Marc Fortin, Jacques Beaudry, Ron Funk and Steven Karrys
Fortin
Beaudry
Funk
Karrys
AWMA’s The Distributor Value Equation study validated the important role distributors play in the success of their retail customers and manufacturer partners, while distributor profitability is being squeezed to the breaking point.

In this session, Marc Fortin, president of the National Convenience Stores Distributors Association of Canada (NACDA), along with Kit Dietz, convenience channel consultant, will share an overview of the convenience channel challenges Canadian distributors face today. Their circumstances are similar to AWMA distributors but are amplified due to punitive cigarette taxation at the federal and provincial levels, smoking bans, health warning labels, merchandising restrictions and the fact that contraband cigarette sales now represent over 30% of consumer consumption in Canada’s two largest provinces. It gets worse! In October last year, Imperial Tobacco (ITL) moved to a DSD delivery system. With a flip of a switch, distributors lost 50% of their cigarette volume. How are they coping? What changes are being made? How will they survive?

Please join us for a panel discussion with industry leaders from Canada as we discuss the impact of change, their evolving pricing model, channel collaboration and a fee-for-delivery pricing model that has been deployed by RBH Canada, the largest Canadian cigarette manufacturer relying heavily on the distribution system.

Additional panelists include Jacques Beaudry, president of Jean-Paul Beaudry Ltée; Ron Funk, VP Corporate Affairs of Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, Inc.; Steven Karrys, President & CEO of Karrys Bros.; and Steve Tennant, National Director, We Expect ID, Canadian Convenience Stores Association.