Wilson’s Home Hardware Building Centre is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Dealer-owner Mike Wilson recently told Hardlines how the business has passed the baton through the four generations that have owned the business.
Patriarch Fred Wilson purchased the original store in 1924 and ran it until his sudden death 20 years later. Fred’s 19-year-old son, Walter “Buzz” Wilson, then took over the reins. Buzz brought the business under the Home Hardware umbrella shortly after that group’s founding in 1964. He also oversaw its expansion, buying up neighbouring stores.
In 1988, Buzz passed the torch to his eldest son, David, who transitioned the business from general retail to an LBM specialist. It was under his watch that Wilson’s adopted the Home Hardware Building Centre banner. David’s son Mike joined in 2008 and has been at the helm since 2013.
“That history is not something I take lightly,” Mike Wilson reflects. “I know that I stand on the shoulders of giants.
“When you watch your grandfather and your father lead a business and contribute to building a community, you learn that there’s something very special about small-town family hospitality that’s delivered in a very professional way,” he told CTV News.
In the fall of 2023, Home Hardware Stores Ltd. honoured Wilson’s Home Hardware Building Centre with its Walter J. Hachborn Store of the Year award for the second time (it previously won in 2005).
As in any retail setting, a top-notch staff is indispensable. Wilson’s pushes hard on training and retention from the moment team members come on board. Job shadowing and one-on-one coaching are standard features of the formation of new employees.
In return, full-time team members get group health insurance, RRSP matching, and five personal paid days each year, as well as a day off for their birthdays. The order of the day when it comes to retention is the “three Rs:” Respect, Recognition, and Reward.
