Parkland USA has named Tory Dickson as its new vice president of retail. Dickson is no stranger to the retail industry. He began his career as national sales manager at the Pepsi Bottling Group, where Dickson said he first “cut his teeth in retail.”
Later in 2000, Dickson bought his own business and opened a furniture retail and assembly plant in Canada, a brand called Whistler Creek.
After selling the business in 2008, Dickson began working for a supplier of the upstream oil and gas business, mostly working with Suncor Energy.
Then in 2015, he started as the regional operations manager at Parkland, where he managed more than 400 dealer sites in western Canada until he was promoted to director of retail in 2019. After the promotion, Dickson began managing 850 stores, 400 of which were corporate and 450 of which were dealer sites.
Dickson’s Parkland Future
In terms of how Dickson wants to continue with the company, he has noted that he wishes to start off by connecting with the people he will be working with.
“Well, we have a One Parkland culture, and so I think with the new role, my job will be to go in as a learning manager, meet the people,” Dickson told CStore Decisions. “I’m going to be managing facilities, merchandising, the National Fuel Team and all other operational retail parts. The team currently is very collaborative, so I’m going to support that.”
Dickson noted that collaboration and teamwork are part of the core principles that make Parkland a successful and thriving company.
“I think through what I’ve learned at Parkland, being here for the eight years around collaboration and that One Parkland culture, I’m going to be supporting that and absolutely working towards that,” he stated.
Dickson also noted that he likes to be creative, so innovation is going to be something he will embrace and seek out.
When it comes to a managing style, Dickson noted that he wants to be someone who motivates and engages his employees through hands-on and inspired work. He hopes that through his direction, his team can feel as rewarded as he does.
“I want to make sure that we support the team in every opportunity we can,” said Dickson. “Frankly, I want people to come to us first because they think of us first and they enjoy the experiences when they come to our sites.”
Overall, in his new role, Dickson hopes to streamline efficiencies throughout the retail side of the company.
“I just feel really lucky and fortunate to have this (job). Like I said, we’ve got some really good brands and we’ve got 200-plus stores. So, we just have to make sure that those stores are operating as best as possible.”