Canadian food and drug retailer Metro Inc. is expanding on a long-term partnership with customer data specialist dunnhumby.
Under a renewed agreement, dunnhumby becomes Metro’s customer data science, loyalty and software partner across its more than 600 grocery stores, which include the Metro, Metro Plus, Super C and Food Basics banners.
Chicago-based duhnhumby also said that, under the deal, the companies are “evolving to a more agile and strategic partnership leveraging customer data science for the changing retail market in Canada.”
“With dunnhumby’s deep insights that are delivered by their customer data science platform, we have gained a better understanding of our customers and their shopping needs. In turn, this has enabled us to provide them with more personalized shopping experiences, helping to drive long-term customer loyalty and growth,” Alain Tadros, vice president of marketing at Montreal-based Metro, said in a statement. “We are looking forward to what the next chapter of our relationship brings with dunnhumby on our shared customer-first journey.”
Metro and dunnhumby began their partnership in November 2009 with the announcement of plans to form a joint venture dubbed Dunnhumby Canada. At the time, Metro Chairman and CEO Eric La Fleche said the retailer’s goal was to improve customer loyalty and targeted marketing efforts through more personalization, with some services also provided to manufacturers.
“We have built a strong partnership with Metro over the past 10 years, and this new agreement reflects both the strength of our relationship as well as the evolving needs of Metro,” Jose Gomes, president of North America for dunnhumby, said in announcing the renewal. “The evolution of our partnership with Metro demonstrates that dunnhumby not only espouses a customer-first approach but also lives it by evolving our working models to support what is best for our partners.”
Besides supermarkets, Metro’s retail network includes more than 650 drugstores under the Jean Coutu, Brunet, Metro Pharmacy and Drug Basics banners. The company completed its $4.5 billion (Canadian) acquisition of Jean Coutu Group in May.
