Eleanor Lynch, President Kiaro & James Jesty, President Friendly Stranger explore the always dynamic and evolving retail cannabis market from the West Coast to Ontario

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 head west to Vancouver and then back again to Toronto to meet two great retail cannabis operators innovating, growing their brand and retail footprint.

Building and leading a team that are Cannabis enthusiast first, retailers second and 100% dedicated to their community and customer satisfaction Eleanor Lynch, President Of Operations at Kiaro is back on the podcast as we catch up on their latest retail store expansions, tactics for engagement in the community they operate in and ambitions to head east and bring their brand of operational experience and great retail to the Ontario market.

Speaking of the Ontario market, James Jesty, President at The Friendly Stranger Holding Corp. joins me for a wide-ranging conversation where he outlines their three retail banner strategy based on a foundation of decades in the Ontario retail cannabis community and marketplace with The Friendly Stranger, Happy Days and Kensington’s Markets Hot Box retail brand.

But first, lets check in with Eleanor from Kiaro

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Thanks to Eleanor and James for being my guests on this episode.   If you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple, Spotify or your favourite podcast platform, please 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.