One year into leading Retail Council of Canada, President & CEO Kim Furlong sits down with Michael LeBlanc to talk about the mandate that brought her back to RCC, a newly approved strategic plan.. Kim connects trade policy, tariffs, supply chains and affordability, and makes the case that retail is the nervous system of the Canadian economy. Part 1 of 2. Presented by Konek.ca
What does it take to change how a country sees its largest private-sector employer? Kim Furlong, President & CEO of Retail Council of Canada, joins Michael LeBlanc on The Voice of Retail to mark her first year leading RCC, and to make the case that Canadian retail deserves a very different reputation than the one it has.
Kim’s path to the corner office runs through trade policy. A Quebecer from the Gaspé, she studied at McGill, earned a master’s at Carleton’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs with a focus on NAFTA, worked on the G8 summit in Kananaskis, and served as director of communications to federal trade and foreign affairs ministers. After a change in government, Diane Brisebois recruited her to open RCC’s first Ottawa office. A decade leading external affairs at Amgen Canada followed, then a role as CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, where she watched many of the AI and technology companies now selling to retailers get their start.
Kim explains why RCC’s board wanted a change agent rather than a caretaker, and why it asked for a full strategic plan in her first year instead of waiting. After a year-long review of the organization’s operations, finances and programs, the board has approved a new three-pillar strategy. At its centre: changing the narrative about retail from simple, low-pay and low-value to complex, supply chain–driven and one of the fastest adopters of technology in the economy.
The conversation covers the “silent champions” of Canadian retail, from Aritzia and Lululemon to Aldo, La Vie en Rose and Groupe Dynamite, brands growing around the world from a home market that punches above its weight. Kim and Michael discuss what Walmart’s move to the Nasdaq says about the whole sector, how retailers’ supply chain knowledge is reaching federal ministers and the Bank of Canada, and why RCC wants to help set the agenda on port and rail infrastructure instead of reacting when disruption hits.
Affordability is the issue that keeps Kim up at night. She explains why grocers take the blame for shelf prices when roughly 75 per cent of costs are set before products arrive, what operating on 3 per cent margins really means, how fuel spikes hit retailers serving remote northern communities, and how RCC’s Ottawa team helped roll back 25 per cent steel tariffs on everyday goods containing only a sliver of metal. She also reflects on how much the industry has changed since her first stint at RCC, when grocery and pharmacy weren’t yet members and the end of the penny was the big worry.
This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation with Kim Furlong. Follow The Voice of Retail so you don’t miss Part 2.