Drivers for Walmart’s Surrey, B.C., store have won interim certification from the Canada Industrial Relations Board. The move allows them to form a bargaining committee and work with representatives of Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, to negotiate their first collective agreement with Walmart.

The Surrey drivers follow on the success of workers at Walmart’s Mississauga, Ont., warehouse, which in September became the first of the company’s Canadian DCs to unionize.

BMR Group is holding its annual buying  show at Quebec City’s Centre des congrès, where dealers and vendors have been gathered since yesterday. BMR CEO Alexandre Lefebvre told Hardlines that this year’s offering includes 600 new private label products.

The event concludes this evening with a gala dinner featuring veteran strongman and company spokesman Hugo Girard, who is fresh off presenting at the 28th Hardlines Conference in the Charlevoix region of Quebec.

Matériaux SMB, a member of BMR Group, has acquired of Matériaux R. Mclaughlin of Huberdeau, Que. Owned by Alexandre Lapointe, owner, Matériaux SMB operates two stores in the municipalities of La Minerve and Nominingue. In a release, Lapointe welcomed “the opportunity to grow our business and triple our footprint in the Laurentians.”

Doman Building Materials Group Ltd. reported Q3 revenues of $663.1 million, an increase of 3.0 percent from $643.9 million a year earlier. The gain was attributed to the company’s acquisition of two lumber pressure treating plants from Southeast Forest Products. Net earnings for the quarter amounted to $14.6 million.

Canadian Tire Corp. has reported Q3 net income of $200.6 million, or $3.59 per share, reversing a loss of $27.8 million ($1.19) a year earlier. Revenues declined by 1.4 percent to $4.19 billion, beating estimates of $4.16 billion. Comp sales were 1.5 percent below the comparable period of last year but higher than in Q2. Canadian Tire Retail’s comp sales were down 2.2 percent.

Registration is open for the Western Retail Lumber Association’s 2025 Building and Hardware Showcase. Experience new product launches, the latest tech, trends and topics hitting the LBM industry, and connect with some of the best pros in the field. Join the WRLA at the Edmonton Expo Centre on Jan. 23 and 24 for hundreds of networking and business opportunities. Click here to register!

Western Forest Products reported a net loss of $19.6 million in Q3 of 2024. That was compared to a net loss of $17.4 million a year earlier and a net loss of $5.7 million in the previous quarter. Revenues of $241.7 million were up from $231.1 million in Q3 of 2023 but down from $309.5 million in Q2.

Richard F. (Rick) Royce died suddenly on Oct. 31 from a heart attack. Royce was a well-known figure in the Canadian building materials industry, in which he spent his entire career. He started out with Canfor before moving to MacMillan Bloedel.

His CV also included tenures with Great West Timber, CanWel, Weyerhaeuser, and Jager Industries. He was most recently president of industry consulting firm RFR Resolutions. Royce is survived by his daughter Andrea and son Adam. A celebration of life for Rick will be held at a later date.

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

The 28^th annual Hardlines Conference has just concluded—to rave reviews—in Charlevoix, Quebec. Back in October 2014, the conference was held by the Toronto airport. One thing that has not changed was the notion of “retail experience.”

We reported that one of our speakers, Robert Howard, from Kurt Salmon, a management consulting firm, said that consumers are willing to pay a premium for an experience. He went on to reference a study that said 80 percent of executives thought that their companies were delivering superior customer service, but only 8 percent of customers agreed.

Bernie Marcus, who with Arthur Blank founded The Home Depot, has died at the age of 95. Marcus and Blank made the most of their dual firing from Handy Dan Home Improvement Centres in California in 1978 when they started the upstart big box concept. With others such as Ron Brill, Pat Farrah, and Ken Langone, they grew The Home Depot into the largest home improvement retailer in the world. It currently has some 2,300 stores.

Jim Inglis, former EVP of strategic development at The Home Depot in its formative years, wrote about Marcus in his bestselling book, Breakthrough Retailing. “Bernie’s management style was MBWA (Management by Wandering Around), which gave him keen insight into what was going on in the business,” Inglis wrote. “Listening was one of Bernie’s greatest talents… People felt comfortable sharing their true thoughts and feelings because he was never defensive and always appreciative.”