Safeway (FRA:SWY) Risk Assessment

Safeway Inc was incorporated in the state of Delaware in July 1986 as SSI Holdings Corporation and, thereafter, its name was changed to Safeway Stores, Incorporated. In February 1990, the Company changed its name to Safeway Inc. The Company is a food and drug retailers in the United States, with 1,335 stores at year-end 2013. The Company's U.S. retail operations are located principally in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Arizona, Texas and the Mid-Atlantic region. The Company also has a network of distribution, manufacturing and food-processing facilities. The Company retail business operates into seven geographic retail operating segments; Denver, Eastern, Northern California, Phoenix, Northwest, Texas and Southern California. In all geographical retail operating segments, it operates one store format, where each store offers the same general mix of products with similar pricing to similar categories of customers. The Company does not operate supercenters, warehouse formats, combination clothing/grocery stores or discount stores. It owns and operates GroceryWorks.com Operating Company, LLC ("GroceryWorks"), an online grocery channel doing business under the names Safeway.com and Vons.com. Safeway's stores provide grocery items tailored to local preferences. Its stores offer a selection of food and general merchandise and feature a variety of specialty departments such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy. In addition, its stores offer Starbucks coffee shops and adjacent fuel centers. The Company also owns more than 300 other trademarks registered and/or pending in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and other jurisdictions, including trademarks for its product and services such as Safeway, Safeway SELECT, Rancher's Reserve, O Organics, Lucerne, Primo Taglio, Eating Right, mom to mom, waterfront BISTRO, Bright Green, Pantry Essentials, Open Nature, Refreshe, Snack Artist, Signature Café, Priority, just for U, My Simple Nutrition, Ingredients for Life, and other trademarks such as Pak'N Save Foods, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, and Carrs Quality Centers. Blackhawk, a subsidiary of Safeway, provides third-party gift cards, prepaid cards, telecom cards and sports and entertainment cards to a group of top North American retailers for sale to retail customers. The competitive factors that affect the Company's business are location, quality, price, condition of assets, marketing and promotional strategies, service and consumer loyalty to other brands and stores. It faces intense competition from traditional grocery retailers, non-traditional competitors such as supercenters and club stores, as well as from specialty supermarkets, drug stores, dollar stores, convenience stores and restaurants. The Company's compliance with the federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations have been adopted regulating the discharge of materials into the environment or otherwise related to the p