon its holder one vote on all matters to come before the meeting. Registered shareholders and proxy holders who have not previously provided us with their proxies have received this morning a first ballot for the motion to elect the directors of Dalai rama and a second ballot for the four shareholders proposal put to vote today the other items of business today will be decided by a show of hands unless a ballot is requested the final scrutineers report will be available for consultation following the close of the meeting finally certain shareholders and duty appointed proxy holders have agreed in advance to propose and second emotions and i'll invite them to do so at the right time the first item on the agenda pertains to the reception of the financial statements of the corporation for the fiscal year ended february 1st 2026 and the auditor's report a copy was mailed to those who requested one as shareholders have had the opportunity to review the financial statements and the auditor's report and no vote is required. I'll include them in the minutes. Next is the election of Dollarama's directors, our management proxy. Circles sets out the profile of each of the nine. They are Hayao Barbado, Joshua Birkinson, Cord Caruta, Lisa Garcia, Steve Gunn, Kristen McFord, Neil Rossi, Samira Sakya and Hugh Thomas. I will now ask that Nicola Hien move to elect each of the nominees as directors of Della Roma to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until successor is duly elected or appointed on the otherwise cease to hold office. I did not hear what Nicola said, but she asked if someone wants to second. I'm sorry, I can't hear the comments if don't speak in a microphone thank you milani each nominee has confirmed that he or she is prepared to serve as director of dollarama and meets all requirements under dollar run as by laws are there any questions with respect to the election of directors so registered shareholders and proxy holders entitled to vote and that have not yet received their right to vote have received a ballot regarding the election of directors if you wish to change your previous vote raise your hand and a scrutineer will provide you with a new ballot i now invite registered shareholders and proxy holders to record their vote you can vote for or against each individual nominees you must sign your ballot and print your name below your signature in order to assist the scrutineers and their identification of ballots so when you finish please raise your hand and will collect the ballots. Are there any ballots to be collected? Okay, so I can, everything was picked up. Okay, great. Next on the agenda is the appointment of the auditor of the corporation for the incident year and the authorization of the director to fix its remuneration. Private House Cooper's representatives are here. Nicole Hien has a motion in this regard. I cannot hear Nicola. Please speak in the microphone. I cannot hear Nicola. Thank you, Nicola. Does someone want to second this motion? Thank you, Melanie. And I put the motion to the meeting. Are there any questions relevant to appointment of the auditor? Thank you. Based on the proxies received from shareholders, we have 87.9% in favor so we propose to raise hands to vote vote by show of hands if you're in favor please raise your hand so we actually already picked up the ballots we can go to the next point about the remuneration of management executive The executive compensation board is explained in the proxy circle. The human resource and compensation committee of the board of directors spend considerable time and effort overseeing the corporation's executive compensation program and are satisfied that the policies and programs in place are based on fundamental principles of pay-for-performance aimed at aligning the interests of senior executives with those of shareholders and reflected competitive markets. This approach allows the corporation to attract, retain, and motivate high-performing executives who are incentivized to increase business performance and generate sustainable shareholder value. Any questions relevant to this, say, on pay resolution? So shareholders could vote for or against this. Know that the Human Resources and Compensation Committee and the Board of Directors will analyze the results of the vote and, as appropriate, will take them into account when reviewing executive compensation policies and programs. May I ask Nicolas for a motion to approve the say on pay advisory resolution? I so moved. Thank you. Someone to second. Thank you, Melanie. So based on the proxies received from shareholders, if a ballot has more than 93% of shares, we don't have to do a vote by show of hands. next on the motions so the text is on schedule B so so the first proposal requests that Dollarama take measures to strengthen shareholder participation in

Speaker 7

annual general meetings I would like to invite Mr. Willy Gagnon to present the proposal on behalf of the MEDAC you have the floor Mr. Gagnon thank you Hello, I am here for the MEDAC as per usual. This is in defense of shareholders. It's been in existence for 30 years. I've been there for 20 years. And actually, I'm not sure that we've been doing such proposals in the last 20 years. Okay, but we've been here for a long time. So we are submitting this year four proposals, one that is new. It was sent to all our portfolio corporations in three proposals that we'd already submitted in the past. The new proposal was about reinforcing participation of shareholders in annual general assembly. Last year, there was not quorum for the first time of my whole career. I know it's happened before, but we hadn't seen us on our side in the corporations in our portfolio. So this raised the following question, the reasons for which such things unfold. And so we have articulated a proposal with various measures to make sure that this would not happen anymore. And the measures are designed to characterize the various hypotheses that we have in place. and we were wondering if there were systemic reasons that could lead to this default in the quorum. This morning, we are at 10%, and we would like to know the participation rate. In actual fact, the minimal is 10%, but we're at 77.3%. Well, that's wonderful and big. In short, we would have been open as to not require a vote on this proposal. However, the grid at point four, you have accepted. This is a grid that would allow to see at a glance if the participation rate is increasing or decreasing as years unfold. This information is available, it exists, but it is hard to find. And we would wish that the data in this grid be ventilated, weighted according to the different types of shareholders, such as produced by Broadbridge. And this is for Canadian corporations in general. The data does exist, but it is very difficult for shareholders to get a hold of them and have them in a grid. It would be much easier if Dollarama did so. So, we may be back with this point because it is the most useful and the least expensive. Of course, we have not gotten a lot of support with regards to this proposal throughout the different corporations where it has been suggested, and perhaps it won't completely unfold. But in our opinion, it is valuable. And we had three other proposals concerning your policies with regards to waste. Do you have such a policy? And how is it articulated? And we had 20% of support with this proposal in the past, and we are bringing it to the table again. Now, to be able to be here in person is wonderful. It is at the same place as it has been held before. We are close to your offices, and it is very beneficial to be able to speak to you in person and to be able to see who is in the room, to see who is waiting to ask questions. So there are many benefits to be in person, so we are happy about this. We would have wished that you maintain them in the future, and this is a point where there has been conflicting sides and perhaps voting may be affected by this in-person meeting but let me say that we are not the only ones to desire this and we are happy to see you and we invite shareholders to support this proposal. We may not suggest it again next year And we also would like a consulting-type vote on environmental issues. Now, it's a little difficult to look at my notes and speak to you at the same time. Forgive me. So, interactions with shareholders that you have are more efficient when they have disclosure of information with investors, with shareholders, give in direct dialogue in comparison to consultative votes so we suggest that consulting type vote replace the relationships you currently have with shareholders on such issues so we want the vote to be added to existing relationships and this would not prevent you to continue with such relationships It is not possible for a corporation to contact each of its shareholders. There are too many. The only way to do so is to have a vote during the assembly. So our desire is to add a new tool to this effect. We don't want to take anything away from what you've already implemented. So we are surprised by your reply. And we would have hoped that this argument not be there because we reject it. and we invite shareholders to support us. 11% of the votes were in approval of this last year. Thank you for the time to listen to us and looking forward to further discussions with you all. Well, thank you, Mr. Gagnon. Are there questions in the room on one or another of the proposals that Mr. Gagnon has suggested? I'm Jacques Bouchard. Thank you, wholeheartedly, to allow the small shareholders to be here. We are grateful, definitely so. This allows to speak of you as an ordinary citizen. I will talk about this assembly with my family, who are all shareholders. So, our business, so to speak, even though we are a tiny percentage, well, I am in support of the MIDDAC proposals, which I believe are not breaks or obstacles to the management of the business. And so this being said, gratitude once again, and I hope that my biological clock will allow me to be here next year. Thank you. Thank you. Are there other questions relating to the proposals that have been set forth by the MEDAC this morning? Do you have a shareholder card? Wonderful.

Speaker 3

We are listening to you. i'm a shareholder i also i manage an investment portfolio but i also have a master's degree in education and i worked as 12 years as a teacher so the project that i'm working on is to try to encourage the younger generation let's say university students or even before to try to understand what's going on at shareholder meetings and to try to participate more in shareholder meetings and I'm trying to suggest that is it possible to simplify some of the paperwork NOBO or ROBO and when you send in your forms you have to make a copy of your control number there's a whole bunch of very simple things that the transfer agents could do to make it easier for the younger generation that's going to be inheriting this planet. So that's the area that I'm working on. I don't want to take up the time now, but I'm open to suggestions if anybody afterwards wants to speak with me about it. Thank you.

Laurence Labbé, Other

Thank you for your feedback.

Speaker 7

Are there other questions in the room regarding what the MEDAC has brought forth? Well, thank you. So, Monsieur Gagnon has presented the four proposals at once. So, what I will do is go through the answers with regards to said proposals, and they are included in the proposal that was sent to you. And so the recommendation was to vote against the MEDAC proposals with regards to number one on reinforcement of participation. We believe that many measures to simplify and maximize shareholder participation in annual meetings have already been implemented. and other measures didn't quite apply to our situation or perhaps required additional and important resources. So in our opinion, the cost of these new measures was not proportional to the benefits. And for this reason, we recommended that it be voted against. On proposal number two, which is the reduction of waste. Thank you for your question, Mr. Gagnon, and we also propose to vote against the adoption of policies with regards to reducing waste, and the main reason, as we had said last year, is that it is already integrated in our operational model. You will find information with regards to our environmental practices and management in this request in our LG reports, as well as in our public documents, which are periodically revised to show the evolution of our practices in these respects. So in our opinion, to have a specific policy is not required and does not present significant benefit for the shareholders. As for proposal number three, that is in-person annual assembly, thank you for your comments, Monsieur Gagnon. An important point is an engagement for the upcoming years in this respect, and perhaps we have not yet found a solution. In our opinion, it is important, yes, to have leeway so as to determine each year what is the most appropriate format while taking into account future feedback that we could receive in this regard. And so, this is obviously the object of discussions with shareholders throughout the year, and so we are engaged to continue to interact with them so as to receive their feedback as to assembly format for the future. As for the last proposal with regards to the consulting type vote on environmental practices, we also recommend that the vote be against. We believe that we are supervising the issues. We have oversight on them through governance and existing disclosure, namely disclosure with regards to ESG factors. And so, we support ongoing dialogue with shareholders on such questions, but in our opinion, it might be more difficult to exercise such feedback. Oh, excuse me. In other words, it's more efficient to do so through existing types of communication, such as direct communications. And so, we do not need to address this proposal in our opinion. So, I don't think we need to vote on each of them. We can go to the preliminary results of the vote. And I was informed this morning that according to the results we have received, the proposals were voted upon for each of the resolutions. So, the nine candidates have been elected until the next annual assembly or until they choose to be in this position. As for PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor that authorizes executive compensation was approved. As for compensation of higher management, also approved. And as for the proposals 1, 2, 3, 4 of the MEDAC have not obtained the majority. And so, since all topics have been submitted to the Assembly, I would like to suggest that we bring this portion to a close in a formal faction. I propose, does anybody second? So, if you are in favor of the proposal, please raise your hand. Thank you. I declare this adopted, and we have now closed this portion of the meeting. And we will now move to higher management presentation. There could be prospective declarations that are based on estimates and hypothesis. And the actual results of Dollarama may differ from what will have been declared. And so as a result, you should not rely on them. The presentation may also include certain financial information that are non-compliant, along with other financial measures. So, this should not be about measures of financial results. And to this effect, please look at the disclaimer, and that was put online this morning on internet. and more information with regards to risk and description of financial measures can be found there as well.

Speaker 6

Thank you for being here today. I'd like to speak of the last year and tell us about our perspective for the future. However, during fiscal year 2026, in a difficult context, we wanted to add value. The environment was difficult for the consumers and they relied on Dollarama for affordable goods and everyday convenience. This further strengthened our standing as a leading value retail destination in Canada. Fiscal 2026 was also a milestone year for our international expansion in Latin America. Dollar City entered Mexico, its fifth market entry, and mid-year we completed the acquisition of a discount chain in Australia ripe for transformation, establishing an additional international platform. These milestones reflect the strength of our core Canadian business, which fuels our global ambitions. It also reflects our confidence in the relevance of our value retail model across demographics and geographies. The Alam Rama's reach now extends across three continents and seven countries, with more than 2,800 stores and 43,000 employees serving customers every day. And we are growing in all markets. I want to recognize our employees across the globe and thank them for their contributions in 2026. Their continued efforts position will as well for the future. Now, our growth platform starting with Canada. In Canada, Dollarama has long established itself as a leading destination for consumers looking for value and convenience. Year after year, we continue to solidify this position by focusing on objectives such as delivering a reliable, compelling value proposition, maintaining proximity to our customers, and operating with discipline. From a product standpoint we want to offer canadians the best year-round value for each item we offer across our fixed price points and to remain true to our price follower philosophy these efforts have translated into approximately 8.7 million customers shopping at dollarama every week a number that continues to grow year after year. We increase accessibility to our affordable goods through proximity and the disciplined expansion of our national store network. Thanks to our presence in 10 provinces and 2 territories, approximately 85% of Canadians live within 10 kilometers of one of our stores. We are proud to be woven into the everyday lives of Canadian consumers. Earlier this year, Dollarama was ranked the number one most reputable brand in Canada in the 2026 Léger Reputation Study. We are so proud of this, and we share it with each member of our team. And we do not take this for granted. To support the growth of our Canadian business, we have pursued our disciplined and profitable growth throughout fiscal 2026. We generated another year of sustained sales and comparable store sales growth with all product categories contributing to driving customer traffic. We opened an exceptional number of 75 new stores, bringing our total store count to 1,691 stores across the country by the end of the year. We subsequently reached another milestone with the opening of our 1,700 location. For fiscal July 2027, we return to our historical pace and expect to open 60 to 70 net new stores across Canada. By the end of Q1, our store count stood at 1,719 stores. Our target remains to reach 2,200 locations by 2034, reflecting the opportunities we continue to see across Canadian markets and regions. We also made good progress over the last year advancing the construction of our future logistics hub in Western Canada. The new hub will be complementing our existing logistic operations located in the Montreal area and is on track to be operational by the end of 2027. Having a Our two-node model will support our long-term growth in Canada while also bringing added resilience to our logistics operations.

Neil Rossi, CEO

Year-over-year network and earnings growth, with its profitable growth trajectory continuing to mirror Dollarama's own. Dollar City once again opened 100 net new stores during the year, bringing the total network to more than 730 stores in Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador, and Mexico. Following Q1, Dollar City has 752 stores across all markets. A key milestone of fiscal 2026 was the opening of Dollar City's first stores in Mexico, where we hold an equity interest of 80.05%. This is compared to an equity interest of 60.1% in the business operating in Central and South America. While it is still early days, we are pleased by the team's execution and the initial customer reception in this fifth market of operation. Dollar City's long-term target remains 1,050 stores by 2031, excluding Mexico, and the business is well on track to achieving it. Remaining on the international front, fiscal 2026 marked the beginning of a new chapter for Dollarama with our entry into Australia through the acquisition of a local discount chain. At fiscal year end we had 402 stores supported by a team of 5,800 new colleagues providing us with an established platform for transformation and growth in this market. Since then we have begun laying the groundwork for our transformation plans of the business across three pillars, merchandising strategy, store experience and network growth, and operational excellence. This is a significant multi-year initiative aimed at optimizing and positioning the business for profitable long-term growth by deploying elements of the Dollarama business model. We have been working on introducing Dollarama imported products, and these are now just starting to hit shelves with a gradual ramp up over the coming quarters. We aim to complete 60 to 80 store renovations and to open 15 to 25 net new stores all with the Dollarama layout and shopping experience. Once a store feels like a Dollarama shop and reflects our value proposition through both the offering and shopping experience, we will convert it to the Dollarama banner. At the same In the meantime, we are strengthening IT infrastructure and looking at store processes, logistics to optimize operations and support our long-term growth objective. Our target is to grow our Australian network to approximately 700 stores by 2034. While there is a significant work ahead, we are confident in the long-term value creation opportunity in Australia. in our disciplined and thoughtful approach and in the strong local team executing that transformation.

Speaker 6

Patrick now will speak about our financial performance and future priorities regarding sustainable development. Thank you, Neil. 2026 went another great year for Dollarama in an operational point of view. We established our goal.

Speaker 7

Total sales have increased by 13.1% to $7.3 billion. sales include the contribution from Australia since July 2025, as well as a greater number of stores and comparable store sales of 4.2% in Canada. Diluted earnings per share rose by 13.7% year-over-year to $4.73. During the year, we also deployed capital in a disciplined manner, and under our normal course issuer bid, we repurchased approximately 4.4 million common shares for cancellation and this for a total consideration of approximately $834 million. Earlier this year, the board has also approved a 13.4% increase in the quarterly dividend to 12 cents per common share marking the 15th consecutive annual dividend increase since its introduction in 2011. This morning we released strong first quarter results with the strong start to the year in Canada, continued growth in Dollar City and early progress in Australia in the implementation of our multi-year transformation plan. Our Q1 financial results will be discussed in more detail during our 11 a.m. Eastern Time Earnings Conference call to be held shortly after today's meeting. We invite you to tune into the webcast, which can be accessed through our corporate website.

Speaker 1

May 26 was an important year in the continued evolution of Dalrama's ESG strategy and disclosures. In this year's ESG report, published this morning, we have focused on the areas where we made the most meaningful progress and which are most aligned with the topics of interest identified through stakeholder engagement. The last year was also a significant one in the advancement of our climate strategy following a rigorous review. This process included a detailed assessment of our store and logistics operations and existing initiatives as well as the careful assessment of more than a dozen potential decarbonization opportunities. To support our work, teams across the organization engage with technical experts, landlords, and other service providers to better understand operational constraints, investment requirements, and emissions reduction opportunities. This comprehensive process resulted in setting a new scope one and reduction target grounded in our operational reality and with a clear roadmap for the deployment of selected initiatives. By prioritizing proven and measurable initiatives, we established a credible and appropriately ambitious emissions intensity reduction target. We also established a solid framework to advance our scope 3 priorities over time with a focus on continued engagement and improving visibility into vendor climate practices. While the development of our new climate strategy has been a key area of focus, we have also advanced initiatives across our other priority ESG topics and goals, from product safety to talent, attraction, retention, and development. In our supply chain, we notably further enhance vendor oversight and engagement activities since last year in support of responsible sourcing practices.

Speaker 7

As always, we remain focused on ESG initiatives that are practical, meaningful, and aligned with our business strategy and long-term value creation objectives. Looking ahead, our priorities remain clear. In Canada, we will keep investing in new store growth and ensuring we have the right logistics infrastructure to support our long-term expansion plans. In Latin America, Dollar City will continue expanding its footprints across its markets in Central and South America while scaling operations in Mexico, which will continue to be funded by Dollar City's strong cash generation. And in Australia, we're focused on the execution of our multi-year transformation plan to position the business for profitable growth over the long term. Importantly, we remain committed to optimizing capital allocation to drive returns. We will continue to allocate capital in a balanced manner as we pursue our profitable growth in Canada and Latin America and as we deploy the transformation of our australian platform consistent with past practice we also intend to allocate the majority of excess cash towards value enhancing share buybacks and a dividend subject to quarterly approval while the broader macro economic and geopolitical environment remains uncertain the underlying fundamentals of our business are strong at a time when affordability remains top of mind for consumers, our value proposition is as relevant as ever in all markets. Through rigorous execution and thoughtful capital deployment, Dollarama is well positioned to continue generating long-term growth and value for its shareholders. On behalf of management, I would like to once again thank our employees across all markets for their continued dedication, our customers for their loyalty, and you, our shareholders, for your confidence and support. This thus concludes our presentation. Laurence and Steve, back to you for the question and answer period with shareholders. Well, thank you Patrick. We are now at the question period and as such we invite shareholders to ask questions in the language of their choice So you may raise your hand and wait for a microphone to be brought to you. Yes.

Speaker 3

In terms of operational excellence and supply chain management, what effort is the company making not only in Canada but in other jurisdictions to try to purchase products locally rather than having them come, let's say, from China? The question is, is there a strategic effort to try to purchase products that are closer to your stores rather than relying on, let's say, China as an example? Because my sense is the geopolitical risks that we face in the current environment, whether it's transportation or other risks that I can't think. So the question is, is there a real effort to try to identify in your supply chain suppliers that are closer to your stores or your distribution centers?

Neil Rossi, CEO

So the answer to that question is there is and has always been a concerted effort to buy goods domestically where it's possible from day one. and that continues to be the case both from a support perspective of our own you know vendors but also economically when we can do it it makes much more sense in certain scenarios for example plastic molding when you buy large plastic items from other countries the cost of transportation doesn't make any sense so a lot of our larger plastic items are molded right here in Montreal or in Toronto a lot of consumable products are domestic both Canada and the US so we we do when we can and unfortunately we're not really a huge low-cost manufacturing country so so there's a vast majority of our products that simply aren't manufactured in this country but where it's possible and the categories where it makes sense we always prioritize canada that is correct in every one of the countries in central america and and south america we do the very same and australia of

Speaker 7

course even more so since it's very far from everything thank you are there other questions my question is trivial and please correct me if i'm wrong i believe that you are foreseeing to eventually change the name of the Australian division? It's called the Reject Shop and it would be called Dollarama when you are ready to do so. Is this a strategy that is also existing in Latin America? And why deferring strategies according to geographical regions? Is it about not having the same brand and why? it's actually trivial really but this also implies costs that is to change banners i know of other corporations who talk about not changing the banners um let's think of kushtar that has several banners they didn't want to change banners because of cost reasons so what is it what is the situation at Dollarama it's not so much a question of costs in this case in Australia it's because we bought an existing business with its name and their name does not reflect our future so there will be a time when the Australian stores showcase our products as well as our values that will be the time to change the name as for dollar city this was a business that was created with a partner and in these markets we had no value attached to our own brand in these given markets and by starting with a brand that was similar with the same colors well we created value with the brand with these markets and now there is value attached to dollar city it's well recognized in these markets and we do not see a reason for changing the name for these south and central american markets thank you thank you are there other questions hello thank you for welcoming us I've been a shareholder from the beginning altogether and I'd like to congratulate you for solid management my question in the future and in stores where we don't find items above five dollars does it mean that in the future there will be such products that is of higher prices well thank you for the question the answer is we do not have a plan in this respect for now we are not seeking to increase our prices but it has been clear that for years if the cost of products has increased it means that cost increases for everybody actually And as such, the business must adjust to financial realities and let's think namely of inflation and other. Strategically speaking, our current plan, and perhaps for the longer term, is to have as few set prices as possible and to offer at the lowest possible price. but this does not mean there will not be adjustments if it it impacts the interest in our stores in other words our product portfolio is also at matter and when they are affected by costs this is where discussions come into play with regards to product offering and if we need to adjust prices it'll be on a case-per-case basis you know maybe it'll go to five to six to seven dollars but for 17 years we did not go above a dollar and then the world changed inflation was what it was and that's why five dollars is the max for now inaudible the more something is higher the more the returns are higher i don't think that is correct that's not true that our five products have a higher margin i think the test for us is to make sure that for every price point we

Speaker 6

offer the best value for the consumer you can't assume that a five dollar product equals more profit than a less expensive one thank you are there any other questions I think this concludes our question period thank you for being with us this morning it was a pleasure thank you