Welcome to the The Voice of Retail, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this episode we meet Ken Keelor, CEO of one of the biggest cooperative grocers in North America, Calgary Co-op. We start by tracing back and discovering the origins of where Ken gets his obvious enthusiasm for retail and the consumer, and the genesis of his strategic thinking around the Calgary Co-op brand and diversified business. We then talk about the huge changes to the business both pre-covid with their change in partners and launch of relentlessly relevant private labels, and then how the team dealt with and is adapting to the COVID era.

Next a long time colleague and friend Ian Madell , Managing Partner, President of Level 5 Strategy and I catch up and talk brand strategy, what it means to be the steward of both the corporate strategy and important customer outcomes, the nature of the changing consumer and retail landscape, and wise advice for retailers on winning on brand in the COVID era.

But first, lets check in with Ken from Calgary Co-op

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Thanks to Ken and Ian for being my guests on this episode. If you liked this podcast please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or your favourite podcast platform, rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until next time, have a safe week!

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, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. 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, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. 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.

[EXTRAIT] - Interview de Matthieu Ricard