Race is on for grocery and pharmacy chains to prepare for possible role in vaccine rollout

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Canada’s biggest grocery and pharmacy chains are stocking up on cold storage technology, banking that various governments will eventually tap the retail sector for help in rolling out COVID-19 vaccines.

One Cambridge, Ont.-based technology company, BlueRover Inc., said it’s working with big-box retailers and pharmacy chains to provide systems that monitor the temperature of vaccine refrigerators and freezers, which need to stay below -70 C for the Pfizer vaccine and -20 C for Moderna. The company’s system, which is also available in bags for transporting vaccines, sends alerts when temperatures dip below those levels.

“I believe Canadian retail pharmacies see the need to elevate their game, to be ultra compliant, in anticipation of the rollout,” said David Melia, BlueRover’s chief strategic officer. “They’re all getting ready for the possibility of being the group that is going to help get this to Canadians.”

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BlueRover on Tuesday said it had recently signed a deal with Empire Co. Ltd., though the partnership is in its early stages.

Empire, which owns Sobeys and Safeway and operates 425 pharmacies, confirmed the BlueRover partnership is a small, but key part of its preparations to distribute vaccines.

Marie-Claude Vézina, Empire’s vice-president and general manager of pharmacy, said most provinces have confirmed that they will turn to pharmacies in future phases of the vaccine rollout. But it’s still not clear what the process will look like exactly.

“Every six or 12 hours, we have new information,” she said. “We are planning with what we know. And for what we don’t know, we are using what-if scenarios or hypotheses.”

Empire is spending “millions of dollars” to prepare to potentially distribute COVID-19 vaccines, Vézina said, including adding 115 new refrigerators. Much of the capital investment had already been planned — for example, digital appointment scheduling systems — but was rolled out in weeks rather than over several years.

Empire, based in Stellarton, N.S., has already started assisting Nova Scotia in distributing vaccines to long-term care homes. Vézina said the company  can be ready to start distributing vaccines within 48 hours’ notice from public health authorities.

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“We are making many plans and not all of them will be used,” she said. “But, because we don’t want to waste one minute, we are putting all our efforts and precious resources on those what-if scenarios as we speak.”

Walmart Canada said it is quickly improving its refrigeration capacity for vaccines, purchasing more than 190 vaccine fridges and 15 ultra-cold freezers.

“We will be ready when called upon,” Shelly Kiroff, Walmart Canada’s senior vice-president of health and wellness, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are making preparations and are working closely with governments and public health units across the country on the rollout.”

Montreal-based Metro Inc. said it is “actively involved in all discussions in the Quebec pharmacy sector with the authorities responsible for the vaccination campaign.”

Loblaw Cos. Ltd., which also owns Shoppers Drug Mart, said it has been working for several months in preparation of “the eventual rollout” of vaccines.

“Specific to cold storage options, we continue to invest in our supply chain to ensure we can meet any requirements for the COVID vaccination,” Loblaw said in an emailed statement. “In most cases, however, our distribution network is already equipped to manage the transportation and limited storage of the approved vaccines.”