President’s Choice spokesman and Loblaw President Galen Weston will step back from the day-to-day operations of Canada’s biggest grocer after two years at the helm.
- Per Bank, the current head of Denmark’s largest retailer Salling Group A/S, will assume the role of CEO, which Weston never “officially” occupied.
Weston will remain both chairman of the Loblaw board and CEO of Loblaw’s parent company George Weston––a role he’s held since his late father’s retirement in 2016.
- During his tenure, Loblaw saw sustained growth in revenue and, in its most recent quarterly earnings call, reported a 10% surge in revenue that topped estimates.
Bottom line: While the search for a permanent CEO had been ongoing since August, a fresh face might be welcome at a time when Canada’s grocers are under fire, accused of unchecked greed as food inflation soars. Weston, in turn, became a target of collective rage.
- As he tried to curry favour with price freezes, he was instead mocked by CBC sketches and Beaverton articles. Heck, even Politico got some shots in.
- He earned public ire most recently when news broke that he got a $1.1 million pay bump last year after consultants hired by Loblaw informed him he was underpaid.
Zoom out: Food inflation finally slowed in March, but it still outpaced general inflation. A lot still needs to be done for grocers to regain public trust: An ongoing Competition Bureau inquiry into grocery store competition could shed light on exactly what that could entail.—QH