SPECIAL FEATURE
TREATING THYROID DISEASE COMPANY PROFILE
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ELEMENT NUTRITION
CATERING TO
INDIVIDUALITY Yvan Bourgault, Homeopathy Quebec
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JANUARY 2016
In Memoriam: David Holmes
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CONTENTS VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 1
44
20 30
“Customers always have the option to go elsewhere, so we need to please them to ensure their good experience in the store.” U P F RON T
F E AT U R E S
10 PUBLISHER’S LETTER
20 NATURAL REMEDIES UNDER FIRE
38 TREATING THYROID DISEASE
30 COVER STORY: HOMEOPATHY QUEBEC
42 COMPANY PROFILE: ELEMENT NUTRITION
36 IN MEMORIAM: DAVID HOLMES
44 ADAPTOGENS
12 GET THE GOODS 14 INDUSTRY NEWS 22 SKU REVIEW
By Philip Waddington, ND
By Irina Lytchak & Inna Levchuk
26 TOP SELLERS
By Corrina Mosca
By Rochelle Fernandes, MSc., ND (cand) & Phill Feltham
By Inna Levchuk & Phill Feltham
By Marita Schauch (BSC, ND)
FIND US ON
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PUBLISHER’S LETTER
W
e spend much of our time partnering with practitioners to protect and improve our customers’ health through natural and organic solutions. However, there are other ways we need to protect our customers—and ourselves as well. We are changing the way we do business in order to improve the customer’s shopping experience. Many of us are already offering our customers the option of buying natural health products online. Some of us are also offering customers digital technologies to improve the in-store shopping experience as well. Moreover, the rise in digital technologies is giving us opportunities to improve how we do business: manage inventory, expedite financial transactions, as well as store customer information in retailer databases (the latter presents customer privacy concerns). Customer privacy is another reason why it is necessary for us to implement cybersecurity solutions. As retailers, we are privileged to have access to sensitive customer information (for example name, address, as well as credit card and medical information). The last thing we want is to have a security breach in our systems, which results in damage such as credit card fraud. In other words, we, as retailers have a lot to protect. Unfortunately, the retail industry has experienced some major breaches in recent years. For example, Home Depot’s point-of-sale (POS) system was attacked due to exploited weaknesses. Security laws carry heavy penalties for retailers who do not have proper security practices in place. “Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards have been in place since 2006 and go through a three-year update cycle,” says Darace Rose, a cybersecurity expert with GMJ Consulting, a cybersecurity firm. “We have seen some major updates to the current standard that impact retailers.” Rose adds that the bar is rising, and retailers need to do more to become compliant or to stay compliant. “Those who are compliant are better equipped to handle cybersecurity incidents because the PCI compliance standards ensure that various protection mechanisms and operational procedures are in place and have been practiced,” he says. Remember, hackers are relentless with their attempts and strategies in penetrating security systems to obtain customer information. “Don’t put your head in the sand and pretend the problem doesn’t exist because the threat is real and without taking the correct steps, retailers will find themselves in difficult situations that can be avoided,” Rose adds. “Work with GMJ or similar cybersecurity firms to ensure that your clients’ information is safe and secure.”
Olivier Felicio Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
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FOUNDER, PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Olivier Felicio SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR
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Inna Levchuk E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T
Corrina Mosca ART DIRECTOR
Scott Jordan GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Kaitlin Yep CONTRIBUTORS
Chantal Carbonneau, Rochelle Fernandes, Irina Lytchak, Marsha Miller, Marita Schauch, Philip Waddington, ND
THE
Cyber Health
ISSN 1197 - 1495 | V O L U M E 1 6
G R O U P
PRESIDENT
Olivier Felicio GENER AL MANAGER
Melanie Seth GENER AL CUSTOMER CARE MANAGER
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COVER STORY
CATERING TO INDIVIDUALITY
The rise of Homeopathy Quebec BY IRINA LYTCHAK AND INNA LEVCHUK PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHANTAL CARBONNEAU
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ounded in 1992, Homeopathy Quebec has garnered a topnotch reputation for offering an extended selection of healthcare alternatives and products that complement patients’ conventional medicine. As a specialized pharmacy, it offers over 4,000 products while promoting the homeopathic core of the business. “We have different modalities to make sure that the patient will get the best result of what we have to offer,” explains Yvan Bourgault, pharmacist and co-owner of Homeopathy Quebec. “We are also a pharmacy and our pharmacists are always on hand to monitor any interactions between the drug that the patient will take and natural health products that he or she wants to take on top of what they are doing already.” Since Homeopathy Quebec does not offer prescription drugs, it works in harmony with other pharmacies that have these medications by directing their patients to their location. In turn, neighbouring pharmacies send their patients to Homeopathy Quebec for the natural solutions. LOCATION Located near the Laval University in Quebec City, the pharmacy occupies 3,500 square feet of space, which boasts an expansive interior with rich wooden flooring and warm lighting. Bourgault says that he sees the pharmacy expanding across Canada in the future and hopes to open the next location in Montreal.
“We have more and more customers online from Ontario and from B.C. as well, so that’s definitely something we envisioned,” he says. “I won’t do that alone, I would love to have partners with me, and this concept, I think, would be a good one for others in Canada.” Homeopathy Quebec currently employs about 23 staff and Bourgault says that his next step as manager is to instill a more solid structure of how the business is operated as well as visibility into day-to-day operations. ABOUT BOURGAULT Bourgault was by no means a stranger to the pharmaceutical business when he took over Homeopathy Quebec. Coming from an extensive background in homeopathy in Canada and Europe, Bourgault’s name is well known to members of the industry. He started as a pharmacist and, shortly after, was offered a position with Boiron Canada. “First, I really took care of their business development, and then became CEO; I did that for almost 10 years,” Bourgault says. This success also inspired him to serve the Canadian Homeopathic Pharmaceutical Association as President, giving him an opportunity to deliver courses to pharmacists at the Laval University and the University of Montreal. Bourgault’s extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry and his interest in homeopathy later won him CEO position with Heel Canada, where he stayed for almost 14 years.
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“I was in charge of marketing and sales as CEO for about ten years,” he says. “Then, Heel offered me a position in Germany, because we had a mandate there.” After returning to Canada, Bourgault accepted the position of Executive VP and head of Canadian operations at Atrium, a company that owned a group of brands at the time. “I had three business units reporting to me,” he says. “I was responsible for different brands: Trophic, Garden of Life, and Wild Rose. Also, I had two production plans: for Trophic, I had one unit in Penticton and I had one unit also in Quebec that was reporting to me. My mandate with Atrium was really to consolidate the business and streamline the operations.” When a European group bought Atrium, the company decided to cut Bourgault’s position. “Back then, in the summer of 2013, I decided to look for a company to buy instead of looking for a job. So I found Homeopathy Quebec, and I’m very happy about this acquisition,” he says. The actual act of buying the pharmacy from Michel Groleau, its founder, took place in June 2014. When Bourgault acquired the company, he saw a great potential in Calendulis, a house eczema cream that had been around for 20 years. “I immediately started a process to register this product and now, it’s registered with Health Canada,” Bourgault adds. After the product obtained the DVHM, Bourgault found a partner that agreed to produce the cream—in Canada, only companies
with a specific licence can manufacture therapeutics approved by Health Canada. Also, to produce more traffic on the pharmacy’s website, Bourgault made it bilingual. “Now, the site’s response is very good, so you can browse easily, and you have different ways of finding the right product for you,” he says. COMBINING THE EXPERIENCES With his experience in operating large companies, Bourgault now appreciates the beauty of having his own business, where, he says, “there is a great potential to control your destiny” and have a perfect work-home balance. “Back then [when working for Boiron Canada and Heels], I was never home, basically a few days a week—only during weekends,” Bourgault says. “Now, I can train more, have time with my children and my wife, having a better quality of life.” Currently, Bourgault enjoys the opportunity of working as a pharmacist, wearing a white lab coat and servicing the public directly—something he used to do when he started his career. He says the best part about his business is getting a direct feedback from a happy customer. “Customers always have the option to go elsewhere, so we need to please them to ensure their good experience in the store,” he says. By correlating products in a way that is in accordance with the patient’s needs, Homepathy Quebec lives up to one of its company slogans, “Customized remedies, because you are unique.”
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