Empire Company is putting a Vancouver warehouse project on hold as the grocer decelerates its online business expansion to focus more on physical stores.

Stellarton, N.S.-based Empire is the parent company of the Sobeys grocery store chain, a wholly owned subsidiary, and owns its related real estate. The Farm Boy, FreshCo and Voilà grocery store brands also fall under Empire’s ownership.

The Vancouver warehouse is slated to be the fourth warehouse developed by Stellarton, N.S.-based Empire across the country to serve online customers through the company’s Voilà delivery service. The fulfillment centres are in the Toronto and Montreal areas and Rocky View County, Alta.

“We continue to look at every opportunity to improve our overall profitability and each Voilà [customer fulfillment centre] takes time to become profitable; as a result, we will pause the opening of our fourth customer fulfillment centre in Vancouver, allowing us to focus on driving performance and volume in our three active CFCs,” said Michael Medline, Empire’s, president and CEO, in a news release.

Online grocery sales, and corresponding demand for fulfillment have tapered since a pandemic-induced boom, he told analysts and reporters during a conference call about the company’s latest quarterly earnings.

“So we’re losing more money than we had initially estimated, and this is actually masking the strength of our bricks-and-mortar business,” he said.

In a related move, Empire is ending its exclusive partnership with technology firm Ocada Group.

Empire previously announced $775 million planned capital investments, to upgrade existing stores and open new ones, in the latest fiscal year that ended as the quarter closed. But Empire said a land parcel acquisition increased the expected CAPEX to $885 million.

Empire had said previously that the land deal could boost the investment total.

“The land is being acquired for a potential future development,” said Empire in its previous quarterly report.

Details on the land’s location were not disclosed.