Dollarama earnings show most sales now priced at $1.25 and up

Almost 60 per cent of everything sold at Dollarama last quarter was priced at $1.25 and up, and the retail chain says it will use that and not theloonieas a reference pointfrom now on.

The Montreal-based discount chain said its sales rose 13 per cent last quarter to$664.5 million.

Profit came in at just over $100 million, but the chain said the positive financial result belies the impact of the weak Canadian dollar, making it tougher to do business on razor-thin margins.

The company, which originally sold virtually everything for $1, has had to slowly increase prices to address the lower value of the loonie, because Dollarama rakes in sales in Canadian dollars, but pays most of its expenses in U.S. dollars when it imports goods.

Last quarter,59.7 per cent of sales came from prices above $1.25, up from 54.1 per cent a year ago.

The company says it will now use $1.25 as its benchmark.

"Effective this quarter, the corporation is reporting this metric using the $1.25 price point as the reference instead of the $1price point," Dollaramasaid in a release early Wednesday.

The company says it will maintain its dividend of$0.09 per common share.