Loblaw Cos. is aiming for a 10 per cent boost in earnings by cutting prices, offering more products and improving customer service, the company said Wednesday.

The grocery store chain, which has been struggling financially recently, said it wants to reach that target in three to five years.

"We are not delivering the right value for money and we are not getting the credit with the customer for the investments that we do make," executive chairman Galen Weston Jr. said Wednesday.

"We have insufficient distinctive formats, with poor availability and, in relative terms, we are still overpriced," he said during a meeting with analysts.

Weston said the company's goal is to boost its sales by five per cent.

Investors seemed unimpressed. Loblaw's share price dropped 29 cents to $48.13 in Toronto trading.

Earlier this month, Loblaw warned investors that its fourth-quarter results will suffer a big hit as the company takes a large impairment charge.

Loblaw said it will take a goodwill impairment charge of between $600 million and $900 million in the fourth quarter — a move that will trim between $2.18 and $3.28 a share from its quarterly and year-end results.

The company also said in late January it was cutting 1,000 office jobs.

Revamping hockey shrine

After years of speculation, the company also made the formal announcement to investors that it will develop a grocery store in downtown Toronto's famed Maple Leaf Gardens.

"This is an icon, just like Loblaws is an icon. I think it represents a huge evolution of what's happening to Loblaws, as well as what's happening in Toronto," said Galen Weston Sr.

The arena has been empty since the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club moved to the Air Canada Centre in 1999.

Weston Jr. said the company will begin to clean up the building this summer, with plans to reopen the doors in 22 months.