Why It Matters
We’re committed to exceptional customer shopping and food experiences every day. We strive to find new and compelling ways to engage customers as our partners in building a more sustainable future.
Fiscal 2024 Performance Highlight
Scene+ loyalty program in 1,200+ stores nationwide
Our Approach
Over more than 115 years of operation, delivering for our customers has been core to our values and our business strategy. Customers look to us for reliable value, exceptional experiences and innovative solutions that make shopping easier and more delightful. We work hard to meet these expectations and deliver on our customer commitments every day.
Rewarding Our Customers From Coast to Coast With Scene+
In partnership with Scotiabank and Cineplex, we continue to establish Scene+ as the pre-eminent lifestyle loyalty program in Canada. The Scene+ loyalty program has over 15 million members and is available in more than 1,200 Empire banner stores nationally, giving customers a breadth of options to earn and redeem points with our partners in entertainment, banking, travel, home improvement, shopping, dining and more. Evolving our loyalty offering is an important milestone in our customer experience journey, as we go the extra mile to give back more value to our customers. With the Scene+ experience, we offer customers significant opportunities to be rewarded when, how and where they want.
Expanded Access to Voilà
We also continue to expand our e-commerce offerings, giving customers more choice and flexibility in how they shop. We have expanded access to our Voilà home delivery and curbside pickup services in Central, Western and Atlantic Canada. Last fiscal, we also opened our third national customer fulfillment centre in Calgary, and now Alberta customers in dozens of communities have a world-class e-commerce grocery business at their doorstep.
Growing Own Brands Options
We remain committed to helping our customers make more sustainable choices when they shop with us. This includes growing our Own Brands portfolio with new and more innovative options so customers can access foods and goods that are great value and better for our suppliers and the planet (see Product Quality & Safety, Health & Nutrition, Ethical & Sustainable Sourcing, Supplier Partnerships). Our initiatives include promoting sustainable seafood through our partnership with Ocean Wise, making more Fairtrade products available and a continued focus on animal welfare.
Ongoing Customer Engagement
We maintain an ongoing focus on customer engagement and education. For example, in fiscal 2024 we continued to shine a spotlight on sustainable behaviours and options through OurPartR, our customer-facing sustainability storytelling platform. We also delivered customer-facing campaigns focused on reducing food waste and making more sustainable purchasing choices. Additionally, we expanded technology-based innovations that enrich customer experience, including increasing the availability of EV chargers at our stores in Quebec.
Responsible Marketing
We remain committed to ethical marketing and listening to our customers. Marketing material is reviewed by our legal and regulatory affairs team to ensure content and materials are marketed in a responsible manner. We have updated the packaging of existing Own Brands Green Care, Naturally Simple, plant-based and gluten-free products to create a unified style for easier identification. This packaging update includes consistent information about nutritional claims, product benefits and any third-party certifications. Our Own Brands products include clearly labelled customer contact options, and our customer care channels provide an accessible mechanism to collect, record and address complaints or grievances. These lines are known and accessible to community members and allow for prompt responses from our team.
Highlights
Expanding Healthcare Options
To increase access to timely healthcare for customers in Nova Scotia, Sobeys National Pharmacy and Lawtons Drugs partner with Nova Scotia Health to operate six pharmacist-led walk-in clinics in Nova Scotia. The clinics offer an alternative for patients who would otherwise seek non-urgent care in an emergency department for health concerns that could be treated by a pharmacist or nurse practitioner who can assess, treat and prescribe medications for a variety of minor ailments and illnesses. The partnership is improving healthcare access in rural communities and delivering services for 1,500 patients each month. The walk-in clinics were the first in the province to be integrated into the NS Health electronic medical record, making collaboration with the health system much more seamless. Our clinics can now also order labs for patients to update prescriptions and modify treatments appropriately—another provincial first.
Empowering Our Teammates to CARE
In fiscal 2024, we continued to deliver our CARE (Customers Always Receive Excellence) Program nationally. CARE is one of our required training programs for teammates, including annual recertification and recognition through awards for high performers. The program is delivering results, leading to measurable improvements across a range of customer experience and engagement metrics.
IGA Helps Customers Eat Local Longer
Over 10,000 customers in Quebec and New Brunswick learned how to make fresh, local food last longer as part of the Travelling Jar Initiative—a highlight of the Fonds Éco IGA Roadshow in fiscal 2024. The Travelling Jar kiosk visited 210 IGA stores, promoting the benefits of freezing, dehydrating and canning produce to preserve its goodness.
Making Food Accessible for Remote Communities
Sobeys’ wholesale team operates Project Gateway, which is focused on establishing and nurturing relationships with customers in rural markets and remote Indigenous communities. To overcome transportation challenges, we work closely with customers, other businesses and organizations such as the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and Chiefs of Ontario to deliver food by truck, rail, winter road and plane.
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We’re also creating customer value through our commitments to reduce plastics, source our products responsibly, partner with local and innovative suppliers, and ensure the quality and safety of every product we sell.
As a family nurturing families, we want to ensure Canadians are taken care of today, tomorrow and in the future. By doing OurPartR for the environment, we hope to inspire our customers to do theirs. Every step we take together—big or small—can make a difference.
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