Longo’s CEO Anthony Longo on the ‘Biggest Opportunity in Grocery’

Longo’s Brothers Fruit Market of Toronto was recently recognized as the No. 1 grocery retailer in the 2020 Ontario Leger WOW Study, which polled more than 13,000 Ontarians on some 16 dimensions of the in-store customer experience. Citing factors including Longo’s ambiance, product quality, checkout efficiency and staff courtesy, survey respondents consistently reported Longo’s stores are inviting and comfortable. Shoppers also reported feeling recognized and important on each store visit.

But after years at the top of its game, Longo’s—which was founded in 1956—more recently had fallen in the Leger rankings, a fact that Longo’s President and CEO Anthony Longo openly acknowledged upon receiving this year’s award.

How did this long-celebrated Canadian grocer get back on the in-store excellence track and where is it headed next? WGB connected with Longo to find out.

Jennifer Strailey: Congratulations on being the No. 1 grocery retailer in the 2020 Ontario Leger WOW Study. You candidly noted that Longo’s ratings had dropped three years ago, prompting change that you believe put you back on top. Can you share more specifics on how you reimagined your business, what that process looked like, and how your offerings and store designs are different/better today as a result?

Anthony Longo: Listening to our guests is how we make impactful changes. We make a conscious effort to understand guest behaviors and preferences and allow that insight to shape everything from how we design our stores to product launches. Part of this process is also thinking critically about trends and deciphering which will persist and which will be transient. This helps us understand how to make bold moves with the guest in mind.

This year, we added to our Longo’s Private Label lineup and launched two new Longo’s-specific branded lines, Curato and Essentials. The Curato line brings home the best of Italy with highly curated, premium Italian imports. It pays homage to the Longo’s heritage and shares our passion for food and quality ingredients. Essentials was created to bring household staples to our guests, with the quality Longo’s is known for at prices that are lower than national brands. They are approachable and accessible—two important factors to our guests.

By listening to our guests, and the experience they have while shopping with us, it allows us to make informed decisions that will better match their preferences and make their interactions with our brand as positive as possible.

You mentioned digital solutions as part of the re-imaging. Has Longo’s recently expanded its digital presence/services? What role has the pandemic played in accelerating your e-commerce expansion and how important is digital to the grocery business moving forward and in a post-pandemic world? 

While we have offered our grocery delivery service, Grocery Gateway, for more than 20 years, the pandemic undoubtedly accelerated the expansion and adoption of our services. We believe that the growth of online shopping will hold steady, and we have invested to ensure that we can win the digital shelf by optimizing our online capabilities and conveying our value proposition. In addition to providing delivery or pickup from Longo’s directly, we also work with third-party platforms and marketplaces to reach more guests, including Uber, Cornershop and Ritual. 

The importance of digital to the grocery business moving forward cannot be overstated enough. We all must pressure test e-commerce, expand necessary capacity limits to prepare for an increase in guest flow. Equally as important, we must invest in advanced analytics to ensure personal, timely and automated interactions with our guests.

I understand that you’ve also heard positive feedback from shoppers on your pandemic response. How have you reassured shoppers and employees throughout the pandemic? Has your response to COVID changed the way shoppers and employees view Longo’s in the long term?

Deemed an essential business early in the pandemic, all grocers were tasked with playing a critical role in helping individuals and communities adapt to a new normal. We are proud of the steps that we took during the pandemic, including being the first retailer to implement a mandatory mask policy and temperature checks for team members. We implemented preventative and safety measures across all facets of our business, and we made it our priority to communicate regularly to our team members and to our guests as COVID-19 evolved and changed the way we shopped.

While we didn’t have a playbook to guide us through the tumultuous first few months of the pandemic, we knew that people would take comfort receiving consistent updates, which is why we set up a dedicated webpage related to COVID-19. The webpage was, and continues to be, updated regularly.

Throughout COVID-19, we also engaged regularly with members of the media to keep the broader public informed of our efforts and our commitment to stopping the spread of COVID-19.

As a result of our efforts, we believe we have created and fostered an environment of trust within our organization where team members know we will always be transparent and flexible wherever possible. Externally, we believe we not only provided peace of mind to our current guests, but we believe new shoppers visited us for the first time because of the steps that we took inside of our stores. 

Over the years, WGB has covered Longo’s excellence in retail foodservice/meal solutions. How has this area of your stores evolved since the pandemic? What do customers want most now and how are you preparing to meet their needs in the future?

Longo’s offerings have evolved significantly throughout the last year. While we had a number of services and offerings like our meal kits and in-person cooking classes prior to the pandemic, we’ve adjusted and expanded offers like this to ensure they work best for our guests in the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, we’ve expanded our meal solutions as more people are cooking and eating at home. This includes our meal kit and prepared food offerings available in-store and online. Guests can easily order Longo’s Takeout for a wide variety of prepared meal solutions for pickup or delivery, should this be more convenient.

In December 2020, we launched our Virtual Loft cooking classes to support our guests’ needs of creating new and exciting dishes throughout the week.

What has been your biggest challenge/lesson learned in the last year? What do you anticipate will be your biggest challenge in 2021?

The pandemic introduced many challenges for all grocers, including everything from basic store operations to supply chain management, all requiring careful planning and execution. These challenges put pressure on all aspects of our business and required all hands on deck to ensure we were well-positioned to rise.

Looking ahead to 2021, we anticipate the biggest opportunity will lie in e-commerce. COVID-19 will permanently reshape e-commerce as we know it and we must be consistently placing this on the executive agenda to ensure it receives adequate priority. As part of this, we must be always working toward strengthening the guest experience online as well as in-store. Furthermore, as we move more deeply into a digital-first landscape, we are challenged to maintain customer loyalty online and this will require us to also review branded online and mobile sales channels to attract and grow customer loyalty.