Irene Doody, Senior Vice President, Joe Fresh at Loblaw Companies Limited, joins Michael LeBlanc on The FEED powered by Loblaw podcast for a conversation recorded live and in person at the third annual Loblaw Supplier Summit, where close to 2,500 suppliers and Loblaw leaders gathered at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre around partnership, value, innovation and trust.

Ask her what business Joe Fresh is in, and the answer is all three: style, value and convenience. She frames the offer as essentials for real life — clothes that help customers feel put together and self-express, priced so the decision is easy. Blending affordability and style, she says, is an art: knowing exactly where to put cost into a garment. That's what matters to customers, and understanding where and why people actually wear the clothes.

In a market crowded with international competitors, Irene points to a consistent value proposition — essential style, exceptional value — plus two structural advantages: the Loblaw ecosystem and PC Optimum. 

She and Michael dig into how product discovery has been rewired, from flyers and mass media to social influencers, customer advocacy, and the store apparel managers who may be the brand's most credible voices.

Then Irene lays out the growth mandate: reigniting apparel at Loblaw, with an ambition to make Joe Fresh the number one destination for apparel in Canada. That means repositioning Joe Fresh to deliver even more value, adding national and licensed brands — yes, including Toronto Blue Jays — to fill white space and bring theatre back to the department, building out JoeFresh.com with virtual try-on and shop-the-look, and pushing accessibility everywhere: buy online pick up in store in more than 200 locations, and a DoorDash launch that made Joe Fresh the first apparel retailer in Canada on the platform. 

Add personalized PC Optimum offers and exclusive event invitations, and the three-year picture gets genuinely interesting.

Through it all, the roots hold: core essentials, real quality, and a definition of value that means the item is worth it. Style solutions, not runway trends. And above all, making it easy.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

Recorded live and in person at the third annual Loblaw Supplier Summit, this episode of The FEED powered by Loblaw brings you Joe Spano, Managing Partner and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Mucci Farms — one of North America's most deeply vertically integrated greenhouse growers.

Mucci Farms began as a small family farm in Kingsville, Ontario in the early 1960s, founded by Tony and Gino Mucci in the Leamington-Kingsville corridor that remains Canada's greenhouse hot spot. Joe joined nearly 29 years ago as employee number one of the sales and marketing company, and with his partners took the business through succession starting in 1999. Today Mucci supplies Loblaw with vine crops — beefsteak tomatoes, tomatoes on the vine, cucumbers in every format, lettuce and strawberries — from a controlled-environment operation that now includes a 105-acre indoor strawberry facility producing Canadian berries nearly twelve months a year, pesticide free and herbicide free. That project began as a challenge Loblaw brought to Mucci around 2015.

Joe is candid about what constrains greenhouse growth in Canada: the capital barrier to entry keeps rising, and power, utilities, labour and the border are what keep him up at night. On affordability, he reframes the conversation from cost to value, pointing to sell-through approaching 100 percent on beefsteak tomatoes and to strawberries that arrive fresh enough that consumers eat every berry in the punnet — less waste on shelf and less waste at home.

He also pulls back the curtain on something rare in agriculture: an in-house marketing team with graphic designers and printers, operating like an ad agency inside the building, working alongside global seed companies to trial and launch new varieties. Looking ahead, Mucci is trialling blackberries and raspberries, pushing further into leafy greens, and testing Asian vegetables including Asian eggplant and bok choy.

On winning a Loblaw vendor of the year award against much larger competitors, Joe credits a relationship spanning nearly three decades that has never felt transactional — joint trips to Holland to research strawberry varieties, calls at 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., and category teams that feel like family. His advice to suppliers is refreshingly plain: be patient, think like a customer, and look at the business from the retailer's point of view.

Joe closes on the long game — a new long-term ownership partnership with Cox Farms of Atlanta, part of Cox Enterprises, and a hope that greenhouse growing is remembered as a cornerstone of accessible Canadian food supply.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

There's a trophy on the table between us when this conversation starts, and that's the right place to begin. Recorded live and in person on stage at the third annual Loblaw Supplier Summit — the day at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre that brought close to 2,500 suppliers and Loblaw leaders together around partnership, value, innovation and trust — this episode of The FEED powered by Loblaw features Marcelo Braga, Co-Founder & Director of Frittos & Co., fresh off being named 2026 Small Supplier Partner of the Year. 

Marcelo arrived in Canada from Brazil in 2019 and settled in London, Ontario. He met his eventual business partner, Wallace Franca, through the local Brazilian community — and discovered that Wallace's father-in-law, an obstetrician back in Brazil, had delivered Marcelo's first daughter. That coincidence turned two families into one, and eventually into a company. 

The product is coxinha — the Brazilian chicken croquette that Marcelo calls the country's most popular snack — alongside cheese balls, churros filled with dulce de leche and chocolate, and a Canadian-facing line that includes pulled pork and pizza bites. The dough is the Brazilian part. The flavours are increasingly Canadian. What separates this story from most food startup stories is the sequencing. Marcelo and Wallace didn't begin at a farmers' market. 

They built a compliant incubator facility first, sorted GS1 packaging and nutrition facts before anyone asked, and then went looking for customers. So when a Real Canadian Superstore manager in Windsor flagged the product and Loblaw's local food program came to visit, the answer wasn't "give us six months." It was yes. As Marcelo puts it: be ready for the opportunity before the opportunity arrives. He closes with advice for food entrepreneurs at any stage. Passion and consistency, because plenty of people will tell you the category is already crowded. The right team, because you can't scale alone. And relationships — he still drives to every new store that lists the brand, just to shake the manager's hand and say, I'm the father of this product. A warm, honest conversation about getting from a good idea to the national freezer aisle.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

Recorded live and in person at the third annual Loblaw Supplier Summit, where nearly 2,500 suppliers and Loblaw leaders filled the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Rohit Sriram, Senior Vice President, eCommerce and Loyalty at Loblaw Digital, joins Michael LeBlanc on The FEED powered by Loblaw for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of Canadian online shopping and where it goes next.

Rohit oversees online businesses across food, beauty and apparel — Loblaws, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart and Joe Fresh — along with PC Optimum. He brings a practitioner's view to a subject Michael has been close to since selling the world's first pair of Levi's online in 1998.

The two open on the big picture: Canada's long-standing reputation as an e-commerce laggard. Rohit agrees the label was earned, though the gap with the United States has narrowed considerably, while Asian markets remain far ahead, particularly in the grocery category. COVID, he explains, didn't just spike demand, it reset the floor. Penetration settled at two to three times pre-pandemic levels and stayed there, with Canada now hovering around nine to nine and a half percent overall. Online grocery remains underpenetrated but is accelerating quickly, and in certain regions and banners, penetration is already north of ten percent.

Why does online grocery live or die on the produce pick, while apparel hinges on brand, fit and feel? Why did Canadians embrace click and collect first, and why is delivery now the fastest growing part of the business? Rohit walks through the "moments" framework his teams use to think about channel choice, a deliberate mindset shift away from treating e-commerce as a separate business and toward the reality that customers don't think in channels at all. They think about shopping, moving between store discovery and online convenience and expecting a seamless handoff.

They dig into value — not just price, but time savings, easy returns and the delivery fee that remains a sticking point for many shoppers. Rohit makes a pointed argument: online was once a premium service sold at a premium price, and retailers no longer have that excuse.

On speed, Michael revisits his own public bet that one hour delivery would stay niche. Rohit's read is that same-day has become table stakes, sub-thirty-minute rapid delivery isn't yet the Canadian norm, and the Asian race to ten-minute delivery ultimately landed on the insight that anything faster than thirty minutes wasn't really needed. Loblaw is still investing, with a DoorDash partnership serving dense urban, late night and over-the-counter demand.

The episode closes on technology and AI, and how Rohit's team separates signal from noise: start with the problem, demand differentiated value, design a test, and scale only when the customer benefit is real.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

Recorded on location at the third annual Loblaw Supplier Summit — which brought nearly 2,500 suppliers and Loblaw leaders to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre around partnership, value, innovation and trust — this episode of The FEED powered by Loblaw finds host Michael LeBlanc sitting down with Jonathan Carroll, Senior Vice President, Real Canadian Superstore Operations, to explore where food waste, food security and value intersect.

Jonathan oversees 182 Real Canadian Superstore locations and chairs Loblaw's enterprise-wide food waste committee, a cross-banner group that pulls Superstore, No Frills, Maxi and the rest of the 1,700-store fleet onto a single playbook. His framing is blunt: food waste isn't solely a sustainability line item; it's a cost — packaging, transportation, labour and lost product stacked behind every item that never reaches a customer.

But the conversation moves quickly past table stakes. Jonathan walks through the donation network Loblaw has built with Food Banks Canada, Food Banks Quebec and Second Harvest, including the Second Harvest app that lets store operators list short-coded product — food approaching its best-before date — so food bank teams can shop it daily based on what their community actually needs. LeBlanc calls it a shadow supply chain running parallel to the commercial one, powered by volunteers coast to coast. Carroll connects it to Feed More Families, the pledge backed by self-checkout donations, and to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank's freeze-dried strawberry programme, where diverted Loblaw product is transformed and sent to communities that rarely see fresh fruit.

Then there's the consumer-facing side. Carroll has been working with Flash Food since its first pilots in Sarnia and Oakville, and he explains how the daily store walk pulls short-coded bakery and produce onto the app at a discount for pickup at customer service. The newer wrinkle: flash-freezing fresh meat and seafood before expiry to extend shelf life, so shoppers can buy lean ground beef at fifty percent off and stock the freezer. He shares a favourite — the five-dollar produce bag, five pounds of surprise produce — and the story of a shopper who pulled out a dragon fruit and came back the next week to tell her store manager. A Too Good to Go pilot is underway in Ottawa and downtown Toronto.

Upstream, AI-powered forecasting is sharpening ordering accuracy, and the whole system points at one target: zero food waste to landfill by 2030. Carroll is confident the team gets there — and says the real win arrives when the rest of Canadian retail shares the same best practices.

Asked which motivates him most — sustainability, efficiency or food security — Carroll doesn't hesitate: food security. Getting good food out to good people is the whole point.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

The FEED powered by Loblaw goes live from the grand opening of T&T Supermarket's first California store, where host Michael LeBlanc sits down with Tina Lee, CEO of T&T Supermarket, in front of a packed crowd at Westgate Centre in San Jose.

Tina Lee's story is as much personal as it is professional. Born in Vancouver, B.C., she was just 13 when her parents, Jack and Cindy Lee, opened the first T&T Supermarket in 1993 — a business named after Tina and her sister, Tiffany. Lee traces the company's origins to her mother's frustration with grocery shopping across scattered Chinatown shops, with no carts and no bathrooms, and to the family's determination to build "an Asian Safeway": a single, modern destination for Asian grocery shopping in Canada.

After earning a degree at UCLA and spending six years in California working for Deloitte Consulting, Lee returned home to join the family business, eventually taking the helm as CEO. Under her leadership, T&T expanded from British Columbia into Alberta, Ontario and a hard-won Quebec market, becoming part of the Loblaw family in 2009. That partnership, she explains, has fueled the retailer's private-label engine — now more than 600 SKUs strong in Canada and Canada's number-one Asian food brand, distributed in over 1,000 Loblaw stores nationwide.

The conversation turns to T&T's long-awaited U.S. push, which started with a single email in 2016, stalled through COVID, and finally landed with the company's first American store in Bellevue, Washington. San Jose marks store number three in the U.S. and number 40 overall — and Lee uses the live setting to break genuine news, announcing three more Bay Area locations, including a 70,000-square-foot flagship at NewPark Mall in Newark targeted for 2028.

Lee also unpacks what she calls "six senses retailing": the deliberate design choices behind T&T's produce-forward layout, curated in-store playlists tailored to shopper demographics, loose fruit displays, bakery aromas, and constant in-store sampling. She digs into the surprising rise of T&T's K-beauty and beauty business, now one of the largest movers of Asian beauty products in Canada, and shares a crowd-pleasing pro tip for beating the line at the kitchen counter. She also details the regulatory hurdles — from Prop 65 warnings to English-only packaging rules — that come with operating a Canadian retail brand on U.S. soil.

Recorded live in front of hundreds of shoppers on opening day, this episode captures a founder-led retailer at a genuine inflection point: scaling a beloved regional grocery brand into a national and now cross-border force, without losing the family story that built it.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

On this episode of The FEED powered by Loblaw, host Michael LeBlanc travels to Vancouver for a remarkable conversation with David Long, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, about reimagining what a modern food bank can—and should—be.

Forget everything you think you know about food banks.

Under David's leadership, the Greater Vancouver Food Bank has transformed from a traditional emergency food provider into one of North America's most innovative food recovery organizations. Rather than relying on donated canned goods and expired pantry items, David has built a sophisticated operation focused on rescuing fresh, nutritious food, reducing waste, supporting farmers, and creating sustainable new revenue streams.

David shares his extraordinary journey from apprentice chef in Ireland to leading one of Canada's largest food banks, revealing how a passion for leadership and systems thinking inspired a complete rethink of food distribution. Today, more than 80% of the food distributed by the Greater Vancouver Food Bank is fresh, with some weeks reaching an incredible 90%.

David also offers an honest assessment of Canada's growing food insecurity crisis, explaining why demand has tripled during his tenure while emphasizing that solutions already exist—if governments, industry, charities and consumers are willing to work together. The discussion covers rising demand among seniors, working Canadians, newcomers and families, while making a compelling case that innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurial thinking—not simply more donations—represent the future of food security.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

On this episode of The FEED powered by Loblaw podcast, host Michael LeBlanc travels to Vancouver to sit down with Paul Gill, Founder & CEO of Naked & Saucy, for a fascinating conversation about food entrepreneurship, innovation, retail growth, and what it really takes to build a successful consumer packaged goods brand in today’s competitive grocery industry.

Paul shares the remarkable story behind Naked & Saucy’s origins, explaining how a family member’s soy allergy inspired him to identify a significant gap in the market for soy-free alternatives. What began as an entrepreneurial experiment eventually evolved into one of North America’s fastest-growing premium sauce brands, now sold in approximately 5,000 retail locations across Canada and the United States.

Throughout the conversation, Paul reflects on his unconventional path into entrepreneurship—from initially pursuing medicine to discovering his passion for business—and discusses the lessons learned while scaling a food company from farmers’ markets and independent retailers to national grocery chains. He offers candid insights into product development, why great taste must always come first, and why successful innovation is often about improving familiar products rather than inventing entirely new categories.

Michael and Paul dive deep into the realities of building a modern food business, including managing cash flow, navigating supply chain complexity, achieving operational excellence, and listening carefully to retail buyers. Paul reveals how an offhand conversation with Loblaw merchants completely reshaped his product strategy, leading him to focus on high-velocity core flavours rather than niche innovations—an insight that transformed the trajectory of Naked & Saucy’s business.

The discussion also explores Paul’s decision to vertically integrate by acquiring his own manufacturing facility and creating Hummingbird Foods, which now produces for more than 20 brands while supporting both retail and foodservice customers. The conversation highlights the operational challenges that emerge once a product earns national distribution and why execution often becomes more difficult after securing a coveted retail listing.

Finally, Paul shares practical advice for aspiring food entrepreneurs, emphasizing product quality, operational discipline, resilience, and continuous learning. He also discusses the evolving role of retail media, consumer marketing, and household penetration as Naked & Saucy enters its next phase of growth. From the value of the Loblaw Small Supplier Program to the realities of scaling operations and building a lasting brand, this episode is packed with practical insights for entrepreneurs, retailers, and anyone passionate about innovation in the food business. Whether you’re launching your first product or leading an established consumer brand, you’ll find actionable advice from an entrepreneur who has successfully navigated every stage of the journey.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

On this episode of The FEED powered by Loblaw, host Michael LeBlanc travels to West Vancouver to sit down with Patrice Mousseau, Founder and CEO of Satya Organics, for an inspiring conversation about entrepreneurship, innovation, Indigenous business leadership, and building a purpose-driven consumer brand.

Patrice's journey is anything but conventional. A former journalist, broadcaster, and national news anchor, she never imagined herself becoming an entrepreneur. But when her infant daughter developed severe eczema and Patrice couldn't find a natural solution she trusted, she turned to research, traditional knowledge, and experimentation. What started in a small crock pot in her kitchen quickly became Satya Organics.

In this episode, Patrice shares how a deeply personal challenge evolved into a thriving business built on trust, simplicity, and product performance. She explains why Satya's minimalist approach—using only a handful of carefully selected ingredients—has resonated with consumers seeking effective alternatives to conventional skincare products.

Michael and Patrice explore the realities of scaling a consumer packaged goods business in Canada, from farmers' markets and independent retailers to national distribution and placement in major chains including Shoppers Drug Mart and other leading retailers. Patrice offers candid insights into what it takes to prepare for retail growth, manage inventory challenges, build operational infrastructure, and maintain strong customer relationships while expanding rapidly.

The conversation also examines the value of retailer support programs for emerging brands, the importance of educating store associates, and why word-of-mouth remains one of the most powerful marketing tools available to entrepreneurs.

As an Indigenous founder and leader, Patrice discusses how values, authenticity, and community have shaped her leadership philosophy. She shares lessons learned from building a high-performing team, navigating setbacks, and staying focused on long-term sustainability rather than chasing short-term growth.

Looking ahead, Patrice reveals ambitious plans for international expansion, including opportunities in China and beyond, while reflecting on the importance of resilience, adaptability, and maintaining a clear sense of purpose.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

On this episode of The Feed Powered by Loblaw, host Michael LeBlanc sits down with former Bank of Canada Governor and renowned economist Steve Poloz for a timely and wide-ranging conversation about the forces reshaping Canada's economy.

Drawing on insights from his influential book The Next Age of Uncertainty, Poloz reflects on how many of the disruptions he anticipated have accelerated far faster than expected. From geopolitical conflict and the restructuring of global trade to inflation, artificial intelligence, demographic shifts, and supply chain volatility, he explains why Canadians are entering a new era defined by greater uncertainty—and greater opportunity.

The conversation begins with a look at the rise of generative AI and why Poloz believes it represents the Fourth Industrial Revolution. While businesses are rushing to deploy artificial intelligence technologies, he argues that the largest economic benefits are still ahead. Drawing parallels to the introduction of electricity and the computer chip, Poloz explains how productivity gains ultimately create more prosperity, even as they disrupt labour markets and force difficult transitions for workers and industries.

Michael and Stephen also examine the growing concerns surrounding employment, automation, and Canada's productivity challenges. Poloz outlines why Canada cannot afford to lag in AI adoption and argues that accelerating business investment, innovation, and entrepreneurship will be essential to maintaining living standards in the years ahead.

The discussion then turns to one of the most consequential issues facing Canada today: the disruption of global trade. Poloz explains why rising protectionism and tariff barriers create inefficiencies that ultimately reduce global growth, lower incomes, and slow economic progress. While Canada's deep economic ties to the United States remain critically important, he outlines why diversification, regulatory reform, energy development, critical minerals, and new trading relationships will become increasingly important.

Food inflation and affordability also take centre stage. Poloz offers a clear explanation of how global shocks—including energy prices, fertilizer costs, drought conditions, geopolitical conflicts, and supply chain disruptions—continue to influence food prices long after the initial event has passed. He also discusses Canada's internal trade barriers, describing them as a major untapped economic opportunity.

The episode concludes with Poloz's prescription for Canada's future prosperity: embrace technology, remove barriers to investment, improve productivity, and create the conditions for innovation-led growth.

About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.