Loblaw Companies Limited is continuing its push into value-oriented grocery retail with the opening of a new co-located Maxi and Pharmaprix in Mont-Laurier, Quebec. The project reflects the company’s ongoing focus on hard discount banners and integrated pharmacy services as central elements of its national growth strategy.
The Mont-Laurier development represents a multi-million-dollar investment and is expected to create approximately 95 jobs in the region. Located on Albiny-Paquette Boulevard, the site pairs a full-service discount grocery store with a modern pharmacy under one roof, reinforcing Loblaw’s emphasis on convenience, value, and accessible health services.
The opening forms part of a broader Loblaw discount expansion that is reshaping the company’s store network across Canada as consumers continue to seek lower prices amid elevated living costs.
New Maxi and Pharmaprix Hub in Mont-Laurier
The new Mont-Laurier location brings together two of Loblaw’s most prominent banners in Quebec. Maxi serves as the company’s primary hard discount grocery format in the province, while Pharmaprix operates as the Quebec equivalent of Shoppers Drug Mart.
The co-located model allows customers to access food, pharmacy services, beauty products, and everyday essentials in a single trip. The new Pharmaprix includes a full-service pharmacy and a clinical care space designed to provide services such as chronic disease management and vaccinations.
Across the country, Pharmaprix and Shoppers Drug Mart together account for more than 1,350 locations, giving Loblaw one of the most extensive pharmacy networks in Canada. The company has increasingly integrated this network with PC Optimum rewards and expanded in-store clinics to drive traffic and convenience.
Maxi at the Centre of Quebec Discount Strategy
Maxi has become a central pillar of Loblaw’s growth plans in Quebec. The banner now operates more than 200 stores and is positioned as the company’s lead discount food retailer in the province, offering a broad assortment focused on everyday low prices.
Over the past two years, Loblaw has opened or converted more than 90 Maxi and No Frills locations across Canada. The expansion reflects a multi-year shift toward hard discount formats, which have outperformed conventional banners as shoppers trade down in response to inflation and higher interest rates.
The Mont-Laurier opening aligns with this Loblaw discount expansion, which prioritizes formats that deliver strong value while maintaining product variety and freshness.
Part of a National Hard Discount Growth Plan
The new Quebec location is one component of a much larger capital program. For 2025, Loblaw allocated approximately $2.2 billion to capital projects across its Canadian operations. The investment includes about 80 new stores, more than 300 grocery and pharmacy renovations, and the continued build-out of a major automated distribution centre in East Gwillimbury, Ontario.
Of the 80 planned stores, roughly 50 are expected to be hard discount locations under the Maxi, No Frills, and related banners. The company has framed this as part of a broader five-year commitment to invest more than $10 billion by 2030, with discount formats identified as a top priority.
Recent activity underscores the scale of the shift. In 2023, Loblaw opened 31 new discount stores across Canada. The following year, it introduced additional initiatives including small-format No Frills locations and a pilot ultra-discount concept under its No Name private label.
By late 2025, the company reported opening 19 Maxi and No Frills locations in a single quarter, remaining on track to complete roughly 76 new stores for the year, nearly two-thirds of which were hard discount formats.
Expansion Beyond Quebec
While Maxi has long been concentrated in Quebec, Loblaw has begun testing the banner’s appeal in other Francophone markets. In April 2025, the company announced plans for a 15,000-square-foot Maxi store in Caraquet, New Brunswick, marking the banner’s first expansion outside its home province.
The Caraquet location, expected to create more than 30 jobs, is positioned as a test of the Maxi model in similar linguistic and cultural markets. The store will feature the banner’s “Imbattable” price-match policy, PC Optimum rewards, and a focus on local products.
This move signals Loblaw’s intention to grow Maxi into a broader regional and potentially national discount banner, complementing No Frills, which dominates the company’s discount presence outside Quebec.
Discount Formats Leading Performance
Loblaw executives have repeatedly pointed to hard discount formats as the company’s strongest performers in food retail. By late 2025, the company said No Frills and Maxi were outpacing conventional banners such as Loblaw and Real Canadian Superstore in sales growth.
Management commentary has described discount as a “unique opportunity” to bring value-oriented stores to communities that may previously have been served only by higher-priced conventional formats or competing banners.
Early 2026 openings, including the Mont-Laurier Maxi and Pharmaprix and a new No Frills in Burnaby, British Columbia, demonstrate that the Loblaw discount expansion remains active. The Burnaby store is promoted as the city’s first No Frills, highlighting the company’s strategy of moving discount formats into underserved markets.
Supply Chain Investments to Support Discount Growth
The company’s capital plan also includes major supply chain upgrades intended to support high-volume, low-cost discount operations. A 1.2-million-square-foot automated distribution centre in East Gwillimbury is designed to improve efficiency and replenish discount stores more effectively.
Since 2020, Loblaw reports having invested more than $8 billion in expanding and upgrading its store network and supply chain. These investments are intended to improve cost management while enabling the continued rollout of new discount and small-format stores.
A Multi-Year Shift Toward Value
The Mont-Laurier opening illustrates how Loblaw is aligning its real estate and capital strategy with a prolonged consumer focus on value. With roughly 50 hard discount stores planned in the 2025 program and additional openings already underway in early 2026, the company is entering the next phase of a multi-year push into lower-priced formats.
Through the expansion of Maxi, No Frills, and ultra-discount concepts, Loblaw is repositioning its store network around value-driven formats that reflect current shopping behaviour. The Mont-Laurier Maxi and Pharmaprix serve as a local example of a national strategy that continues to shape the company’s growth trajectory.
