Oct 03.2025   

As a leading retailer dedicated to serving rural and remote communities, providing essential food products, general merchandise, and services across northern Canada, rural Alaska, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean, the North West Company takes pride in its deep community roots and rich enterprising legacy.

Our logistics capability and scale in serving remote communities are core strengths, central to our value offer; reliably delivering essential goods and foster strong community partnerships. Our value chain at a glance:

Sourcing: We procure products and finished goods from manufacturers and distributors in our global supply chain (including Indigenous and local products).

Distribution: We move and bring products and services to our customers, by using multiple modes of transport such as trucks, trains, aircraft, ships and barges.

Retail: We sell a broad range of products and services across geographically remote and diverse markets, based on the needs and preferences of our customers.

Pictured above: North West’s transportation network supporting the delivery of essential goods to remote communities.

Some Highlights of Our Value chain

• Our transportation network is one of the most complex of any retailer, requiring a combination of transportation modes including planes, ships, trucks and trains.
• More than 60% of the communities we serve are inaccessible by all-weather road, relying on ice roads, aircraft or sealift.*
• North Star Air, which we acquired in 2017, plays a key role in shipping products to northern communities.
• Annually, we move more than 54,000 tons of freight by air and more than 114,000 tons by ocean/barge.*

With our logistics expertise, we take pride in delivering products and services to remote communities, guided by our vision to bring to communities products and services that help people live better. Learn more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

*For the year ending 2024.