Canadian Retailer - Summer 2014 - 11

Kevin Lund: How are you meeting the
health and wellness needs of today's
conscientious consumer? And, have you
changed the way you do business to meet
these needs?
Mimmo Franzone: We've adapted and
continued to adapt to what the consumer
wants. We've always provided freshness.
Now the consumer is time starved. So,
we've introduced a fresh bar, which
includes freshly prepared fruits and
vegetables. Now the consumer doesn't
need to pick a stock of celery, they can
buy an in-store produced package which
is washed and diced celery. We also
have soup kits and stir fry kits with fresh
ingredients all done in-house. And, we
also offer freshly squeezed juice. On the
fresh bar side, all of the offerings are
available in an organic state as well.
John Charleson: Our brand has been
focussed on health and wellness from its
beginning. And from a health and wellness
point of view, the store was always ahead of
its time. It's what we specialize in. Nature's
Emporium has basically done whatever
the customer's wanted. We have a lot of
staff on the ﬂoor, a very educated staff who
is always engaging with our customers.
They talk about the trends and fads. This
helps keep customer and retailer informed.
Based on these conversations we can place
orders on request, which we're happy to do
for the consumer.
Les Mann: We listen to what our
customers have to say, holding regular
focus group sessions with customers and
by doing a lot of market insight research.
We get a lot of data in terms of who our
customers are and what they're looking
for. Then it's our job to meet the needs of
the customer, whether it's through product
or information. We also include our
pharmacy operations when we talk about
health and wellness. We look at ourselves
as a one-stop shop for the customer
offering everything they need from a
health and wellness point of view.

Grant Froese: You really can't be in the food business
without focusing on health, and you can't be in the
health business without also focusing on food. So, we're
doing a lot of both these days, particularly with our
acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart. We're committed to
helping Canadians live life well, which includes better
access to fresh foods, pharmacy services, our expanding
dietician programs and so on. Combined, Loblaw and
Shoppers Drug Mart can better deliver nutritious
foods, pharmaceutical services, and community health
programs-around issues like diabetes, blood pressure,
and nutrition. In addition, our PC team has made really
meaningful commitments and progress around things
like reducing sodium content and removing artiﬁcial
colours and ﬂavours.
KL: What are you doing to ensure that you're meeting
food safety requirements today and the related
demands of today's consumer?
LM: All of our vendors have to be global food safety
accredited. And then we do audits. We audit all of our
vendors to ensure that they're meeting those standards
and Walmart's standards. We also have a third party who
trains our management regarding food safety. All of our
department managers are trained by a third party, and
then all of our people that work on the ﬂoor are trained by
those who are accredited by the third party accreditation.
We're doing everything that we know to do in terms
of food safety. We also have regular inspections of our
stores to ensure that our program is in place.
JC: It's about having that culture and discipline within
your team to make sure that they buy into and do the
things required to ensure food safety. You're relying on
your suppliers to get you a safe product safely, but you're
the last piece of the chain. You have that trust and reliance
on those behind you in the chain, but if the customer buys
something from you, they're going to come back to you if
there's a problem. Keeping your staff educated in terms of
practices they should be following and then holding them
accountable to follow those practices is the best way to
ensure safety for our consumers.
MF: It's really important. It's on the employee onboarding
schedule and is mandated right from the start that all of
our employees understand the importance of food safety
and the proper processes to follow to ensure it. Our risk
management teams are also present at all meetings, and
we work with our vendors to make sure that their practices
are up to standard. We're visiting our small farms and
production facilities on a constant basis as well.

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Canadian Retailer - Summer 2014

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