Peter Cantley‘s floral and garden expertise comes from many years of experience in the business, the past 29 of which were as Vice President, Floral and Garden, Loblaw Companies Limited.
Loblaw Companies Limited is Canada’s largest food retailer and a leading provider of drugstore, general merchandise and financial products and services with annual sales of $32 billion. Loblaw is known for quality, innovation and value. They offer Canada’s strongest control label program, including the unique President’s Choice, no name and Joe Fresh brands. With more than 1,000 corporate and franchised stores from coast to coast, Loblaw and its franchisees employ more than 134,000 full-time and part-time employees, making them one of Canada’s largest private sector employers.
Loblaw pioneered the concept of pop-up garden centers in Canada, and has since grown this business under Peter’s leadership to become Canada’s most successful garden retailer. With over 650 garden centers, Loblaw has the largest number of stores and the largest market share of live plant material of any garden retailer in the country.
Working with Loblaw has afforded Peter many unique opportunities, including the continued expansion of the outdoor garden center business across the country, building a national network of exceptional growers for Loblaw garden centers and developing unique, exclusive floral and garden center products and programs for the business across the country.
Under his leadership, the floral and garden team has introduced countless new and exclusive items that have delighted consumers and gardeners across the country. Peter has traveled the world searching for the latest lawn and garden products – this includes putting together a team of growers and meeting with breeders to help determine what will grow best in various regions, nationally. Each year, his introductions included exciting new plants, gardening décor and accessories.
Peter earned his business degree, a Bachelor of Administrative Studies from York University.He was on the board of the Toronto Botanical Garden for a number of years and is a sought-after speaker at garden industry events in Canada and the United States.