SAQ | Wine from elsewhere bottled here

Bottling a large quantity of wine from elsewhere, in bottles made from recycled glass. This is the wish expressed by the President and CEO of the SAQ, Catherine Dagenais.

Nathaelle Morissette
The Press

This kind of proposal does not surprise Frédéric Laurin, professor of economics at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR), who believes that this idea of ​​circular economy is interesting. But still it is necessary, according to him, that there is a market for this type of initiative.

Bottling in Quebec

“The instructions, if there is nothing at the end, we will have made all these changes for nothing”, affirmed M^me Dagenais during a speech delivered Monday at the invitation of the Canadian Club of Montreal. “What can we do to reuse glass? »

Pilot projects to prepare for the expansion of the deposit were set up in 2021 in a few places in Quebec. They ended in January.

“The goal is to create value for the glass. Currently, it has zero value, which is why it ends up in the landfill. [Il faut] create a market for melting glass, remaking bottles, importing wine from all over the world. I’m not talking about grands crus classés, she made a point of specifying. I am talking about wines for everyday consumption. »

Invited by The Press, at the end of her speech, to clarify her idea, Catherine Dagenais indicated that she was mainly targeting wines sold at less than $20. These represent 80% of the wines offered by the state-owned company.

“Already, there is an industry in Quebec bottling imported wines, it exists,” she says. All wines sold in grocery stores are bottled in Quebec and some wines sold at the SAQ are bottled in Quebec, but there are fewer. The intention is to have a critical mass of wine that would be bottled in Quebec and sold on the shelves of the SAQ.

“The majority of SAQ bottles are green bottles, and there is currently no foundry to melt green glass. Catherine Dagenais sees here the opportunity to develop a “local business”.

Professor Frédéric Laurin believes that the idea can be “interesting”. “But it’s not the SAQ’s business,” he insists. This is not his job. »

“There has to be a market. There has to be an incentive for an entrepreneur to get into it,” he adds.

According to him, the fact of importing wine to bottle it once it has arrived at its destination would not, however, affect the quality of the products offered on the shelves of the Société des alcools du Québec.

Customer “care”

Of all SAQ sales, 4% are currently generated online, whereas they accounted for less than 1% before the pandemic. “Nevertheless, 96% of business happens in stores. It is very important,” recalls Mr.^me Dagenais.

And when they walk into the branch, the customer wants to be “taken care of,” she says. This is why, over the next year, the government corporation will equip its store employees with a new tool so that they can not only better advise wine and spirits lovers based on their purchase history – program Inspire – but also order the coveted product online for them if it is not available on site, a maneuver that employees cannot currently perform. Customers have to search online and order on their own. With the new technology, the advisor will be able to proceed with the online transaction immediately, and the customer will only have to pick up their bottles at the branch when they arrive or have them delivered to their home.

The SAQ late on delivery?

Currently, an order placed online at SAQ.com takes approximately three to five days before being delivered to the customer. Is the Crown corporation behind in this respect compared to supermarkets, for example, which can do it the same day? “We are not behind in the world of online alcohol sales. But it is certain that you have to be agile. There is a demand,” acknowledges the President and CEO.

Within a year, the SAQ also wants to set up a pilot project that would allow employees of the state-owned company to do home delivery themselves. Currently, Purolator performs this task. “We have to see if it’s viable, if it’s more effective. I cannot say today that it will be the model of the future. »

To carry out these projects, in February 2021, the Crown corporation announced that it would invest $48.5 million to expand by 200,000 sq.^⁠2 its distribution center located in Montreal and to acquire an automated order picking system. The objective: to offer a variety of 20,000 products online – there are currently 3,000 – and enable customers to receive their delivery within 24 hours.

To do this, SAQ.com employees learned on May 5 that they would be repatriated to the distribution center as of September and that they would change their union accreditation. A “centralizing” method denounced by the SEMB-SAQ-CSN union which represents the employees of SAQ.com. He had even accused his employer of following in Amazon’s footsteps.