OTTAWA, ON (March 16, 2020) – The world is facing an issue of enormous scale and uncertainty. It has never been more important for our company to ensure the safety and support of our customers, teammates and communities.
We view our stores as an essential service. We are working around the clock to serve you. In the 113-year history of our parent company, we’ve never seen so many customers visit our stores. That makes sense. Canadians have never faced anything like the Coronavirus outbreak before. And the first thing anyone thinks about in uncertain times is keeping their loved ones safe. We have great confidence in the incredibly robust grocery and food supply chain in Canada. We are working hard to keep our shelves stocked in the face of unprecedented demand for products.
The health and wellness of our teammates and customers is paramount. We’re doing everything we can to keep people healthy across our business. Our teammates are staying home if they are sick. We have stopped all in-store sampling. Our stores are always clean, but we have even turned it up a notch with increased cleaning and sanitization – especially in high traffic areas.
Our company purpose is to be a family nurturing families and that has never been more true than right now. We are incredibly proud of our 123,000 teammates across our family of brands. Their efforts over the last few weeks have been incredible, and we know there is much more hard work ahead. Our tremendous retail and warehouse teams are working around the clock to keep our stores safe and restock our shelves.
We are standing strong and supporting our customers and communities, because as a family-focused business, that’s just what we do.
Sincerely,
| Michael Medline | Jean Louis Bellemare | Jeff York |
| President & CEO | Co-CEO | Co-CEO |
| Empire Co | Farm Boy | Farm Boy |