Alain Tadros, president of Publicis Montreal, will be leaving the agency to assume the role of VP of marketing for Quebec at grocery retail chain Metro.

Tadros takes on his new role at the end of August. Duncan Bruce, president and CEO of Publicis Canada, and Thomas Lecordier, EVP of Publicis Montreal, will be handling the president duties at Publicis Montreal in the interim, though Bruce said in a release that the agency has already taken “all the necessary steps” to find Tadros’ replacement.

At Metro, the VP of marketing for Quebec role has been vacant since February when Jean-Francois Couture left the post to take over as VP of marketing for Agropur. In February, Metro promoted Nancy Modrcin to be its VP of marketing for Ontario.

“For me, this is somewhat like returning to my roots,” Tadros said in a press release. “I started my career in the retail industry and have subsequently evolved with my agency EM, which specialized in retail and shopper marketing. This new challenge at Metro is great and fascinating. I had the chance to evolve within the powerful international agency that is Publicis, which taught me a lot and allows me to foresee with great optimism that challenge. I am grateful for the confidence and support that Duncan Bruce and Yves Gougoux have offered me over the years.”

Tadros joined Publicis in 2013 when EM, an agency he founded in 2004, was integrated with the Publicis-owned BCP and he took over as president. Shortly after, he was named COO of all Publicis Worldwide companies operating within Quebec, which at the time included both Publicis Montreal and BCP. A year later, Tadros took over as president of Publicis Montreal when BCP was merged with the agency.

“[Tadros] has managed to bring new energy to the agency and to build a very successful team,” said Yves Gougoux, chairman of Publicis Canada. “We will miss him as a colleague but we look forward to working with him as a client and we will offer our full support during his transition.”

Tadros will still be in touch with his former Publicis colleagues, as Metro has been a long-standing client of the agency. It first worked with BCP in the 1990s and then Publicis when the network bought into the agency in 1996. The companies stopped working together in 1999, but Publicis would again be selected Metro’s creative agency of record in early 2010.

“Metro and Publicis have a long-standing business relationship that allowed us, with the authorization of the agency’s leadership team, to approach Alain for this important position,” said Christian Bourbonnière, EVP and Quebec Division Head of Metro, in a press release. “Metro will benefit from Alain’s extensive knowledge of the retail industry combined with his experience in marketing and in the agency world.”