Category: Provinces

I wanted to take this opportunity to start a conversation with you, our Safeway employees. Safeway has been a leader in Western Canada for many years, and a big part of our success has been our people and the work you do each day to create exceptional experiences for our customers.

For the last 18 months, I’ve spent my time focused on integrating our Western operations. With the majority of that work now behind us, I’m turning my attention to getting to know this team better and understanding what’s happening in your stores.

You’ve told us you want to hear more from us, and we see an opportunity to improve the lines of communication. Our leadership group would love to speak to you all one-on-one, but we can’t be in every store, every day. But we can use technology to connect with every employee, from Vancouver to Thunder Bay.

That is why we’re re-launching SafewayTalks.ca

SafewayTalks.ca is a pilot project with a simple but critical goal: to open the lines of communication and share the spirit and community of our people and our stores.

This website allows us to share some of the things we are working on and get feedback directly from you. It will also help you understand how we’re tackling the challenges and issues in front of us.

This continues to be an unprecedented time for retailers. The competitive landscape has changed significantly and so have the needs and wants of customers. During the transition, we made some decisions that hurt the customer experience in our stores, which I know you felt first hand and had to deal with personally.

We have made some improvements in the last year, such as more competitive pricing and an improved offer that reflects what our customers are asking for, but more needs to be done. As we look forward to a competitive and successful Safeway with secure jobs for the future, we have to make further changes to ensure our stores are viable and that our products and services resonate with customers.

Our challenges are not small and changes will take time, but it’s something we must tackle together. You have an important stake in our future, so let’s keep the lines of communications open.

Sign up to join and stay informed. And let’s start the conversation today.

Regards,

 

Jason Potter
Executive Vice President, Operations

Explaining Project Sunrise

Some big changes are happening at Sobeys Inc, Safeway’s parent company.

We have a new President and CEO in Michael Medline, who has a strong history in the retail sector and deep experience in creating highly effective change.

In a nutshell, here is what he is aiming to do with Sobey’s Inc:

We’re going to get out of our own way.

A task that begins in our corporate office, with ‘Project Sunrise’.

“We have an aggressive goal to transform our organization, better serve our customers, empower our employees and assuredly move from defense to offense in the market. To do this we need to unleash the talents and scale we already have at our disposal.” – Michael Medline, President & CEO.

‘Project Sunrise’ is a bold move that will transform our organization allowing us to better serve our customers, empower our employees and move from defense to offense in the many markets in which we operate. This will happen over the next three years, ultimately bringing $500 million in savings each year and much more efficiency throughout our system. In the future we will operate with a simpler, leaner structure, more efficient core processes and tools.

Here’s what we are doing: 

• We are moving from a regional to national structure to remove overlap, minimize our own bureaucracy and excessive processes so we can just get things done better, faster and cheaper for everyone.
• We will simplify our relationships with vendors by centralizing where it makes sense so we can increase our purchasing power.
• We are committed to continually improving the efficiency and productivity of the company across the country.

Why are we doing this?

Our customers shop differently now than they did even a few years ago, and we need to reconnect with those customers. We face new and different competitors with globally deep pockets. At Safeway, we have some of the highest costs in our industry.

Starting with ‘Project Sunrise’ we are making big changes to better service our stores and our customers.

We are going to need your help to get there.

We know you have concerns as well.

So we are going to do a better job of communicating and listening.

You will hear more from your store managers and regional leadership about the changes as they happen.

And we want to hear from you as this work unfolds.

Please engage with us on Safeway Talks to keep up to date on news, and to let us know what you think.