ISTOCK
Last year the company sold one of
its businesses, consisting of seven
terminals and a gas pipeline, for $267
million. That transaction, combined
with lower natural gas prices and
demand overall, led to a $364-million
decline in revenue. Altogether the
sale of Empress
NGL, which gener-
ates propane, butane and ethane (all
byproducts of natural gas), accounted
for 38 per cent of the drop in revenue.
Last September, Westcoast's owner,
Houston-based Spectra Ener†y Corp.,
announced a US$28-billion merger
with Calgary-headquartered Enbridge
Inc. The deal's completion in Febru-
ary leaves Enbridge the owner of a
network of gas storage, transmission
and distribution facilities that connect
the gas Želds of northwestern B.C. with
the North American grid.
Best Buy Canada Ltd.
REVENUE CHANGE: –38.2%
NET INCOME: NA
NET INCOME CHANGE: NA
One evening in March 2015, U.S.
retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. perma-
nently shuttered 66 of its Future
Shop–branded stores in Canada with
little notice or fanfare. The com-
pany temporarily closed another 65
locations to rebrand them as Best
Buy outlets. It was an abrupt end to
B.C.–grown Future Shop and an e˜ort
to save the retailer's Burnaby-based
Canadian division. With fewer stores,
sales dropped substantially in 2016.
International revenue fell by 26.2 per
cent from 2015 to 2016 (84 per cent
of Best Buy's ™oor space outside the
U.S. is in Canada) as the company also
faced a hike in the costs of lease exits,
employee termination beneŽts and
inventory writedowns. In early 2015,
94 BCBUSINESS JULY 2017
