Honourable Mention 2017
MEC With 21 retail stores Canada-wide and millions of members, this sports equipment co-op has successfully developed its brand image, expanded its product offer and built its customer base. The company's...
MEC With 21 retail stores Canada-wide and millions of members, this sports equipment co-op has successfully developed its brand image, expanded its product offer and built its customer base. The company's...
Hoping to tap into the success of fresh-squeezed juice industry leaders Nespresso and SodaStream, Juicero promised a revolutionary extraction system, paired with a subscription service for the fruit pouches that...
After entertaining the public for more than 146 years, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey travelling circus folded up its big top for good last May. Faced with several years of...
When chef Giovanni Apollo debarked in Québec in 1994, he quickly made a name for himself in the culinary world, getting generous media coverage and opening several restaurants. We...
In 2015, Lily, a drone aimed for the general public and priced at $499, generated over $34 million in advance sales. Lily's huge popularity was due to its unmatched capabilities:...
By centralizing payroll operations for all 300,000 government employees in Miramichi, New Brunswick, the new federal payroll system, Phoenix, promised savings to the tune of exactly $688,223,489.00. The project initially...
The media continuously replayed shocking images of a bloodied passenger, Dr. David Doe, being forcibly removed from his seat by airport authorities in order to make room for a...
In recent years, Dove has worked hard to associate its name with women's issues. Even so, 2017 proved to be a rough year. Accused of racism after a bogus version...
In what was surely the least surprising story of the year, this retail giant finally gave up the ghost. In operation since 1952, Sears Canada counted 239 stores all across...
Private villas in the Bahamas, elite reserved tickets selling for thousands of dollars, a bevy of models mingling with today's hottest influencers, DJs and rappers ─ nirvana for an ambitious...
Financial difficulties, delayed orders, dropping oil prices and rising duties… problems with the CSeries program were growing as quickly as the salaries of its executives. Kept aloft to the tune...
En 2015, Elisabeth Holmes, présidente de Theranos, était parmi les femmes entrepreneures de moins de 30 ans les plus riches au monde, selon le palmarès du magazine Forbes, avec ses...
Last November, Mondelez International, owner of the Toblerone brand, decided to reduce the weight of its famous chocolate bars in the UK. The 400-gram bar dropped to 360 grams, and...
For 45 years, Danier Leather sold its leather coats and accessories in 84 stores across Canada. Established in 1972, the brand never set out to be cool; it sold classic...
Ikea just brought out a new catalogue aimed at Israel's ultraorthodox Haredi community, in which not a single picture of a woman or a girl can be found. According to Ikea,...
Quelques mois seulement après le lancement, des appareils Galaxy Note 7 ont pris feu, c’est près d’une centaine de cas qui avait été recensés. ...
Au printemps 2016, IGA lançait en grande pompe une campagne visant à instaurer des bas prix de tous les jours sur 8 500 de ses produits....
LoyaltyOne, la société propriétaire du programme, avait annoncé en 2011 que les milles amassés jusqu’alors viendraient à échéance le 31 décembre 2016....
Bien que Scion ait attiré l’attention à ses débuts avec ses véhicules au design audacieux et accessible, les ventes ont rapidement plafonnées. ...
Au cours des dernières années, la pharmaceutique lavalloise Valeant a présenté une forte croissance et offert d’importants rendements à ses actionnaires. ...
Afin d’atteindre les objectifs de vente fixés par la direction, Wells Fargo a ouvert 1,5 million de comptes bancaires et émis 550 000 cartes de crédit à l’insu de ses...
Sous la pression des consommateurs, Kraft a remplacé le colorant artificiel orangé de son célèbre macaroni, par du paprika et du curcuma. ...
Arrivée en 2008 comme une bouffée d’air frais dans l’industrie du thé, David’s tea a connu une croissance fulgurante avec ses multiples saveurs et ses points de vente dynamiques. ...
Yahoo! is on its last legs as an independent company since it was bought out by Verizon in 2016 for close to $5 billion. Attempts by Marissa Mayer, at the...
Chip Wilson, the man behind the brand, was forced to step down as chairman of the board after he made inappropriate remarks on Bloomberg TV. Customers had been criticizing the...
On January 16, 2013, Lance Armstrong sat down opposite Oprah Winfrey and frankly admitted to having taken drugs before almost every race. The ensuing shockwave hit the world of sports...
In July 2014, Amazon launched its new Fire smartphone to compete with iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy. But just one month after the launch, the price of a two-year contract...
This fast-food chain known for its grilled sandwiches declared bankruptcy in March 2014. From 5,000 restaurants in 2007, it downsized to around 2,000 during the economic crisis. Fierce competition from Subway...
Nissan is known for its bold, often groundbreaking new product niches. Its Leaf electric car or Juke compact SUV are two good examples of the manufacturer's ability to go off...
2014 has come and gone and Target still hasn't taken off in Canada. Following the acquisition and renovation of 125 Zellers stores in 2013, Target aimed high with 133 big...
In July 2014, Crocs announced that it was closing 100 of its 624 stores and laying off 183 employees, 75 at the head office alone. Despite the recent addition of...
Two years and a half after its hyped-up introduction, Google Glass is about to go on the long list of failed products. Twitter has just reported that there will be...
Although most Quebeckers probably didn't even notice, 2014 marked the end of a Québec pioneer on the Web, La Toile du Québec, at the ripe old age of 19. Owned...
Last May, Jacob announced that it was closing all its stores, but the ensuing flood of supportive messages from customers encouraged it to go for one last try by hiring...
On February 5, 2014, Heenan Blaikie, a law firm founded in 1973 by Roy Heenan and Peter Blaikie, was dissolved by its partners despite profits in excess of $75 million....
Having plastered its clothes with logos, Aeropostale is no longer in with teens and sales show it. The retailer closed more than 120 stores in 2014. The new year isn't...
On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was reported missing between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing with 239 passengers aboard. In July of the same year, flight MH 17 crashed...
To understand the failure of Swing Copters, you have to go back to its predecessor, Flappy Bird, which was a huge success for its creator, maybe even too huge. Flappy Bird...
We expect Apple to set the bar high, and 2014 was no exception. Expectations reached a paroxysm on September 9 with the release of the latest generation of the ever-popular...
Yahoo! Yahoo! has finally come out of the shadow of Google and Bing and is on the rise. In November 2014, Mozilla-Firefox made it their default search engine in the US,...
Airbus 380 With no orders on the books in 2014, Airbus is talking of discontinuing the 380 as of 2017. Its four engines guzzle huge amounts of jet fuel and not...
In 2013, Discovery Channel's leading series, Shark Week, purported to document the existence of the Megalodon. While scientists don't question the fact that this great shark once existed, they all...
Chromebook 11, a sleek lightweight laptop starting at $279, promised to be a big seller at Amazon and Best Buy but 2013 holiday sales never took off. The Failure : Launched in the...
In 2013, TSN lost exclusive broadcasting rights for Canadiens hockey games. A new agreement gave TVA Sport the rights to 22 of the team's regular season games, all of the...
In 2013, we probably witnessed the last gasp from this former Canadian giant as it attempted to revive its brand: the BlackBerry Q10 (and its Z10 touchscreen counterpart). The Failure : In recent...
It started with a really cool ad depicting a futuristic sci-fi show where people communicate over their watches. You want it: a smart watch. You just know it's cool before...
Released in the US on November 18, 2012, Wii U was pegged as the next revolution from Nintendo Entertainment System ─ a new console whose touchscreen gamepad would take the...
One year after its introduction in the US, Anheuser-Busch InBev launched 'Bud Light Platinum' in Canada, a light beer weighing in at 6% alcohol per volume. Eye-catching packaging, a sparkling blue...
In trying to clarify its identity across all its platforms, Radio-Canada only made things worse. The Failure : It forgot to what extent its name went beyond the word 'radio'. And we can't help...
FLOWTAB This startup developed an app that lets you order and pay for drinks in crowded bars. It folded in 2013, but went out with a bang by posting the post...
TARGET CANADA Since it opened 124 stores in March 2013, sales have not met goals and the brand is up against the perception that its prices are higher than those of...
It was the first smartphone to be sold with the Facebook Home app onboard. It was Facebook first, then a smartphone. One month after HTC First was launched, AT&T slashed...
Every trace of Ron Johnson's 17 months at the head of JC Penney are now gone. But the loss of a billion dollars in sales resulting from his bad decisions...
The Commensal chain of vegetarian restaurants, which first opened on Montreal's Rue St-Denis back in 1977, found itself on the brink of bankruptcy in 2013 after making a strategic decision...