Insider Only Ottawa, Retail

Giant Tiger names former Home Depot, Walmart exec Gino DiGioacchino new CEO

David Sali

September 27, 2023
11:13 AM
ET

Organizations: Dollarama, Giant Tiger, Home Depot, Walmart

People: Bruce Winder, Gino DiGioacchino, Gordon Reid, Paul Wood

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It’s undoubtedly not the most popular take, but Gino DiGioacchino is a big fan of the commute from Toronto to Ottawa. It isn’t the drive on the 401 itself that gets DiGioacchino, who was named president and CEO of Giant Tiger on Monday, revved up. It’s the stops along the way. “We have 270 stores across Canada, and my mission is to get to every single store as much as I possibly can,” the 57-year-old executive, who still lives in the Greater Toronto Area and regularly travels back and forth to Giant Tiger’s home base in Ottawa, told OBJ on Tuesday. “Between the GTA and Ottawa, there’s more than one Giant Tiger. It gives me an opportunity to stop in, say hello to local owners and see what’s happening in the community. It’s fantastic.” DiGioacchino took over leadership of the venerable Canadian retailer on an interim basis last November after previous chief executive Paul Wood left the company. He had already spent five years on Giant Tiger’s board of directors, working closely with founder Gordon Reid. DiGioacchino says Reid, who died in July at age 89, left a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten. “The opportunity to take on a permanent role (at Giant Tiger) was beyond a privilege and an honour,” he says. “By no stretch of the imagination am I Mr. Reid, but fundamentally I get the brand, I understand the grassroots of it. It has a great opportunity in Canada.” In more than three decades in retail, Giant Tiger’s new CEO has had a hand in almost every aspect of the industry. DiGioacchino’s career includes stints at two of the best-known brands on the planet. In 2000, he joined The Home Depot, where he held several senior executive roles on both sides of the border, including chief merchandising officer for the home improvement giant’s Canadian operations. DiGioacchino later moved to Walmart, where he led the big-box behemoth’s Canadian e-commerce division and spearheaded the launch of its grocery home shopping service. Now, he’s the boss of Giant Tiger, the discount chain whose black and yellow signage has become a familiar sight in neighbourhoods from the Prairies to the Atlantic coast. Catering to budget-minded customers, the retail operation that got its start with a single shop in the ByWard Market in 1961 has become famous for offering a wider selection of goods than dollar stores in smaller, more intimate layouts than the big-box chains. The store has an “interesting price point that is above Dollarama but below Walmart,” retail analyst Bruce Winder explained when the company turned 60 in 2021. But DiGioacchino bristles at the suggestion that Giant Tiger is “sandwiched” between ultra-low-price retailers like Dollarama and discount department stores such as Walmart. “If you’re going to force me into a hierarchy, I would say put us in the hard-discount realm, which Dollarama sort of isn’t because they’re in the dollar store business,” he says. “Walmart, they’re just too big to be in the core hard-discount (space).”

Franchise model

Giant Tiger’s “secret sauce,” DiGioacchino explains, is its franchise model. Most of the stores are owned by experienced managers who live in the same communities where they work. That makes it easier for franchisees to keep their finger on the customer’s pulse and alter inventory accordingly, DiGioacchino says. He also stresses that Giant Tiger doesn’t try to be all things to all people. “Our limited assortment (of products), our ability to get to those communities really puts us in a place by ourselves,” he says. “That’s really where our focus has been and that to me is the niche that we can establish. Our ambition is to serve a community and be part of that community.” While the chain is known for offering an assortment of groceries, housewares, apparel, beauty products, outdoor gear and kids’ toys and games, the new CEO says one of Giant Tiger’s strengths is that it stays in its well-established lane. Even when it’s the only grocery store in town, for example, the retailer steers clear of offerings such as fresh meats and baked goods that cost more to procure and produce. “We have to be very smart. It’s not one size fits all,” DiGioacchino explains. “Our focus is, what do our customers need to live every single day and how do we (deliver) that at the lowest possible price. Once we do that, then we can ask the next question. We haven’t done that perfectly yet.” Plotting strategy is DiGioacchino’s bailiwick. Looking at the big picture, he believes Giant Tiger hasn’t fully capitalized on its “phenomenal” private-label program, particularly when it comes to groceries. In that vein, the chain is set to roll out a new line of canned vegetables under its Giant Value brand in the next few months. But DiGioacchino feels there are more gains to be made in the grocery aisle as inflation puts the squeeze on shoppers’ pocketbooks and supermarket prices come under ever-increasing scrutiny. “We do food well, but we can do it a lot better,” he says. “Right now, grocery is the place that we’re focused on.” Meanwhile, the company’s familiar cat logo keeps popping up in new communities, with 269 locations now dotting the landscape in every province except British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador. While Giant Tiger has stated it plans to boost its store count to 300 over the next few years, DiGioacchino says there’s no rush to reach that milestone. He remembers all too well being at The Home Depot when the retailer was forced to shutter hundreds of stores in the U.S. during the financial crisis of 2008-09. Opening new locations is a costly venture, and he says if Giant Tiger is going to keep growing its footprint, it will do so only in places where there is a strong local franchisee ready to step in and the market opportunity is clear. “Yes, we want to be able to expand,” DiGioacchino says. “But this is not about, ‘Let’s blanket Canada with black and yellow.’ This is about delivering the right value proposition to the right (location). It’s not a race.” Asked if he plans to tinker with the iconic cat logo in an effort to update the chain’s image, DiGioacchino’s response is an emphatic no. He once asked Reid if he had any “sacred cows” that were off-limits to change. The legendary entrepreneur replied that there were only two – the first being the franchise system that is the backbone of the company. “The second one? You can’t touch Friendly,” DiGioacchino says with a smile, referring to Giant Tiger’s feline mascot. “I agree with him.”