Ottawa-based Harris Computer has announced its acquisition of the company SE2 Inc., doing business as Alice POS. SE2, operating out of Sherbrooke, Que., launched its eponymous Alice POS software in 2016. Harris, a subsidiary of Constellation Software, is in turn the owner of ACCEO Solutions. Alice POS, which offers cloud software designed for retail, will join the ACCEO Home and Building Supply Industry Solutions business unit.

Sales at Quebec hardware stores remain modest but some retailers are gearing up for a big change, La Presse reports. BMR Group is upgrading its DC in Boucherville, on Montreal’s South Shore, while Canac has begun work on a new one in Drummondville.

“We’re already feeling a slight boost from the recent interest rate cuts, which seem to have spurred an appetite for some residential projects to take off again,” Patrick Delisle, Canac’s marketing director, told the newspaper.

Richard Darveau, president of the Quebec industry association AQMAT, said that as the need for housing stock grows, hardware retailers can rightly expect sales to rise. Those eyeing plans for growth, he suggested, “want to stay one step ahead of the competition.”

West Fraser Timber has announced the indefinite curtailment of operations at its Lake Butler, Fla., sawmill by the end of this month. The company cited “high fibre costs and soft lumber markets” in making the decision. The move is expected to reduce West Fraser’s U.S. lumber capacity by approximately 110 million board feet.

Canadian Tire Corp. is opening four new Party City stores ahead of Halloween, the first expansion of the banner’s footprint since CTC took it over in 2019. According to Retail Insider, the locations include two in Winnipeg, the chain’s first in Manitoba. In Ontario, new stores are coming to Ottawa (Kanata) and Kitchener.

RONA held a grand opening yesterday for the new RONA Manotick store in Ottawa. Dealer-owners Joe Reid, Ryan Austin, and Pat Butler welcomed members of RONA’s Dealers Support Team for the event.

The 14,000-square-foot store is the first renovation centre to open in the rural community of Manotick, which has been part of the city of Ottawa since 2001. It’s also the first RONA affiliate in Ontario to display the new visual identity designed specifically for independent dealers.

RONA has celebrated the grand opening of the RONA Olds store in Olds, Alta. Dealer-owners Garth and Charmaine Dagg and Sheldon Foss were joined by leaders from RONA’s Dealers Support Team for yesterday’s board cutting ceremony. Founded in 2007, the store was acquired last January by its new owners, who then chose to join RONA’s network of independent affiliates.

Home Hardware Stores Ltd. has introduced two Volvo VNR Electric trucks to its fleet. The trucks are the first zero-tailpipe emission vehicles to join the Home brand.

They will be used for last-mile deliveries from the company’s distribution center in St. Jacobs, Ont., to stores within a radius of 100 to 150 km.

Retail sales increased 0.9 percent to $66.4 billion in July, StatCan reports. Sales were up in seven of nine subsectors, led by increases at motor vehicle and parts dealers. LBM and garden sales posted the largest decline in core retail sales, down 1.4 percent. Overall core retail sales, which exclude gasoline stations and fuel vendors and motor vehicle and parts dealers, were up 0.6 percent for the month.

The International Hardware Fair Italy, held in the off-years of Germany’s Eisenwarenmesse, will take place in May of next year. The event will open on May 8 with a panel discussion entitled “Home Improvement: the era of hybridization – distribution channels in comparison.” The second day will begin with a session on how to compete with e-commerce. Click here to preview the agenda outline.

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

Ten years ago, we quoted Robert Sawyer, then president and CEO of RONA, from a second-quarter analysts’ call, about the passing of the licence to manage the Ace brand in Canada to his company. He was enthusiastic, as we admittedly were—in 2014.

“[The takeover of Ace] is one that fits perfectly with RONA’s overall recruitment strategy,” we wrote. [Editor’s note: Sometimes we are, gulp, wrong.] RONA’s management of the Ace banner in Canada would be short-lived. Ace’s brand moved to Peavey Industries in 2020, who recently announced that they will no longer supply the Ace brand in Canada after this year.