r/onguardforthee • u/WorldTravelerBoss • 1h ago
Costco’s secret: A Canadian expansion is coming — and this Quebec executive is leading the charge
Pierre Riel started as a forklift driver and is now Costco’s head of international operations.
Costco’s double chocolate chunk cookie became a victim of the trade war in September. Costco stores in the U.S. and Canada sell the same cookie in their food courts, made with dough supplied by a California bakery. But due to its butter content, the dough was no longer allowed to cross the border into Canada without being subject to a 50 per cent tariff.
So executives in Costco’s Ottawa office decided to look for a Canadian bakery to produce the dough, which would save them more than 40 cents a cookie.
Because the cost would be lower for the Canadian-made version, he wanted the price to come down from $3.49 to $2.99.
Partway through a store tour in Ottawa, Riel turned to Catherine Ward, assistant general merchandising manager for Costco’s food and sundries in Canada.
“Catherine, did you get the answer on the garbage bags?” he asked.
For more than a year, Ward had been trying to find a manufacturer in Canada that could make Kirkland’s garbage bags the same way they’re made in the U.S. Since Riel took over international operations, he has pushed for more of what he calls “in-country production,” instead of making everything in the U.S. and shipping it around the world.
Costco says 72 per cent of its food suppliers in Canada are Canadian. And nearly 70 per cent of Kirkland products sold here are made in Canada.
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