Loblaw T's Off on Trump Tariffs, China and Europe Hit Back Creating Risks & Opportunities, guest Smoke's Poutinerie President & COO Mark Cunningham

The Food Professor

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In this episode of The Food Professor podcast, hosts Michael LeBlanc and Sylvain Charlebois tackle pressing issues in Canada's food industry before interviewing Mark Cunningham, President and Chief Operating Officer of Smoke's Poutinerie.

The episode begins with the hosts discussing Loblaw's decision to place "T" labels on products affected by tariffs. While Charlebois appreciates the transparency effort, he questions whether the approach is too simplistic, explaining that tariffs impact entire product categories beyond individual items. The hosts explore how Canadian retailers rapidly " de-Americanize" their product offerings in response to US-Canada trade tensions.

They examine how companies like Moosehead leverage the political climate for marketing with initiatives like their "Presidential Pack" of 1,461 beers (one for each day left of Trump's presidency) before analyzing China's retaliatory tariffs on Canadian canola and seafood. Charlebois criticizes Canada's geopolitical approach, noting how China strategically targeted farmers rather than the automotive sector following Canada's 100% tariff on Chinese EVs.

In the featured interview, Mark Cunningham shares insights about Smokes Poutinerie, the Canadian poutine restaurant franchise with over 100 locations across Canada, including 45+ traditional franchise locations and numerous non-traditional sites in colleges, airports, and arenas. Cunningham discusses how the company honours its late founder, Ryan Smolkin (who maintains the title of "Chief Entertainment Officer"), by staying true to authentic Quebec ingredients while packaging poutine with distinctive Canadian flair through their red and black plaid branding and 80s pop culture references.

Cunningham details their business model's evolution, including adapting to a delivery-focused environment (now representing 35% of sales), managing food costs amid inflation, and their creative approach to menu innovation. He explains how they position themselves as "brand disruptors" in the quick-service restaurant space, using provocative marketing campaigns that often playfully target larger competitors. Cunningham also highlights their World Poutine Eating Championship, which has grown to become North America's second-largest eating competition.

The hosts reflect on the food industry's resilience five years after COVID, with Charlebois noting how the pandemic forced companies to reconsider supply chain management and communication strategies. Additional topics covered include RFK Jr.'s meeting with food executives about banning artificial dyes, EU retaliatory tariffs against the US, and Charlebois receiving a King Charles Coronation medal honouring his contributions to the food industry in Canada and globally.

The Food Professor #podcast is presented by Caddle.

About Us

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.

He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.

Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre’s Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa.

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

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