Thank you very much for the opportunity today.
I want to thank all the committee members.
I'll keep my statement brief and in two sections overall. What is Frank + Oak, and why are we here, and why do we care?
Frank + Oak is an innovative retail brand founded here in Canada about four years ago. We now employ over 250 people. We started entirely online; in other words, we ship a tremendous number of packages via Canada Post every single day.
We were ranked number one in Deloitte's Fast 50 as the fastest-growing company in Canada last year. We care very much about the future of this industry and how we can become a beacon of success in this overall industry. Our goal is to combine technology, design, and innovation to become, I would say, the future of retail. The reason we're here is that we are a very large client of Canada Post. We ship a very large number of packages in both the U.S. and Canada. We also leverage a lot of the innovations developed by Canada Post, such as address verification, which allows our customers to have the right addresses input in their statements, and also the Delivered Tonight service, which means that customers can buy today and it will be delivered in their mail the same day here in Montreal and other areas.
Our goal is to be a very large retailer and to disrupt retail in general. As we know, commerce is evolving very quickly and is becoming ever more competitive. When we look at situations where Canada Post might offer fewer options for their customers, less innovation, and also restrict the overall level of service, this is a great concern for a company that requires a strong local partner such as Canada Post.
We do want the carrier to be leading, to continue to innovate, and there is a lot of competition in this space. Locally, other private carriers are very fierce in their offers to gain our business. Our goal is to be an online disrupter and very large company. We require Canada Post to be at the forefront and to offer more services in this ever more competitive space, which is commerce.
Thank you very much.