In Quebec, Loblaw and union make deal over store banners

In a dramatic about-face, Canada’s largest grocer, Loblaw, appears to be stepping back from its intention to sell several of its Maxi discount grocers in Quebec to franchisees and rebrand them using the defunct Heritage store sign.

The CSN, representing employees at 12 Maxi stores, says workers at eight stores in the Saguenay region and Chibougamau have come to terms with Loblaw “by high margins” for a new six-year contract that will give employees a two per cent annual increase. The contract also stipulates the stores will remain branded Maxi, the CSN said in a statement.

Loblaw has confirmed the stores will remain Maxi and will not be sold for the length of the contract.

READ: Loblaw to bring back Heritage banner

The union also says members will be voting at another four stores before the company’s Sept. 24 deadline on the latest contract offer and appears confident members will remain in the Loblaw umbrella.

Maxi, with 110 stores and 7,000 employees in Quebec, said in April it would sell a dozen stores to franchisees within 90 days and bring back a former Provigo banner Heritage. Observers believed Loblaw was trying to shed its CSN-affiliated stores.

The Heritage banner was discontinued by Provigo in 1995 when it converted 42 Heritage supermarkets to the discount Maxi sign. Three years later, Loblaw bought Provigo.

Heritage may still make an appearance on some of Loblaw’s Maxi stores in Quebec, says Loblaw.

“The affiliation model under the Heritage banner remains an option for a few stores and the process is following its course,” a spokesperson for Loblaw in Quebec, Johanne Heroux, wrote in an email. “The list of potential Heritage stores was not published officially and has changed over the course of time, therefore, no number can be confirmed at this point.”

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She said the company would not comment further.

A spokesman for the CSN said employees had to give up certain demands such as increased guaranteed hours. The union worried that had the stores been sold to individual franchisees, new contract negotiations would have been arduous.