The jury is still out on whether the industry will enter a slowdown this year, caused by multiple interest rate increases and consumer fears of a recession. But there’s positive news, too, says Marc Séguin, president of CanWel Distribution.
Séguin told Hardlines that he believes that the economy of this industry is still motoring on, based on projects that were started during the pandemic. “There’s still some work in the pipeline, if you will. There are still some jobs to be completed. But if you look at the latest data that came out, housing starts are coming down in Canada. I don’t think that they are going to come down as much as in the U.S., but we will be affected.”
On the other hand, there is the renovation side of the business, which is highly significant. “I would say that there are compensating dynamics,” Séguin said. “In North America and Canada, the housing stock is getting older. So, even though there might be fewer housing starts, people will need to maintain their properties.”
Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly’s second quarter magazine, mailing in less than two weeks to subscribers, contains a feature story on the major LBM distributors in Canada.
