BOUCHERVILLE — Lowe’s Canada has big plans for both its legacy Lowe’s banner and for the RONA banner it acquired last spring. That includes the conversion of some 40 existing RONA big box stores to the Lowe’s format, 23 of them outside Québec, starting in spring 2017.
The conversion of RONA stores within Quebec, meanwhile, is hampered by software capabilities, which won’t be resolved earlier than 2018. By 2019, another 17 big boxes in Quebec are slated for conversion.
Speaking to the media six months after Lowe’s acquisition of RONA, CEO Sylvain Prud’homme and Alain Brisebois laid out a multi-banner strategy aimed at more consistently meeting customer expectations.
Under the plan, the Lowe’s banner will serve the big box segment, with RONA stores being primarily mid-sized proximity stores and smaller neighbourhood dealers represented by Ace. This strategy is not a “pure model,” but will provide a guideline for how stores will be structured to offer customers a range of options designed to meet the needs of different demographics. Some smaller RONA stores, for example, are reluctant to trade in their long-standing banner for Ace.
The company’s leadership is also committed to tending the relationship with affiliate dealers, which Brisebois acknowledged had undergone “a bit of difficulty” amid financial uncertainty prior to the Lowe’s takeover. A “massive recruitment” effort of independent dealers is in the works, he confirmed, in a bid to “stop the erosion” of the affiliate business. The efforts have been successful: 16 dealers have been recruited to the RONA banner in 2016—13 of them since the Lowe’s takeover in May.
Prud’homme meanwhile underscored Lowe’s commitment to cultivating relationships with Canadian vendors that serve the development of local communities.
