- • Sébastien: Restaurant Operation Manager and Food Product
- • Béatrice: Product Manager
- • Marie-Lise: Senior Product Manager
1. How would you describe your working trio?
Sébastien Beaudoin: Proactive, creative, focused on finding solutions, with a wonderful open mind and a sense of self-criticism. We like to give each other challenges in order to find the best result. We have excellent chemistry between the three of us.
Béatrice Larrivée: I would say we’re complementary. Sébastien supports all our products in development and Marie-Lise is very meticulous. We’re all creative in our own ways. We all play three essential parts.
Marie-Lise St-Amand: Collaborative and…foodies! We sit together, all three of us, to jot down our game plans, then to validate our projects with our suppliers and the IGA team. We always ask ourselves if each idea is representative of the brand. Then the projects are launched and we start developing them.
The development of a product goes through a long process, starting with the idea. Most of the time, the inspiration comes from existing recipes on the site. Then our suppliers are called in to develop the projected product, followed by the IGA team, who work closely with the food development team.
Brigitte and Ricardo are also involved in this process, as is our General Manager Mireille Arteau, who puts in her two cents to both the strategic plan and food products approval. It’s real teamwork, with everyone putting their taste buds at the service of finding The Best product.
2. How is choosing the right supplier essential to ensure that products reflect our image and are both accessible and delicious?
S.B.: Finding a supplier is one of the most important steps in the process. We need to look at how they work, their values, the history of the company. All of this under very tight deadlines, quite often. We look for the best partner for us and the one that’ll make the product really shine. When we have a new project, we return whenever possible to our current associates, with whom we’ve developed a relationship and who know and understand our brand.
B.L.: First of all, when we develop a product, we always think of the potential to develop a range. So we look to develop long-term relationships in which we can grow. We love to go to places, visit the factory, meet with people. Strong relationships make the collaboration easier. Our external suppliers become our colleagues, in a way.
M.S.: Of course, we have many suppliers now. Nothing comes out of a factory without having been tasted more than once. Recently, we spent a whole day at the factory tasting a product that we had modified. We even take part in shelf life tests for certain products, such as our vinaigrettes. We are constantly collaborating with them and we depend on the excellence of their expertise. It’s really all about teamwork.
"Our job entails several taste tests (practically every day), a lot of follow-ups (as much with our suppliers as with IGA), some paperwork (for certifications), but also tons of creativity." — Béatrice
3. What aspects of product development do you like the most and why?
S.B.: Everything that happens between the first sample and the last. We go through a huge evolution between the idea on paper and the final product, which is really interesting. Sometimes, we may even be confident right from the start, with the very first sample.
B.L.: It’s hard to say, because I like a lot of things: coming up with the idea, choosing recipes, visiting the factory, the collaboration, etc. I love taking part in the food development strategy and tasting our products!
M.S.: What I love the most is everything about business negotiations. I love the relational aspects of my collaboration with the IGA team and the suppliers, as well as the close relationship I have forged with them. That’s what makes my weeks more dynamic.
"I’ve long worked as a chef. I love using my expertise to develop tasty and efficient products that speak to the reality of grocery stores. For example, instead of adding a tomato in a sandwich, we can use a sundried tomato mayonnaise, which is doable in our partner factories and will last longer on the shelf at the grocery store" — Sébastien
4. Tell us about what drives you, your ambitions for this part of the company, which is the development of food product ranges.
S.B.: I think that it’s absolutely consistent with the mission of the company, which is “Eating together.” We want to develop flagship products in order to help people in the kitchen, depending on the time they have available. The best example of that is our chocolate cake. We have the recipe on the site, the ready-to-cook cake mix for those who want to skip a few steps and also the ready-to-eat cake in grocery stores. Consumers have the option to choose according to their schedule.
B.L.: I want to continue developing products that respect the brand and that are aimed at all kinds of consumers. One of the wishes of the Food Product Department is also to launch our products everywhere in Canada through Sobeys over the next few years.
M.S.: When you’re a member of the IGA family, there’s a lot of space for our products. I’m happy to see their great success with customers. We’re present in almost every IGA store and the results are conclusive.
"95% of the time, we ask our colleagues in the office to participate in our taste tests. It provides us with ammunition, a really good sampling!" — Marie-Lise
Marie-Lise, who invest time and effort to distinguish themselves and bring added value to our food products, while staying in tune with the brand.
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