About
Coach and mentor, builder of high-performance teams — and a retail practitioner, not just an advisor.
A way of leading
His leadership style comes down to two words: coach and mentor. Richard Martel builds high-performance teams by pulling everyone's strengths together, breaking down silos, and keeping the customer at the centre of every decision, in store and online.
He believes success comes through teamwork: people who understand the shared vision, know what is expected of them, and have the tools to deliver. That is the experience he now puts, through Rimak, at the service of start-ups and small and medium businesses: an outside eye, straight advice, and rigorous execution, sized to your reality — never a copied-and-pasted model.
Career path
Groupe CDREM — 1992–2020
It all starts in 1992 at Groupe CDREM — Centre du Rasoir and Personal Edge. Richard Martel joins as district manager and rises from within: regional manager responsible for all corporate and franchise stores in Quebec, training, and store design, construction and renovation, then Director of Operations in 1995.
In 2001, he becomes Vice-President of Operations and, for nearly twenty years, leads operations, IT, sales and distribution for a 60-store network in Eastern Canada. There he builds the ecommerce division — corporate website and marketplaces — and leads the IT modernization: cloud computing, systems integrations and a new ERP. He also takes part in a merger.
Stokes — 2020–2021
Vice-President of Sales and Operations, leading the national retail team for a 110-store network from coast to coast. There he steers the stores through pandemic closures and reopenings and a corporate restructuring, updates service standards, the employee evaluation program and hiring guides, and implements same-day in-store pickup during store closures — BOPIS (buy online, pickup in store).
Rimak — 2024–2026
Self-employed business consultant. Rimak helps start-up companies and entrepreneurs unlock their potential through methodical organization, insightful strategic planning, technical guidance and rigorous execution.
Space-Man mandate — 2025–2026
A mandate of about 14 months with the startup space-man.ca: development of distribution channels, ecommerce initiatives (Amazon.ca, eBay, Walmart.ca), construction and equipment procurement oversight, financing, grants, manufacturing, and strategic planning.
Away from business
Away from business, music is never far: guitar, saxophone in various ensembles.