Q&A with Keurig Dr Pepper Canada President Olivier Lemire

Prior to being appointed President of Keurig Dr Pepper Canada on October 1, 2021, Olivier Lemire held a number of key leadership positions in his 11 years at Keurig Dr Pepper Canada, including Vice-President of Commercial Strategy, Vice-President of Human Resources, Senior Director Supply Chain and Partner brands, and finally, National Director of Field Sales and Operations.

Before joining KDP, he also worked for major players in the Canadian retail industry such as Procter & Gamble and Nike.

Western Grocer magazine had the opportunity to discuss his new role with him in this exclusive interview.

With a full year behind you as President of Keurig Dr Pepper Canada, can you describe what some of the challenges have been and what successes there have been in 2022?

As a President for the first time, I took a lot of time to reflect on how I wanted to run the company and what my purpose as a leader was. I was fully aware embarking on this journey that I would have a tremendous amount to learn and that the path ahead of me involved great challenges, accepting to make mistakes and be imperfect at times, but also making important achievements and getting to know the people who keep the heart of the company beating every day. My advantage was that I was very familiar with the organization already, having been there for more than 10 years. When I took over, I also accepted the responsibility of managing the strategic direction of the company and ensuring that KDP Canada remains one of the best employers in Canada and a great place to grow as a professional and build your career. At a time when we must navigate the new realities of remote work, rapid change and emerging technologies, I obviously wanted to ensure that we maintain a deep cross-functional collaboration and a great corporate culture. I began my lead as President last October, which was in the middle of an upsurge of Covid-19. I must admit that it was a challenge to take on a new role and connect with the teams while working remotely and with many restrictions and preventive measures imposed by the pandemic. But I made it and, despite a few bumps in the road, I think my journey went very well!

One of the things that makes me most proud is the commitment of our teams to be successful in the Canadian market, working together as one team and supporting each other through the challenges they faced during Covid. Despite the great challenges brought on by working from a distance during a long period of time and having to rethink the way we work, we were able to significantly grow the vast majority of our brands through our ability to reach consumers where they are and where they use our products. Many innovations made their way to the shelves, and we were even able to add a new category to our beverage portfolio through the acquisition of the Atypique brand and the establishment of a new partnership with Labatt Breweries of Canada. And finally, the team at the coffee manufacturing plant in Montreal is continually breaking production records and they had no downtime during the Covid.

How significant is social and environmental responsibility for the company?

At KDP Canada, we like to think of ourselves as a values-driven team that seeks to make a positive impact with every drink. Whether it’s through the donations, sponsorships and volunteer programs we put in place to support the needs of Canadians, or the efforts and energy we put into innovating with sustainability at heart, we seek to do our part to help build a sustainable future for our industry, an empowering space for our employees and the communities we serve. We push the pace of the sector in terms of ethics, sustainability and mutual support, encouraging everyone to do more. Our team is committed to doing meaningful work that has a higher purpose and to always striving to do better and act as a good corporate citizen.

Through our corporate responsibility platform, Drink Well. Do Good. we have ambitious goals when it comes to responsible sourcing, climate action, product design, the circular economy, health and wellness, and supporting our communities. At Keurig Dr Pepper Canada, we are what Canadians with a thirst for something better to reach for.

Can you comment specifically about the new acquisition of the Atypique non-alcoholic cocktail brand and what this will do for Keurig?

Atypique is the perfect mix of a great idea and a creative team. Born from a collaboration between Étienne Boulay and Station Agro-Biotech, Atypique has one goal: push the limits of the ready-to-drink industry, by offering classical recipes of our favourites cocktails, but in an alcohol-free version. Out of the box, out of the standards, out of the category. The one alternative for those who don’t want to drink alcohol, no matter why.

Atypique makes seven non-alcoholic ready-to-drink cocktails (spritz, margarita, gin & tonic, mojito, rum & coke, red sangria, amaretto sour) and three alcohol-free spirits (gin, aperitivo, whisky). All of their products are easy to drink and very tasty. They are currently only available in Sobeys stores across Quebec, on soberkrew.com, Apéro à zéro and on the Atypique online boutique.

Keurig Dr Pepper Canada purchased the Atypique brand officially on August 31^st and entered into a unique partnership with Station Agro-Biotech to join forces in the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink cocktail and spirit market.

Through our complementary expertise, Station Agro-Biotech and Keurig Dr Pepper Canada are now working together to expand the range of Atypique but also grow KDP Canada’s world-class offering of non-alcoholic beverages. As part of our agreement, Station Agro-Biotech actively engages in product research and development for us and allow us to have a small creative innovation lab based in Quebec.

We have high ambitions for Atypique and several exciting activities planned.

How important is innovation to the company and can you cite some examples?

Both the beverage and coffee industries are in a state of flux. Innovation in consumer products is limitless, and we pride ourselves on being ahead of the curve in trends and able to connect with our consumers in contexts they can relate to and offer them products that meet their needs.

For example, back in March of 2022, the Keurig team launched their latest innovation, the K-Supreme Plus® SMART coffee maker with BrewID, a next-generation technology platform designed to give consumers a perfectly customized, rich and full-flavoured coffee, just the way they like it. The big advantage with the BrewID is that it gives you distinctively delicious, full-flavoured coffee every time you brew since it recognizes the specific brand and roast of your pod and automatically customizes the settings to the recommendations of the coffee-roasting expert who created it. Plus, you can fine-tune your cup to be even more to your liking, by choosing from 5 strengths, 6 temperatures, and 5 cup size settings – and adjusting and storing your favourites on your smartphone, so you can schedule ahead or brew your personal perfect cup from anywhere.

Apart from brand innovations, we encourage agility in all our business activities and bring this same philosophy to our business relationships. We are one of the only group in the industry that focusses on building partnerships to differentiate ourselves in the field of sustainability and to create a bold and original diversification of products in our portfolio. We are constantly growing and evolving, while our curiosity and thirst for knowledge directly drive innovation. We are small enough to be agile, and big enough to make a difference!

A good example of this is our partnership with Labatt Breweries of Canada! Keurig Dr Pepper Canada sells, distributes and merchandises all of Labatt’s non-alcoholic beverage portfolio in groceries, convenience stores and gas stations through its distribution channels – in the rest of Canada. This new agreement came to life to broaden the distribution of Labatt’s non-alcoholic malt-based products in a network outside of its core business, and also to accelerate Keurig Dr Pepper Canada’s growth in the cold beverage category by introducing a whole new range to its current offerings.

Another good example is the partnerships we are making to support the circular economy of plastics in Canada with leading players in the industry such as the Canada Plastics Pact (CPP) as well as the efforts we are making with other Canadian corporations to improve recycling infrastructure. Keurig Dr Pepper Canada co-founded the Circular Plastics Taskforce, a collaborative initiative created with Danone, TC Transcontinental, Cascades, Dyne-a-Pak, ÉEQ and CIAC. KDP Canada has been working with these manufacturers and partners to improve plastics recycling in Quebec and Canada. Launched in 2020, with financial support from Environment and Climate Change Canada and ÉEQ, this coalition aims to create a closer alignment between market needs and recycling stakeholders and to identify and trial concrete solutions for optimizing the handling of plastics throughout the recycling value chain. The Circular Plastics Taskforce is also involved in the CPP as an implementation partner!

What new product launches are planned for 2023?

In 2023, we will launch our Keurig K-Café® SMART coffee maker in black made from 50% recycled plastic. Since the introduction of the K-Mini® and K-Mini Plus® made from 20% and 30% recycled plastic respectively back in 2020, we are progressively applying this new technology to our entire portfolio. Next year we will have more than seven coffee makers partly made from recycled plastic.

To accompany the launches of our new Keurig K-Iced™ coffeemaker and the surge in Canadian consumers’ appetite for iced coffee, Van Houtte® will be releasing three brew over ice flavours including Classic Black, Caramel Vanilla and Dark Chocolate Coconut.

On the cold beverages side, we have some exciting products coming onto the market as well, including Dr Pepper® Zero Sugar and Canada Dry® Ginger Ale Zero Sugar.

What is your vision for the future?

My priority is the health and well-being of my teams, no matter where they are based in Canada. For me, it is essential to maintain a strong culture that fosters teamwork and cross-functional collaboration. I bring this same philosophy to maintaining the strong sense of belonging that Canadian consumers have for our brands. We constantly talk about how fortunate we are to have a large community that supports our brands and evolves with them as they move through life. We want to continue our efforts to meet their needs and to satisfy their desires.