Cindy Jardim is The Home Depot Canada’s senior manager of trend and design. At a recent open house hosted by Home Depot Canada, she gave an overview of some of the trends in style, colours, and finishes that are driving the retailer’s assortments for this spring and summer.

A big part of the season’s offerings is lines of patio furniture and outdoor living products. The showcase presented a varied sampling of Home Depot Canada’s newest styles for outdoors. “At Home Depot, we are really stretching our look and feel of patio,” Jardim said.

Where the retailer used to focus on a more traditional look, it’s now getting more style minded. Products like pillows and cushions present “clean lines and colours that will stand the test of time.” And those prints and patterns are now being developed in-house, Jardim added. “It’s very on-trend—and affordable.”

By keeping styles more up to date, Home Depot’s merchants want to stay more “trend-right” while being compatible with the traditional looks that have been indicative of Home Depot in the past. The retailer can maintain a broad assortment that is appealing to a wide range of customers, “but curated and co-ordinated to work together so you will find something to suit your style.”

Another trend Jardim identified was for products that address smaller spaces. Recognizing the homes many Canadians find themselves in, whether co-owning or sharing, or living in condos, Home Depot is working to provide products to meet that demand. “Small spaces are really big for us,” Jardim said.

A recent open house hosted by The Home Depot Canada provided a showcase for product trends to watch for this spring and summer. The event was held in Toronto and attended by a group of merchants from Home Depot’s head office. Hardlines had the opportunity to be there.

Smart Home. Craig Bowler is the divisional product merchant for lighting, including Hubspace, Home Depot’s own lighting and smart home brand. Bowler says the Home Depot stores now carry 50 smart home products and another 50 will be added by year’s end. Those lines include everything from smart alarms, door locks and chimes, and security devices to lighting and light bulbs, and even ceiling fans.

Smart Home is finding its place outdoors more than ever this year, Bowler says. Products here include path lights, spotlights, and string lights. “It allows the customer to really personalize the space.”

The technology behind these products is advancing, making these smart devices easier than ever to install and use. “All our Hubspace products can be set up in 60 seconds or less.” The smart home technology also connects with other Home Depot private brands, including Hampton Bay, EcoSmart, and Defiance.

“Don’t be afraid of technology and smart home,” Bowler urges.

Outdoor living. Meredith Clayton (shown here) is the Home Depot merchant for patio as well as interconnected merchandise for online. This season, natural finishes are being mimicked with faux stone and wood lookalikes. Different furniture styles can be used in the same space, creating different “zones” in the yard. Clayton points out that Home Depot Canada has a new partnership with designer Brian Gluckstein.

Clayton expects that people will be watching their wallets this spring. The range of products in her category have been selected to satisfy that expected trend. Rather than investing in completely new patio sets, customers will mix and match new items with existing furniture and accessories.

“So add one piece—a chair or a pillow—with coordinating patterns. It’s for the customer who doesn’t want to go big and instead wants to mix it up.”

Not surprisingly, any products that can make Canadian climates more comfortable are gaining in popularity. Giant space heaters, like the gas-powered ones used in restaurant patios, have been downsized and made suitable for home use. “It’s on trend in outdoor heating, trying to extend the season a little more,” Clayton says.

Tools. Westley Cannata is Home Depot Canada’s senior merchant, tools. He said that the retailer has added a whopping 280 new power tools. Home Depot’s proprietary Ryobi brand, he says, represents a big, cohesive assortment using the same portable power system. “That’s the biggest power tool platform in Canada,” he says.

The new lines include a lithium battery charging system that uses USB ports. Cannata says the line landed at the end of 2022, with eight tools that use the USB cell battery. Products include a rotary tool, compact flashlight, and an LED flip light. The program will have 31 tools by the end of the year. The battery can even be used to charge a phone, says Cannata.

B&Q, the UK big box home improvement retailer, has published its second annual “Slice of Home Life” report, exploring the mindset of UK households. The report examines how people are living in and adapting their homes to cost-of-living increases and other challenges.

And a lot of it reflects consumer trends here in Canada.

The report identified four emerging trends: pets taking priority, the rise of the utility room, the death of the open floor plan, and accidental sustainability.

Among UK consumers who own pets, one in three admitted that their furry friends dominate their home, with 38 percent saying they have reorganized or restyled their homes to make room for the products needed for their pets. Almost two out of five have considered moving to a larger home to make more space for their pets.

The open concept floor plan is giving way to more privacy. More than half of homeowners surveyed indicated that they find the idea of temporary partitions very appealing. That could include the addition of doors to divide up their open plan living area to create more private zones, creating a more intimate living room atmosphere. Larger rooms, says the report, can be more difficult or expensive to heat, lack privacy and leak too much noise, or allow cooking odours to spread from the kitchen.

One trend is distinctly English but reflects a move to a more North American-style home trend. The report uncovered that the utility room is the new middle-class “must-have.” A utility room is considered a practical space that takes the washing machine out of the kitchen. It frees the kitchen up, while providing a space for pets’ beds and bowls, as well as coats and shoes. The utility room makes room for both a washer and a dryer, enabling homeowners to dry their clothes without hanging them all over the house.

The B&Q report also reveals the unlikely way households are becoming “accidentally” more sustainable. With energy bills rising, 89 percent said keeping costs of energy bills down is important to them, which has resulted in households making decisions that have a positive impact on energy use, for reasons aside from directly protecting the environment. Plugging drafts, insulating lofts, and turning down the heat at night are all moves that help the environment. But these decisions were often made for their impact on reducing energy bills rather than for the benefit of the environment.

The desire for a second bathroom is another trend identified in the report. With more adults living under one roof, the pressure on bathrooms has mounted. It’s exacerbated by the fact that people spend more time there, with more toiletries than ever before. As a result, 54 percent of consumers surveyed indicated they would like another bathroom.

Liohn Sherer has been promoted to the role of president of Ideal Security. He takes the helm of the third generation of this family business. Sherer joined the company in 2016 and was previously executive vice-president. Based in Montreal, Ideal Security was founded in 1956 by Jack Jospe, who was eventually succeeded by his son, Joe, who expanded the company’s range beyond storm and screen door hardware to categories ranging from specialty window hardware to home security systems.

Steve Conroy has joined Central Builders Supply in Courtenay, B.C., on Vancouver Island, as director of operations and merchandise. He was most recently at Slegg Building Materials in the role of director of merchandising and supply chain.

At Lowe’s Cos., Juliette Pryor has been appointed vice-president, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary, effective May 3. Pryor joins the company from Albertsons, where she served as executive vice-president, general counsel, and corporate secretary. Pryor succeeds Bill McCanless, who has served as Lowe’s executive vice-president, general counsel, and corporate secretary since 2015, and advised the company last year of his intention to retire at the end of May.

DID YOU KNOW...?

… that the latest edition of Hardlines Dealer News is out now? In this issue, we look at the challenge of finding contractors for installed sales and how one RONA affiliate expanded its store network. Hardlines Dealer News is monthly and it’s free: click here to subscribe now!

RETAILER NEWS

RONA has welcomed Vantage Building Supplies in Vegreville, Alta., and its owners, to the network of RONA affiliated dealers. The owners are investing more than $1 million to expand the existing 4,500-square-foot retail space in two phases, adding a total of 5,500 square feet. Vantage Builders was founded in 1975 and the Vantage Building Supplies store was added in 2005.

Senso Group Building Supplies Inc. is the newest member to join AD, the North American hardware buying group. Senso has joined AD’s Building Supplies - Canada division (formerly TORBSA). Senso has three divisions of its own: building supplies, construction equipment and rentals, and waste management. The building supplies business was established in 2011.

BuildDirect, the omnichannel building materials retailer, reported total revenue of $92.2 million for 2022, an increase of 1.6 percent year over year, largely driven by the revenue contribution from BuildDirect’s acquisition of Michigan-based flooring retailer Superb Flooring & Design at the end of 2021. Full-year 2022 revenue from pro customers reached $77 million, up 35 percent from 2021, driven by the company’s overall shift in strategy to focus on pro customers, plus the acquisition of Superb. The company says it will continue to look for acquisitions of other pro-focused retailers.

SUPPLIER NEWS

Richelieu Hardware has reported Q1 sales of $403 million, up $18.5 million, or 4.8 percent, from $384.5 million in the comparable period of 2022. The past year’s acquisitions contributed 3.0 percent to the growth in sales. Sales in Canada came to $230.9 million, up 0.7 percent from $229.4 million a year earlier. Net earnings fell 25.4 percent to $22.6 million.

A Winnipeg-based group of door and window manufacturers is seeking bids for its assets under the court-appointed monitorship of Deloitte Restructuring. The firms include Polar Window of Canada and Accurate Dorwin. In February, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that the six companies combined had unsecured debts totalling $9.5 million in addition to $13.5 million in secured debt. One supplier told the paper the business was "under-capitalized.”

Regal ideas collaborations took first place in four categories at the North American Deck and Railing Association’s 13th annual National Deck Competition held in Clearwater Beach, Fla., at the end of March. Regal’s awards included the prize for best overall project: a collaboration between Regal ideas and Neighbourhood Fence and Deck.

ODL Inc., a maker of door glass and insulated blinds based in Zeeland, Mich., is expanding into exterior doors with its acquisition of Tru Tech Doors in Woodbridge, Ont. Tru Tech is a steel and fiberglass door manufacturer founded by John Careri in 1998. Careri will join the ODL team as EVP and president of the Door Division.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Investment in building construction rose slightly by 1.0 percent to $20.6 billion in February. Residential construction spending increased by 1.1 percent to $15 billion. Single-family home investment, up 1.3 percent, contributed the most to the growth. In the non-residential sector, spending rose by 0.8 percent to $5.6 billion. (StatCan)

NOTED

A report from Rider Levett Bucknall gives a snapshot of how many cranes are operating in each major city in North America. With data current to mid-Q1 2023, the latest RLB quarterly cost report shows that cities seeing an increase in cranes include Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Seattle. But in terms of sheer numbers, Toronto tops the list. Canada’s largest city has a whopping 238 active cranes. By comparison, the U.S. city with the most cranes is Seattle with 51, followed by Los Angeles with 47, and Denver with 36.