Ultra Food & Drug

Ultra Food & Drug was a supermarket and drug store chain in Ontario, Canada.

It was begun in the 1980s as Miracle Ultra Mart, and was an attempt by the Miracle Mart department store and Miracle Food Mart supermarket chains to expand. Both chains were owned by Steinberg's Stores, a Quebec-based supermarket chain.

When Steinberg's Ontario operations were acquired by A&P Canada, the Miracle Mart and Miracle Food Mart stores were closed or converted to A&P Canada's "A&P" and "Dominion" banners. A&P Canada continued the banner as Ultra Mart before changing its name to Ultra Food & Drug.

Ultra Food & Drug returned to ownership by a Quebec company in 2006 when A&P Canada was acquired by Metro Inc. Up and until this date, A&P Canada had left the Ultra Food&Drug banner alone. It was well noted in the communities of the Ultra stores that A&P owned and operated the Ultra stores. Many customers who had grown up in the Toronto area were familiar with and happy to shop at Dominion stores. The relationship between the A&P, Dominion and Ultra banners remained strong and customers came to expect the same experience when visiting any of the three banners. Many customers who would travel to other areas of Ontario from Toronto would notice the similar design and branding as the Dominion stores. The Ultra banners were primarily found outside of the GTA, specifically in Guelph, Oakville/Burlington as well as some North Eastern Ontario cities such as Belleville, Ontario. The Ultra banner store sales were a significant portion of A&P Canada's revenues, and the stores seemed to "survive on their own," with little management.

Although many of the Ultra stores had "above average store sales," some of the Ultra stores were known to outperform many of the A&P and Dominion stores, primarily the Ultra Food&Drug store located at Stone Road and Edinburgh in Guelph. The Guelph Ultra store was known by many at A&P's head office as being a market leader. The Guelph store had fierce competition from Zehrs Markets, a division of Loblaws, Inc. The Ultra store opened in Guelph on February 13th 1997and maintained a healthy market share, primarily because of the noticeable customer service over their competitors. Guelph's store employed a number of high school and University of Guelph students that took on customer service head-on under the leadership of the store manager. Many of these students were allotted power and authorization not seen in any of A&P's other stores. This focus on customer service was initially seen as critical in order to make the store successful. While customer service was critical to the success of the Guelph store, the store was also well known for being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - something no other grocer in the city of Guelph offered. The Guelph store was also seen regularly participating in local community events such as the Santa Clause Parade, Guelph's July 1st celebrations at Riverside Park, Heart and Strokes Big Bike event (a bicycle built for 30 people) as well as 365 days a year bin drop off for the Guelph Food Bank.

On August 7, 2008, Metro announced it will invest $200 million consolidating the company's conventional food stores under the Metro banner. Over a period of 15 months, all Dominion, A&P, Loeb, the Barn and Ultra banners are to be converted to the Metro name. Food Basics stores will not be affected because they compete in the discount food segment. As of November 14, 2008 the three remaining Ultra Food & Drug's were converted into Metro stores, including the Guelph store.