Vice President, Merchandising

About Calgary Co-op

Calgary Co-op was founded in 1956 by local farmers, ranchers, and community members who set out to build a grocery store owned by the people it served. That founding idea — shared ownership and a genuine connection to local producers — still defines the organization today, nearly 70 years later.

Now one of the largest retail co-operatives in North America, Calgary Co-op serves Calgary and the surrounding communities of Airdrie, Cochrane, High River, Okotoks, and Strathmore through food centres, pharmacies, gas stations and car washes, Home Health Care centres, and wine, spirits, beer, and cannabis locations. The organization also owns and operates Community Natural Foods and Willow Park Wines & Spirits, and is the majority shareholder of Care Pharmacies.

Calgary Co-op operates on the Rochdale co-operative principles — the model established by the world's first modern co-operative in 1844 — including democratic member control, member economic participation, and concern for community. Supporting local isn't a trend for Calgary Co-op; it's a long-term commitment that shapes locally sourced fresh food, pharmacy services, fuel, wine, spirits, beer, cannabis, and home health care offerings across the network.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the Vice President, Merchandising will serve as a key member of the executive leadership team and play a pivotal role in shaping the next chapter of Calgary Co-op's evolution. This is a highly visible, succession-track role positioned at a critical inflection point for the organization, where merchandising has been identified as a central lever for transformation and growth.

The Vice President will be accountable for the entire product proposition across Calgary Co-op's food formats — Co-op, Community Natural Foods, and Co-op Convenience stores at the gas stations — defining what the organization sells, at what price, presented how, and with what story. This means redefining merchandising strategy toward a more focused, data-driven, and customer-centric approach: strengthening private brands, optimizing category strategies, and ensuring alignment with Calgary Co-op's distinct positioning around premium quality, local sourcing, and community impact.

This leader will also elevate the capability, financial rigor, and ambition of the merchandising function — bringing vision, inspiration, and clarity to a team that is ready to evolve. Priorities include embedding a stronger culture of data and financial discipline, introducing more rigorous planning processes, and creating feedback loops that improve execution, reduce inefficiencies, and enhance the in-store experience. This role will appeal to a strategic, forward-looking leader energized by transformation and motivated to shape the future of a purpose-driven, community-owned retailer.

Key Responsibilities

Merchandising Strategy & Transformation

• Own the product strategy for the Food division, developing a forward-looking merchandising vision that repositions Calgary Co-op as a differentiated, member-centric retailer.
• Lead the shift from a largely tactical approach to a strategic, data- and insight-led model that prioritizes fewer, higher-impact initiatives through a test-learn-measure-scale approach.
• Champion modernization of merchandising practices, leveraging data, technology, and emerging tools to enhance decision-making and performance.
• Identify and close structural margin gaps across the portfolio, leveraging synergies across Food banners.

Private Label Strategy & Growth

• Define and execute a private brand architecture that increases penetration, strengthens margin, and reinforces differentiation, including continued evolution of banners such as Cal & Gary's and Founders & Farmers.
• Oversee end-to-end private label program design — assortment architecture, product development, sourcing, pricing, and in-store activation.
• Ensure private label storytelling is clearly linked to Calgary Co-op's brand promise around local sourcing, quality, and community impact.

Category Management, Assortment & Commercial Performance

• Lead category strategy development across all core business lines, aligned to target customer segments and enterprise priorities.
• Drive SKU rationalization and assortment optimization, improving sales productivity, margins, and inventory efficiency.
• Establish disciplined merchandise financial planning, including performance management across sales, gross margin, shrink, and inventory turns.
• Ensure promotional strategy, pricing architecture, and space allocation reflect member expectations and margin contribution.

Food Experience & Customer Value Proposition

• Elevate Calgary Co-op's food offering by building a more compelling, contemporary, and differentiated food experience.
• Translate consumer insights and emerging food trends into merchandising programs that drive engagement, loyalty, and basket growth.
• Strengthen Calgary Co-op's position as a destination for high-quality, locally sourced food through curated assortment and in-store storytelling.

Cross-Functional Integration & Execution Excellence

• Drive alignment between merchandising and operations for seamless execution of category strategies at store level.
• Implement processes that capture and respond to store-level insights, reducing inefficiencies such as overstocking and shrink.
• Partner closely with supply chain, marketing, and store operations to ensure cohesive planning and consistent execution.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Build, mentor, and inspire a high-performing merchandising team, elevating capability, accountability, and strategic thinking.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Provide clear direction, prioritization, and coaching to ensure alignment with enterprise objectives.
• Operate as a collaborative, values-driven leader who is comfortable in a cooperative, member-owned model and its governance and stakeholder accountability.

Vendor Strategy & External Partnerships

• Develop and maintain strategic vendor relationships that support Calgary Co-op's values, cultivating local and regional suppliers for innovation and differentiation while maintaining competitive discipline within national accounts.
• Lead sourcing strategies that balance quality, cost, and reliability while supporting brand positioning and financial objectives.

Executive Leadership & Enterprise Contribution

• Act as a key member of the executive leadership team and the primary advocate for merchandising in enterprise strategy and decision-making.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to deliver a compelling, consistent, and differentiated customer experience across all formats and channels.
• Represent Calgary Co-op externally with key partners, suppliers, and the broader retail community.

Ideal Experience

Enterprise Merchandising Leadership

A genuine merchant who is curious about product, passionate about delivering for members, and energized by the shop floor — owning the P&L levers of buying, margin, shrink, and promotional effectiveness. Brings 10–15 years of progressive experience in senior merchandising roles within complex, multi-category retail environments, ideally including grocery and fresh. Has operated as a strategic leader at the enterprise level, shaping merchandising vision, influencing executive stakeholders, and elevating team capability.

Private Label Strategy and Merchandising

Has built or significantly scaled private label programs as a core driver of differentiation, margin expansion, and customer loyalty. Brings a thoughtful approach to program design, product development, and storytelling that links private label to a broader brand promise, along with a track record of assortment optimization and SKU rationalization that improves inventory productivity and drives sales and margin performance.

Integrated Merchandising & Operational Alignment

Has successfully bridged merchandising and store operations to create integrated planning processes, strong feedback loops, and shared accountability for execution — reducing waste, improving in-store execution, and breaking down silos to deliver a consistent customer experience.

Customer-Centric Food Experience & Retail Innovation

Brings a strong orientation toward food merchandising, with experience creating differentiated, high-quality grocery experiences that resonate with discerning customers. Exposure to best-in-class or specialty retail environments is highly valued, along with the ability to translate food trends, local sourcing, and experiential retail into compelling in-store and omnichannel experiences.

Education

Undergraduate degree required; an advanced degree is preferred.

Critical Leadership Capabilities

Driving Results

• Works to achieve business goals while overcoming obstacles and planning for contingencies.
• Shows a strong sense of urgency about reaching targets.
• Checks the quality of their own and others' work against required standards.
• Reviews performance and progress regularly to ensure the team is achieving results.
• Tests whether goals are sufficiently challenging and implements corrective action based on deviations.

Collaborating and Influencing

• Invites and uses the opinions and perspectives of others.
• Engages people in dialogue to gain commitment and bring them on board, linking their perspective to the intent.
• Adapts their approach to the audience, anticipating impact and preparing for possible resistance.
• Resolves conflicts by discussing individual issues with each person, checking understanding on both sides.
• Takes initiative to build and maintain relationships.

Leading People

• Builds highly functional, collaborative teams and fosters a great working environment.
• Identifies and leverages individual strengths and potential within the team.
• Engages the team in discussions about their development, longer-term strategy, and how they can contribute.
• Gives team members ownership within their areas of responsibility, setting clear expectations and holding them accountable while providing guidance and growth opportunities.
• Removes barriers and provides resources to enable team success.
• Invites the team to recommend solutions, discuss challenges, and generate new ideas.

Other Personal Characteristics

• Retailer at Heart: A genuine shopkeeper with a customer-centric mindset.
• High Integrity: A clear commitment to the highest standards of professional and personal conduct, holding others to the same standard.
• Strong Intellect: Mental flexibility, creativity, conceptual ability, and judgment — equally comfortable with strategic issues and detailed tactical execution.
• Well-Developed EQ: A good listener with outstanding interpersonal skills and a natural, effective consultative style, able to navigate complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Positive Attitude: An infectious, can-do attitude that energizes the organization.
• Self-Confident, Ego in Check: Comfortable with ambiguity, driven more by the success of the venture and their peers than by personal profile.
• Innovative: Proactively generates creative solutions and stays open to different approaches.
• Servant Leader: Puts the needs of employees first and helps people develop and perform to the best of their abilities.