According to the website lifeinquebec.com, The Epicia Group is facing difficult times. The company that owns Le Jardin Mobile green grocers has reportedly been placed under Bankruptcy protection. With eleven locations of Le Jardin Mobile closing, that brings the number of remaining locations to fifteen. As many as 400 employees will be affected. CBC reported earlier this month that the Epicia Group administrative and distribution center in Quebec City and two branches The Vegetarian Market and the Jardin du Mont are also closing.
The company said in a statement, “The increased competition in the field of food and largely unfavorable economic conditions has forced us to make this move, this saddens us deeply.”
The “mobile garden” concept got rolling in the 1950s when Ambroise Jobin began buying fruits and vegetables from local producers in Québec City and sold them from his truck in Val-Bélair (then known as Val-Saint-Michel) Valcartier and Shannon. In 1975, the kiosk he operated in front of his family home moved to a storefront on Boulevard Bastien.
Epicia Group was born from the merger of Le Jardin Mobile and Le Marché Végétarien in 2011 with Marcel Paré as President and Christian Jobin as Executive Vice-president and became a major brand in the Eastern Townships, with plans to become the leader in Québec’s retail food industry.
Quebec City mayor, Régis Labeaume said in an interview with lifeinquebec.com, “I was very surprised and disappointed with the closure. I am a very good customer and I went with my parents in the 1970s on boul. Bastien.”
