Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report.
The MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) business is a large part of Home Depot’s commercial offering. It all got started when Home Depot bought the mail-order based Maintenance Warehouse in 1997, south of the border. In our Jan. 24, 2000 edition of Hardlines Weekly Report, we reported on Home Depot Canada’s move to set up its own catalogue division aimed at this market. It was called Home Depot Commercial Direct (it is now Home Depot Commercial Services in this country). Leo Hawkes was hired from MRO distributor Acklands-Grainger to head up the division as VP and general manager.
