Price Freeze's Big Week, Big Grocery Merger, and Special Guest Yanick Gervais, Olymel's CEO
Recorded live together in person in Toronto, we start with a retrospect on the past two week discussion around grocery price freezes and key take-aways from all the discourse around the price of food, the people who sell it to consumers, and the people who sell it to the grocers. Our excellent guest interview is with Yanick Gervais, President ad CEO of Olymel, the Canadian leader in producing, processing and marketing pork and poultry meat. We talk about the Kroger and Albertsons proposed merger, spooky halloween research, and Alberta's new premier and their agricultural sector.
The Food Professor · Yanick Gervais
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Show Notes
Welcome to The Food Professor Season three, episode 4!
We recoding this episode live together in Toronto at T3 Sheraton hotel - great to be together again in person for the show! First we start with a retrospect on the past two week discussion around grocery price freezes, and all the energy that went on in the media, industry, and government, and reflecting back on a particularly active week, what Sylvain takes away from all the discourse around the price of food, the people who sell it to consumers, and the people who sell it to the grocers?
We also talk about the tradeoffs between first mover advantage and owing an industry-wide issue - putting yourself in the front window so to speak.
Our excellent guest interview is with Yanick Gervais, President ad CEO of Olymel, the Canadian leader in producing, processing and marketing pork and poultry meat, with 15,000 employees serving the Canadian market and exporting products to over 65 countries. They have over 30 plants in five Canadian provinces.
We then head south for a few minutes and talk about big grocery mergers…specifically, Krogers and Albertsons $25 billion U.S. deal - together would have 710,000 workers, 5,000 stores and sales greater than $200 billion with a B. Move it to No. 2 with 13.5% share versus Walmart’s 15.5%…What say you about the dynamics that created this deal, and thoughts on the likelihood that it will actually happen. They will spin 400 stores and create a new rival to get past antitrust …
Our excellent guest interview is with Yanick Gervais, President ad CEO of Olymel, the Canadian leader in producing, processing and marketing pork and poultry meat, with 15,000 employees serving the Canadian market and exporting products to over 65 countries. They have over 30 plants in five Canadian provinces.
Lastly we talk about spooky halloween research, and Alberta's new premier and their agricultural sector.
About Yanick
Yanick Gervais was appointed President and CEO of Olymel on November 11, 2021. He succeeded Réjean Nadeau, who passed away on October 14 of the same year after leading the company for nearly a quarter of a century. When La Fernandière was acquired in 2016, Yanick Gervais joined Olymel and first became Vice President and General Manager of this new division, which focuses on the production of fresh sausages.
In 2018, Yanick Gervais was appointed Senior Vice President, Operations, in addition to overseeing the Engineering and Logistics departments. In this capacity, he had the key responsibility to oversee the operations of more than 30 plants located mainly in Quebec, but also in four other Canadian provinces. Before joining Olymel, Yanick Gervais was co-owner and general manager of La Fernandière for over 10 years. He was the grandson of one of its founders.
Trained as an accountant and tax specialist, Yanick Gervais previously worked with the accounting firm Dessureault, Leblanc, Lefebvre, C.A. from 2001 to 2005. He has been very active on various committees related to the chartered accountancy profession, particularly on training and recognition of the next generation of chartered accountants. Yanick Gervais volunteers for several charitable organizations and is very involved in his community. He holds a graduate diploma and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, as well as a master’s degree in taxation (MTax) from the Université de Sherbrooke.
About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.
He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.
Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre’s Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa.
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks , The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and now in its second season, Conversations with CommerceNext! You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Be sure and check out Michael's latest venture for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue, his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!
About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.
Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal.
He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada.
Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces and other countries.
With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues.
Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the National Retail Federation (NRF) as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2025, and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.