LONGUEUIL, Que. — The Canadian Hardware & Housewares Manufacturers Association welcomed TIMBER MART President Bernie Owens as guest speaker at its fall breakfast seminar earlier this week. Addressing members at the Holiday Inn Montreal-Longueuil, Owens stressed the importance of independent dealers rallying under a flexible buying group to compete in a market that increasingly favours big boxes and warned about the shrinking market share of independents on both sides of the border.
He gave an overview of the evolution of the group since he took the helm, recounting how a formerly loose cluster of regional banners learned to start “pulling in the same direction.” Noting that member stores represent an array of formats and specialties—from gypsum dealers to lumber yards to garden centres—he acknowledged that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and emphasized that TIMBER MART has “no cookie cutter format to impose.”
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