Oct. 30, 2025
As a leading retailer dedicated to serving rural and remote communities, The North West Company strives to create meaningful opportunities by expanding our partner network to include and empower Indigenous and local businesses. In doing so, we aim to offer a broad range of valued products to our customers and enhance their shopping experience.
To increase Indigenous and local product representation across our stores, and reduce barriers that often hinder such economic partnerships, we are strengthening our procurement strategy, beginning with training our Food and General Merchandise teams on new internal processes in 2024. Our enhanced vendor onboarding process now allows businesses to self-declare as a local or Indigenous (51% or more Indigenous-owned).
North West also became a proud member of the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business (CCIB), further improving our engagement with Indigenous businesses across communities.
Pictured above: Brett Hargreaves, Senior Category Manager, Merchandising team members and partcipants at Expand Your Market, held at Gibraltar House, Winnipeg, MB.
In October 2024, North West hosted its first “Expand Your Market” event, connecting Indigenous and local businesses with key department personnel to explore new partnership opportunities. The event featured interview-style, one-on-one meetings with our Merchandise team, offering participants the opportunity to showcase their products. Read more about Expand Your Market here.
As of 2024, North West achieved a total spend of $54.7 million with Indigenous-owned businesses and continues leasehold business partnerships with 97 Indigenous communities. Today, many businesses such as Dreamcatcher Promotions, Mitsoh, Kokom Scrunchies, Keya Bedding, and others, are valued partners within our vendor network.
At North West, we continue to strengthen our relationships with Indigenous and local business partners, reinforcing our commitment to supporting Indigenous economic development, as reflected in Our Promise to Indigenous Peoples.