Peavey Industries LP has announced the successful completion of a financing package of up to $155 million, using Gordon Brothers, a Boston-based financial services company. The package includes a $105 million first-lien revolving credit facility, a $30 million committed first-in-last-out (FILO) term loan, and a $20 million consignment program to support Peavey’s continued growth.

Peavey Industries is a specialty farm and ranch retailer which operates 90-plus stores under the Peavey Mart and MainStreet Hardware banners. As part of the deal with Gordon Brothers, Peavey says it will evaluate its underperforming locations for improvements. The financing will also enable Peavey to launch an approved inventory enhancement program.

Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report.

In our first Hardlines Weekly Report of the year 2000, published on Jan. 10, almost 25 years ago, we reported great news. The 1999 holiday sales season “was the best for Canadian retailers in a decade,” we wrote. “According to a report by the Retail Council of Canada, 60 percent of independent storeowners surveyed across the country say their sales soared over the 1998 holiday season by an average of 18 percent. And they expect the good times to continue through 2000. Nearly 70 percent of respondents expect their sales to rise this year by an average of 14 percent.”

Wolseley Canada, the Burlington, Ont.-based plumbing and HVAC wholesale distributor, has announced three appointments. Kevin Fullan will return to the company as general manager, Ontario. He previously spent seven years at Wolseley leading the Ontario and Atlantic regions. Tom Mackenzie will take on a new role as head of HVAC strategy. Alex Nahvi will take on a new role as head of plumbing strategy. All of these appointments will take effect on Jan. 1.

Toronto-based Courage Inc., a boutique ad agency, has been named agency of record for RONA inc.’s English Canada marketing communications, according to Little Black Book online, an ad industry news service, on Dec. 20.

Since its recent founding in 2022, Courage Inc. has worked with, among others, CIBC, KFC Canada, Taco Bell Canada, Nestlé, and Skip the Dishes. (To view a video created for the latter by Courage, featuring Jon Hamm, the star of TV drama Mad Men, click here.)

RONA inc. and its owner, private equity firm Sycamore Partners, have announced their acquisition of All-Fab Group, a Manitoba-based manufacturer of building components. All-Fab provides the light construction industry with engineered structural building components, building material supply packages, and construction projects for custom buildings. It operates 18 business units spanning from the Pacific Coast to the U.S. Midwest. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Clay Jackson (via LinkedIn)

Orgill has announced the appointment of Clay Jackson as its new EVP and COO. He brings to the newly created position over two decades of experience at Tractor Supply Co. Jackson will join Orgill on Jan. 20, reporting to CEO and president Boyden Moore.

Party City Holdco, a U.S.-based company entirely separate from the Canadian Tire Corp.-owned Party City Canada, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy south of the border. Its approximately 800 stores will remain open, but the company has said they will commence going-out-of-business sales. This is the second Chapter 11 filing for Party City Holdco. Its last one, in early 2023, wiped out US$1 billion of its US1.7 billion debt. This time, it has a reported debt of US$800 million.

A Canadian Tire spokesperson told CBC News on Dec. 20 that Canadian operations would continue unabated. “The operations of Party City in Canada are entirely separate from Party City Holdco in the U.S.,” a Canadian Tire spokesperson told CBC News in an email. There are approximately 69 Party City stores in Canada, in eight provinces.

RONA has announced that independent affiliate dealer Adam Barrett, owner of Terraine Capital, has opened a new store in Moncton. It’s the fifth location opened this year by Terraine Capital, which continues to pursue growth in Atlantic Canada.

“Halifax, Charlottetown, and Moncton are some of the fastest-growing Canadian cities, and we are now established in all three of them,” Barrett said in a release. The store spans 50,000 square feet with a drive-through lumberyard along the Trans-Canada Highway.

At IKEA Canada, taking care of employees begins with their first day on the job. In the latest edition of our Hardlines HR Advisor, we learn that employee care is as important as taking care of customers.

According to Wanda Arnott, human resources manager at IKEA, new hires get shadowed from the start. “The first day, co-workers are assigned a buddy, and the buddy is with them for at least the first five shifts, which gives them a very detailed learning journey for the first three months about what they need to understand, to learn.”

(Read the full story here, and subscribe to Hardlines HR Advisor by clicking here. It’s monthly, and it’s free!)

A recent survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of HSBC shows two-thirds of independent businesses don’t have a succession plan, The Globe and Mail reports. Proactive planning is key to a smooth transition, and a business owner’s heirs may not be the best candidates to buy them out.

“If the kids take over, they may have to take on debt,” explained Tony Maiorino, VP, director, and head of family office services at RBC Wealth Management. “Business owners who sell to their kids [may] receive a slightly smaller part of the proceeds than selling to a third party.”