Delivering sustainable, double-digit earnings growth and creating
    customers for life remain key focus

    TORONTO, Oct. 3 /CNW/ - Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC, CTC.a) today
updated the investment community on its strategic direction for the 2008-2012
period.
    During an investor conference, Canadian Tire's management team outlined
its plans to build a bigger and better Canadian Tire through a continued focus
on growth and productivity.
    "We remain committed to our existing and successful growth strategies,
which are based primarily on network expansion, continuous renewal of our
store concepts and growth in Financial Services," said Tom Gauld, president
and CEO. "At the same time, we will increase our emphasis on productivity
enhancing initiatives to ensure long-term competitiveness and sustainable
double-digit earnings growth. This balanced approach will create an even
'bigger and better' Canadian Tire for our customers and our shareholders."

    A Bigger Canadian Tire

    Canadian Tire plans to pursue a number of avenues for growth over the
next five years, including:-   growth of each of its retail businesses through ongoing expansions
        and store upgrades. On average, the Corporation expects to introduce
        a total of between 60 and 70 new retailing outlets annually across
        Canadian Tire Retail (CTR), Mark's Work Wearhouse (Mark's),
        PartSource and Canadian Tire Petroleum (Petroleum);

    -   CTR is piloting a full-sized Mark's store inside a Canadian Tire
        store as a specialty department in Waterdown, Ontario and Dartmouth,
        Nova Scotia in stores that are expected to open this Fall. In 2008
        CTR, as part of its network expansion strategy, plans to test a new
        infill retailing concept in underserved markets featuring a product
        assortment tailored to the local market, a Mark's in every store and
        retail square footage of 18,000-20,000;

    -   growth of the CTR/PartSource cornerstone automotive business through
        the expansion of category assortments, investment in new technology
        infrastructure and the creation of a network of approximately 22
        PartSource hub stores across Canada to supply automotive hard parts
        on a same-day basis for up to 80 percent of CTR stores;

    -   continued expansion of Canadian Tire Financial Services' portfolio of
        high-margin, Canadian Tire-branded retail financial services,
        including new credit cards, balance transfers and credit line
        expansion. Financial Services will also continue to test its new high
        interest savings account, GICs, mortgages and One-and-Only Account
        banking products. During the conference, management indicated that
        results to date from the retail banking test markets have been
        encouraging and testing will continue through 2008; and,

    -   a broadened assortment of merchandise within the retail network with
        a specific focus on expanding the popular assortment of Mark's
        women's apparel.

    These initiatives are expected to result in store network growth of at
least 5 percent, averaged over five years, and retail revenue growth of 6 to 8
percent over the same time period.

    A Better Canadian Tire

    Canadian Tire plans to improve its overall productivity and customer
service levels by streamlining its operations and improving its organizational
structure. Plans include:

    -   leveraging the financial and operating benefits gained from the
        improved Dealer agreement including cost-sharing arrangements on
        marketing expenses, shared savings from store-based energy
        initiatives, and participation in the growth of Dealer profits.

    -   streamlining organizational structures and processes at CTR,
        Petroleum and PartSource through simplified business practices and a
        continuous focus on enhancing productivity;

    -   strengthening overall operational capabilities by investing in
        critical areas of the supply chain, automotive and technology
        infrastructure in order to deliver future productivity improvements
        across the retail businesses;

    -   continued expansion of the global sourcing program to support
        margins, competitive pricing and to access innovative products. AT
        CTR, these efforts will be supported by the development of automated
        marketing processes for pricing and inventory management controls;
        and,

    -   continued enhancements to Canadian Tire's customer service programs
        across each of the business units.These initiatives are expected to generate double digit earnings growth
over the next five years. In addition, the after-tax return on invested
capital (ROIC) is expected to exceed 10 percent over the outlook period.
    The estimated capital expenditures required to support the 2008-2012
initiatives is forecast to be in the range of $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion.
These expenditures will support continued expansion of Canadian Tire's various
retail store networks and financial services business, revitalization of the
core retail infrastructure, and improvements to overall productivity. Capital
expenditures will be funded through growing operating cash flows, multiple
sources of capital and committed lines of credit.
    During the conference, management indicated it has moved to a five-year
rolling strategic planning format so that it may provide the investing public
with ongoing visibility to its long-term outlook and growth plans.

    WEBCAST AND INVESTOR MATERIALS
    A live webcast of the Investor Conference will begin at approximately
8:30 a.m., Eastern Standard Time (EST), and can be accessed through Canadian
Tire's website at http://investor.relations.canadiantire.ca under the
"Webcasts" tab. Presentation material related to this conference will also be
available at this URL.

    Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (TSX: CTC.a, CTC), operates more than
1,100 general merchandise and apparel retail stores, gas stations and car
washes in an inter-related network of businesses engaged in retail, financial
services and petroleum. Canadian Tire Retail, Canada's most shopped general
merchandise retailer, with 468 stores operated by Associate Dealers across
Canada offers a unique mix of products and services through three specialty
categories in which the organization is the market leader - Automotive, Sports
and Leisure, and Home Products. www.canadiantire.ca offers Canadians the
opportunity to shop online. PartSource is an automotive parts specialty chain
with 67 stores designed to meet the needs of purchasers of automotive parts -
professional automotive installers and serious do-it-yourselfers. Canadian
Tire Petroleum is one of the country's largest and most productive independent
retailers of gasoline, operating 264 gas bars, 256 convenience stores and
kiosks, and 75 car washes. Mark's Work Wearhouse is one of the country's
leading apparel retailers operating 341 stores in Canada. Under the Clothes
that Work™ marketing strategy, Mark's sells apparel and footwear in work,
work-related, casual and active-wear categories, as well as health-care and
business-to-business apparel. www.marks.com offers Canadians the opportunity
to shop online. Canadian Tire Financial Services manages over 4 million
Canadian Tire MasterCard accounts and markets related financial products and
services for retail and petroleum customers. Canadians can also access
Financial Services online at www.ctfs.com. Over 50,000 Canadians work across
Canadian Tire's organization from coast-to-coast in the enterprise's retail,
financial services, and petroleum businesses.

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