Home Hardware is pulling out all the stops during its 60th birthday year. The company, which is one of Canada’s top four home improvement retailers, got its start in the small town of St. Jacobs, nestled in the heart of southern Ontario’s Mennonite country, back in 1964.

Today, the organization generates estimated sales exceeding $9 billion (source: the Hardlines Retail Report) from more than 1,000 stores. Those stores represent a variety of formats under the Home Hardware, Home Building Centre, Home Hardware Building Centre, and Home Furniture banners.

Here are some of the initiatives planned for the year:

• Nostalgic brand campaign featuring Home’s evolution over the last 60 years
• 60th anniversary sale from April 25 to May 8 that features big discounts off BeautiTone Designer Interior & Exterior, Delta Faucets, and Mosaic Cookware & Bakeware
• National contest from April 25 to May 22 that lets customers enter a draw to win one of two $5,000 grand prizes, or one of fifty $1,000 gift cards
• Scene+ “60 Bonus Points Promotion” whereby customers can earn 60 bonus points on purchases of $50 or more
• Social media contests starting April 26, such as Home Hardware Trivia, and inviting Canadians to share their memories of Home Hardware for the chance to win a prize

“This milestone is a testament to over six decades of dedication and hard work by our dealers and team members across the country,” said Kevin Macnab, president and CEO of Home Hardware Stores Ltd. “While celebrating 60 years of rich history, we’re also focused on continued growth to ensure we keep delivering the exceptional customer service we’re known for in communities across Canada.”

In 1964, in St. Jacobs, Ont., Walter Hachborn, Henry Sittler, and silent partner Arthur Zilliax laid the groundwork for what would become Canada’s largest dealer-owned home improvement retailer. With a history that spans 60 years, Home Hardware Stores Ltd. has a legacy to be proud of. That legacy includes grassroots growth and expansion that now represents more than 1,000 stores nationwide.

Throughout that time, the company has had only four CEOs, starting with Hachborn himself. Hardlines spoke recently with Home Hardware’s current president and CEO, Kevin Macnab, about what’s in store for both customers and Home Hardware dealers themselves during the anniversary year ahead. That includes a campaign that focuses on how Home Hardware dealers and head office workers support their local communities.

“We’ll be highlighting the incredible way the Home team, our dealers and corporately, give back to their communities and we’re going to commemorate 60 years of business with 60 stories of goodwill that will be shared both internally and with community media,” he says. “We’re doing a lot this year, but I particularly like that 60 Acts of Kindness Campaign.”

Macnab says customers will see special sales and promotions to celebrate the 60th and promises some great deals for customers. “I’m hesitant to call our strategy high-low. I would say we’ll have really strong promotions through this event.”

He expects the events to create pride for the dealers. And the Homecoming dealer market in September in Toronto will be an occasion for further celebrating their collective achievements. The festivities are a welcome addition for an industry that is coming off a slow year in 2023 and a soft start to 2024. Macnab points out that the company has been supporting the dealers to ensure their growth.

“The key to our success is our dealers and we’ve been working really hard to support them, enabling them to grow their businesses with their customers, or growing their footage.”

The anniversary milestone comes amidst a time of great change for Home Hardware. The company was historically focused primarily on its shareholders—the dealers themselves. But in a shift that actually began under Macnab’s predecessor, interim CEO Terry Davis, a new strategy was begun to put the customer front and centre. As the company phrases it, the move has been from being a hardware wholesaler to a retail company.

“Over the last few years we’ve been very focused on the end consumer to better support our dealers. We’ve made changes to strengthen our product assortments as well as implementing the Scene+ loyalty program, over the last few years,” Macnab says. “So we have made changes—and change is never easy. And sometimes there’s pushback. But what I would tell you—we’re at a point now where we’ve been through the biggest elements of change and dealers are seeing the benefits of the work we’ve done.”

Macnab adds that the company conducted its first-ever dealer satisfaction survey last year, “and we received positive results from it.” All told, he is pleased with the birthday plans, and the array of advertising and promotional programs, “all those things that generate excitement for dealers and customers.”

In conversation with Hardlines, Home Hardware president and CEO Kevin Macnab talked last week about how the company’s newest milestone has served a larger purpose.

“We’ve used our 60th anniversary to clarify Home Hardware’s purpose, vision, and mission. These are Home’s guiding principles, which will drive our decision making,” Macnab says. “They create unity and understanding throughout the company.”

He sees these guiding principles as crucial to driving the company into the future following a series of changes within the company—changes, he says, which are largely now in place. “Our purpose, simply put, is to improve life at home. Now, that can be home with a capital ‘H’ as part of our dealer network. But it also means a store experience with lower case ‘h’ for our customers to improve life.

“Our vision is for home to be Canada’s most trusted and preferred home improvement experience. So we’re very focused on experience,” he says. “And our mission is to serve communities through our strong independent dealer network, by providing superior home improvement experiences with helpful advice, competitive prices, and quality products.”

Macnab suggests that redefining these aspects of the company’s culture after changes the company has been through in recent years is fitting. “Like I’ve said, we’ve made change, and we’ve been through the most significant element of change.”

Orgill Inc., the Memphis-based hardware wholesaler, has a range of customers in Canada. It supplies independent hardware and building supply dealers in every region of the country. Orgill has sales of close to $4 billion, shipping more than 75,000 SKUs from seven distribution centres in the U.S. and one in Canada. But despite its size, this company is working hard to keep up its technology advancements.

Boyden Moore, Orgill’s president and CEO, spoke with Hardlines during the company’s Spring Dealer Market, held in Orlando, Fla., earlier this year. He shared how Orgill is moving forward, with a strategy that has included a new tech lead, dealer-targeted online supports, and even robots.

“A few years ago we brought in a new CIO/CTO role, Mark Hamer,” says Moore. “His charge from me was to modernize our technical infrastructure. He’s made some big gains for us.”

Hamer’s mandate was to learn about the tech that Orgill’s vendors—and customers—are using, understanding every part of the technology within the company’s distribution system, “and every part of the business,” Moore points out. A year later, Hamer came back to Orgill’s executive team. “He put a plan together, a path to mastermind data management to really get the company prepared to take advantage of some of the technology we weren’t taking advantage of.”

Now, even AI is being used. This includes 70 robots at Orgill’s DC in Tifton, Ga. (shown here). The robots are doing demand picking and they work overnight moving stock around based on the next day’s orders. “So the pick cycle is efficient when the workers come in the next day,” Moore says. “We’re using artificial intelligence to see how the pick waves are coming and how they could be rearranged in the modules to be the most efficient when the people come in.”

Technology has been updated and refined for Orgill’s dealer customers, as well. Dealer services include an integrated e-commerce product that is hosted on a dealer’s own website. The platform gives customers access to anything the dealer sells, not just the products supplied from Orgill.

“We knew a dealer would not be able to offer a website unless they could offer their whole product range,” says Moore. That e-commerce platform is under constant improvement, he says, with recent enhancements that include making the search engine better and making services easier to use generally.

“There’s just constant development, and we feel like that’s a role we play, to help our dealers be successful. That, of course, is our mission—and it’s not just in distribution services, but whatever else can we leverage on our dealers’ behalf.”

Aaron Jarosz has been promoted to vice-president, contractor services, at The Home Depot Canada. He most recently led Home Depot Canada’s merchandising execution team as senior director, merchandising operations. Jarosz joined The Home Depot in 2011. In his new role, he will lead the pro/home services team and join the leadership team in Canada, led by company president Michael Rowe.

Brett Harrison is the new territory manager at Regal ideas. Based in Winnipeg, he will cover Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Northern Ontario. He was formerly a project manager at Winnipeg Building & Decorating Ltd.

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RETAILER NEWS

The Canadian Tire store in Innisfil, Ont., has new owners. The store, about an hour north of Toronto, will hold its grand reopening ribbon cutting on May 4. Stephane Diamond and Christine Forget are the associate dealers. Both of them have experience owning Canadian Tire stores in Montreal.

Two stores in Alberta, Medicine Hat Home Hardware Building Centre and Alta-Wide Home Building Centre in Vegreville, have recently converted to the Home Hardware banner. The stores are owned by Lisa and Mark Brumm, who also own a third store in the province, Sylvan Lake Home Hardware Building Centre, which became a Home store in 2023.

RONA inc. has welcomed six new dealers as independent affiliates. They are RONA Quincaillerie Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Quebec, RONA Manotick and RONA Timmins in Ontario, RONA Lac La Biche and RONA Olds in Alberta, and RONA Agassiz in British Columbia. “Since we announced our new business positioning, along with a series of new programs last December at Connexia, our annual dealers’ event, 11 stores have chosen to join the network of RONA affiliated dealers,” Alain Ménard, senior vice-president for affiliate dealers, said in a release.

As part of IKEA Canada’s ongoing commitment to keep prices down for Canadian consumers (including lowering prices on 1,500 products this year), the retailer has introduced new financial services for customers shopping online. Using the Pay in 4 by Afterpay, customers can split purchases into four interest-free payments. The first payment is taken when the order is placed and the remaining three are automatically processed every two weeks. The service is available for purchases between $50 and $1,000 and is currently available for online purchases only.

RONA inc. has completed the sale of its distribution centre in Terrebonne, a suburb of Montreal, to BMTC Group, a holding company in Montreal that has assets in furniture and household appliances retail. The imminent cessation of regular operations at RONA’s Terrebonne facility had been announced back in January. BMTC, in a release, said that the deal cost $96 million before taxes—and RONA has a lease-back agreement, the details of which were not specified.

United Hardware is merging with another U.S. co-op, Do it Best. The merger is expected to enhance efficiency, add buying power, and drive store growth for the dealers. Both United Hardware and Do it Best leadership teams are focusing on a seamless transition so service to dealer-customers won’t be disrupted. All United Hardware stores will maintain their independent brand identities, allowing them to retain their autonomy and individuality within the larger co-operative framework.

West Fraser Timber Co. reported its Q1 sales remained flat at $1.627 billion from the comparable period of 2023. Earnings of $35 million reversed a loss of $42 million a year earlier. In addition, the company has announced the completion of the sale of its Quesnel River, B.C., and Slave Lake, Alta., pulp mills to an affiliate of a fund managed by Atlas Holdings. Both facilities produce bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp for the manufacture of paper products.

Retail sales edged down by 0.1 percent to $66.7 billion in February. Sales were down in five of nine subsectors, led by a 2.2 percent decline at gasoline stations and fuel vendors. Core retail sales, which exclude automotive and fuel categories, were unchanged. Sales in the LBM and garden subsectors fell by 0.4 percent. (StatCan)

Investment in building construction declined 1.1 percent to $19.3 billion. Spending in the residential sector dropped by 1.2 percent from January to $13.4 billion, led by a $153 million decline in Ontario. In the single-family detached segment, however, investment rose by 1.3 percent to $6.7 billion, with gains reported across the country with the exception of Yukon. (StatCan)