Page 2 - GTA South BU Q2 Newsletter

Dave Puri,
VP
GTA South Operations
Dear Associates,
First off, I want to thank you for your leadership throughout the pandemic. Your leadership has been instrumental with your staff navigating through the pandemic. Your patients and customers have frequently stepped up to recognize you and your teams as integral members of their communities. You have flexed business operations and implemented new SOPs to keep both your staff and customers safe. As other businesses reopen in the GTA during stage 2 many of them are looking to the best practices that you’ve implemented as a benchmark on how to operate businesses safely during the pandemic. Canadians recognize this and in the recent Gustavson Brand Trust Index survey Shoppers Drug Mart was named as the most-trusted retail brand in Canada and one of the most-trusted brands overall. Your contributions have all played a role in helping Shoppers Drug Mart achieve this great recognition.
As front-line clinicians, it was difficult to see many close contact patient care services be put on hold during the peak of the pandemic. Your leadership was paramount with helping your Pharmacy teams navigate this new reality. In order to help your most vulnerable patients live healthy lives at home your Pharmacy teams adopted virtual MedsChecks to deliver patient care to high-risk patients. The adoption of virtual MedsChecks by your Pharmacy teams will be important for the next generation of Pharmacists as we embrace the use of technology to engage with our patients.
When we started off the year we set a stretch goal for the BU to achieve a 13% e- Refill penetration rate. At the end of Q2 our BU was #1 in Canada with an e-Refill penetration rate of 16.2%. This huge accomplishment helped your Pharmacy teams smooth out peaks in demand during the height of the pandemic so that you could focus on front line patient care activities. This was not easy given the change to 30 day fills and the associated downstream implications of this. Your Pharmacy teams have remained strong and shown resilience during these difficult times and I want to thank you for this.
VP Address
Your front shop teams and FSMs have been working in overdrive to keep your shelves stocked and stores shoppable during the pandemic. The initial stock- piling of essential goods put a strain on the supply chain and we continue to feel the impacts of this across many categories. We are still several weeks away from a point where vendors will be caught up and capable of supplying their full assortment of products to your stores. Your cosmetic teams are back and we are taking a cautious approach to the reintroduction of different aspects of the cosmetics business to keep your staff and customers safe.
The past several months have also been a time to pause and reflect on what’s going on in the world. I am proud to work with a diverse group of individuals and a diverse group of Associates across the GTA. It is this diversity that makes us strong. Discrimination is real and it is our obligation as leaders in the business to address this. Sometimes these conversations can be difficult and sometimes we may not know how to approach this. I would encourage you to be curious and ask questions. Listen to your staff member’s experiences and be open to learning from them. Together we can ensure SDM is a place of inclusivity that reflects the great diversity we have in the GTA.
In closing, please do take time to reset and recharge on the personal front. If you are healthy and well then you can take care of your teams and communities. In this issue of our BU newsletter we have shared some staycation ideas from across the region as potential thought starters on what you can do to get away with the travel restrictions in place.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need any support or if you have feedback to share.
Regards, Dave