The Voice of Retail

Understanding the impact and implications of COVID-19 with Diane Brisebois, President & CEO of Retail Council of Canada, Frank Lavin, Chairman and Founder of Export Now from Singapore, and Marc Fortin, President of RCC-CCCD Quebec

Episode Summary

In this episode I’m starting to address the COVID-19 crisis and it’s impact on the retail industry with a mix of episodes interviewing retail advocates, thought leaders, strategists and retailers themselves as we all work together to get our arms around this shock to world. First up Diane Brisebois, President & CEO of Retail Council of Canada is my special guest.  After 25 years serving the retail community in Canada Diane and her team’s substantial skills are being put to the ultimate test. Next, live from Singapore Frank Lavin, Chairman and Founder of Export Now returns to the podcast to update us on the Chinese market as they get their arms around the COVID-19 crisis and start to see daylight, yielding important lesson and opportunities for retailers our of what Frank describes as a “tornado of bad news” Finally Marc Fortin, President of Retail Council/CCCD Quebec joins me from his home office in Montreal. We hone in on the Province of Quebec and the work Marc and his team is doing to support and advocate for retailers, and how key connections to government will leverage Quebec’s food industry to get food onto grocers shelves in innovative and bold new ways

Episode Notes

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.

In this episode I’m starting to address the COVID-19 crisis and it’s impact on the retail industry with a mix of episodes interviewing retail advocates, thought leaders, strategists and retailers themselves as we all work together to get our arms around this shock to world.

First up Diane Brisebois, President & CEO of Retail Council of Canada is my special guest.  After 25 years serving the retail community in Canada Diane and her team’s substantial skills are being put to the ultimate test.

Next, live from Singapore Frank Lavin, Chairman and Founder of Export Now returns to the podcast to update us on the Chinese market as they get their arms around the COVID-19 crisis and start to see daylight, yielding important lesson and opportunities for retailers our of what Frank describes as a “tornado of bad news”

Finally Marc Fortin, President of Retail Council/CCCD Quebec joins me from his home office in Montreal.   We hone in on the Province of Quebec and the work Marc and his team is doing to support and advocate for retailers, and how key connections to government will leverage Quebec’s food industry to get food onto grocers shelves in innovative and bold new ways

But first, let’s jump right into my conversation with Diane Brisebois from Retail Council of Canada

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Thanks to Diane, Frank and Marc for being my guests on this episode.  Retail news of the week will return next week/next episode as I return to my two interview format.

That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail.  If you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple iTunes 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!