With Canadian retailers reporting “cautious optimism” but still facing major labour shortages, how will they find the people they need to deliver on that optimism?

Who better to help them out than a retail professional who has moved wholesalers into retail, expanded established retailers into new geographies, and designed and built entire retail organizations from the ground up? One whose track record has growth and change as consistently recurring themes?

As a highly experienced and connected retail professional with a strong track record for success, Miriam has the right background to understand retail business and people plans, and then deliver the retail professionals who fit.

Miriam gained experience in retail, wholesale, corporate and franchise businesses in her first 3 roles. Her experience included moving Esprit Canada from a wholesale organization into retail, and then growing the Body Shop Canada’s franchise network followed by replicating that success with corporate stores across the country. Moving to the Gap, she was responsible for the 6th largest region in North America, where she significantly increased profitability and decreased shrink.

Joining Aritzia, Miriam was promoted to Director of Retail for Eastern Canada within 4 months, and her region remained the highest performing region in the organization for the next 5 years. As Director of Corporate Operations for North America, she then developed successful long term growth plans for all aspects of the organization. Moving to Geox as Director of Retail, Canada, Miriam drove their Canadian operation to the #1 position across the world for this global retailer, while focusing on aligning their retail and wholesale operations and guiding them to become a true omnichannel organization.

When cannabis retail became legal in Canada, Miriam was at the forefront as Head of Retail, Canada, for Canopy Growth, one of Canada’s largest cannabis companies. She was their first retail hire, and she started with a bank slate to plan and build out all aspects of their retail organization. Since then Miriam has assisted a variety of retail organizations as an independent consultant in areas ranging from store operations to supply chain, distribution and ecommerce, product innovation and more.

With an unparalleled track record for success and change covering all aspects of retail, Miriam has now joined JRoss Retail Recruiters to help our clients find the people they need to succeed in all areas of their business. That means Miriam will be looking for retail professionals like you, so please keep in touch!

To learn more about Miriam and the rest of the JRoss team click here.

Canadian retail is continuing to recover but faces major challenges, including a severe labour shortage.

The Retail Council of Canada’s “Retail Conditions : Spring 2022” webinar reported that Canada’s retail industry remains cautiously optimistic despite significant challenges. They also reported that one of the top 3 things keeping retail executives up at night was people – Canada’s labour shortage. Statistics Canada reported on June 24 that the ratio of the unemployed to job vacancies was at record lows. And on April 22 Deloitte Canada released a survey showing that the competition for talent is expected to emerge as one of the greatest hurdles in 2022, with 77% of retailers polled saying they believe it will be tough to retain their best employees.

With the retail recovery continuing, the key ingredient for success will be great leaders who can make it happen. To find them, retailers will be turning for help to those who have proven to be great leaders themselves – for example, JRoss recruiters like Miriam.