Marketing consultant honored as Pillar of Industry

From somewhere in the Atlantic between New York and Virginia, Marie Gosselin is on the line, happy to talk about her new life as a marketing consultant and still in shock at being chosen the 2017 Pillar of the Quebec Produce Industry.

“For 25 years, whenever the Pillar was announced at the annual convention, I always thought what great people they chose,” said Gosselin. “I never thought I could reach that level, and I was very honoured — and emotional — when I heard the news.

“But when asked to tell my story, I realized I have done a lot of things,” she said.

Gosselin, who also served as QPMA president, was fascinated by the produce industry at a young age while working in the office in one of her father’s potato plants.

At 14, she and her siblings were charged with selling strawberries one of the company’s growers started producing.

Gosselin was studying agribusiness at Laval University in 1989 when her father sold his potato business and decided to invest in a greenhouse to grow Quebec tomatoes in winter.

She offered to take care of sales and marketing and helped build the name Savoura, which remains one of the best-known greenhouse tomato brands in Quebec under new owner Les Serres Sagami Inc. based in Sainte-Sophie.

Gosselin had plenty of job offers when she left Savoura in 2015 but decided to start her own business.

“Having worked for myself all my life, I didn’t think I’d make a good employee,” she said.

First, however, she was pleased to help out in the QPMA office for six months while CEO Sophie Perreault took maternity leave.

“We began to develop a great relationship with government that benefits both QPMA and its members,” Gosselin said. “A lot of the politicians we spoke to didn’t know anything about the produce industry or how big we are. We have to continue to let government know the importance of our industry to the economy.”