CHICAGO — Joining forces with other hardware stores in your community to share advertising efforts was just one of the tips shared at a conference for home improvement dealers, held in Chicago earlier this month. The State of Independents Conference was hosted by the North American Retail Hardware Association.

Christine Hand, owner of Handyman Home Hardware in St. John’s, and chair of the board for Home Hardware Stores Ltd. (shown here), was part of a panel of independent dealers talking about changes in the marketplace. She explained that her store pools resources with three other local dealers to develop a regular advertising section in the weekend newspaper and buy air time for joint ads on radio.

Joe Franquinha is the owner of Crest Hardware in Brooklyn, N.Y. With just 5,000 square feet to work with, he’s been able to develop a fast-growing lawn and garden business—year round. He’s had success thanks to a strategy that includes creating a fun shopping environment in-store. Franklin, a pot-bellied pig, and a grey parrot both live in the store and have huge appeal for kids who accompany their parents to the store. Franquinha also goes out of his way to create partnerships with local hotels and hospitals to create holiday landscapes on their properties.

Franquinha had other suggestions for building a year-round lawn and garden business, such as offering delivery to compete with online sales. He’s currently trying to develop landscaping services to provide additional value for his lawn and garden customers. He also found that, for his urban customers, a balance between trendy, more expensive items and low maintenance, high turnover assortments work best.

SPECIAL REPORT — The path to becoming an Outstanding Retailer Award winner can be a rocky one. But even a devastating fire three years ago could not stop Connie Gutoskie Lasalle and Jean-Guy Lasalle from earning this year’s Outstanding Retailer Award for best building supply or home centre over 15,000 square feet.

The pair started Matériaux JLS in 1993 in Bryson, in the Pontiac region of Quebec, northwest of Ottawa. Business was good, and five years later they purchased a second store in nearby Mansfield-en-Pontefract.

But after more than a decade of expansion there, the unthinkable happened: just a month before Christmas in 2015, the store burned to the ground—a blow to both the business and the economically disadvantaged town.

With support from their Bryson location, the Lasalles set up trailers and within 36 hours began serving Mansfield customers, a decision, they say, that “wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.” Without even being asked, the staff all came out to pitch in. “They wanted to help and support us because the store was their home and the community’s home as well,” says Gutoskie Lasalle.

After much discussion, they decided to rebuild the store in March 2016. By December, they had built two new buildings—a garden centre and a drive-through warehouse, that includes a heated area to house rental equipment and service trucks. They held a grand re-opening party in the spring of 2017. “We strove to create a store that would make everyone comfortable, excited and feel that we were their one-stop shop,” Gutoskie Lasalle notes.

Although it was a tough ordeal to endure, the Lasalles viewed the fire as an opportunity for a fresh start—one that helped them become ORA winners in 2018.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — As he approaches his first year end with the company, Marvin Ellison, president and CEO of Lowe’s Cos., is demonstrating just how hard he is working to increase shareholder value for the world’s number-two home improvement retailer.

Ellison and his executive team shared strategic priorities and long-term financial targets with analysts and investors last week at the company’s head office in Mooresville, N.C. The big news for Wall Street was the announcement that Lowe’s intends to buy back up to $10 billion in shares in a major stock repurchase program. Lowe’s shares bumped up 4% on the news.

Ellison joined Lowe’s in July 2018. He was formerly chairman and CEO of J. C. Penney Company, Inc.

In terms of performance, Lowe’s executives expect total sales to increase about 4% in 2018. Comparable sales are expected to increase approximately 2.5%. For 2019, Lowe’s is forecasting more modest growth of 2%, with comp sales up 3%.

“We have substantially completed a detailed reassessment of our business and are diligently implementing process and technology improvements that are rooted in the fundamentals of retail and designed to position Lowe’s to win in today’s complex retail environment,” said Ellison.

CFO David Denton added that the company is combining efforts to drive sales with “an expense reduction culture.”

Ellison admitted that the changes being implemented to both the processes at Lowe’s and its technologies will take time. But he expects that they “will enable Lowe’s associates to better focus on serving customers and capture significant market opportunities.”

TORONTO — Canadians are shopping for more than gifts this season, according to a poll by Ebates.ca. Other holiday purchases include holiday entertaining (92% of shoppers), holiday décor (71%), new clothes and accessories for holiday events (69%) and travel (58%).

These secondary holiday expenses can add an additional $528 on average to the $602 Canadians are already spending on holiday gifts this season, making for a total average of $1,130.

“Canadians may be spending more this year, but they are finding creative ways to stretch their holiday shopping budgets further,” said Belinda Baugniet, VP of marketing and resident shopping expert at Ebates.ca. “If there’s one pattern we’ve observed through our annual surveys, it’s that Canadians are smart shoppers who engage in loyalty programs that offer points and cash back, as well as social media and apps that lead them to the best deals.”

Canadians have also adopted Black Friday and Cyber Monday as the kickoff to their holiday shopping, taking advantage of late-November deals even in the absence of a long weekend.

At Home Hardware Stores Ltd., Tammy Wallace has been appointed merchandise manager of housewares and home décor. Effective this week, Wallace is taking the reins from Jane Wall, who is retiring after a distinguished 41-year career with the company. Wallace brings 17 years of merchandise experience to the role, most recently as inventory analyst for Home Hardware.

Paul Commisso has joined Jeld-Wen in Vaughan, Ont., as director of marketing and product management. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at Husky Injection Molding Systems. Also at Jeld-Wen: Cris Abbott has been named provincial sales manager for British Columbia and Alberta, reporting directly to Commisso. She’s been in the fenestration industry for more than 28 years and has held several positions within Jeld-Wen. She replaces Brett Sigursdon, who is leaving the organization to pursue other opportunities.

Coast Distributors Ltd. has promoted David Scheltgen to its outside sales team. Scheltgen has been working in shipping and receiving at the company’s Nanaimo distribution centre for the last two years. His new territory will be Northern Vancouver Island.

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MONTREAL — The seventh annual Leger Wow Index was published late last month, measuring customer experience with online and bricks-and-mortar retailers. Lee Valley Tools led the way in the new e-retail category with a 96.2% satisfaction rate. In bricks-and-mortar, Reno-Depot was among the most improved retailers, its rating surging by 11.3 percentage points since the arrival of retired hockey player Dave Morrissette as spokesperson. Among the top 100 list were Canac (in 29th place), Groupe Patrick Morin (at 53), Groupe BMR (94) and Home Depot Canada (97).

TORONTO — Sears Canada pensioners have agreed to an estimated $48 million from the insolvent retailer, dropping their bid for priority over other unsecured creditors. In a tentative settlement with the company’s court-appointed monitor, the pensioners agreed to a more limited, but more certain, sum in lieu of a risky litigation which, if successful, would leave other unsecured creditors with nothing. The pensioners may yet access a bigger piece of the pie, however, as the monitor is seeking to sue Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert and his ESL Investments hedge fund over a $509 million dividend they and other shareholders received from Sears Canada in 2013.

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — The buying group Castle Building Centres Ltd. has redesigned its website with a more intuitive, mobile-friendly version. The new castle.ca site also has an efficient store locator function that can map a user’s route right to the nearest store. The site offers a selection of some 30,000 products, including access to the catalogue of Castle’s primary hardware supplier, Orgill.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears Holdings Corp. Chairman Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund has made a $4.6 billion offer for the troubled retailer in a bid to keep its stores open. The plan would keep 500 stores and 50,000 jobs intact, according to a filing by ESL Investments. Key deadlines arise this month in the company’s bankruptcy process, and some of its creditors are calling for a speedy liquidation, in the belief that going-out-of-business sales would allow them to recoup more of their losses. ESL’s bid features a proposal to raise $1.7 billion through measures including a new loan. It would also see the hedge fund forgive $1.8 billion of Sears’ debt and assume $1.1 billion of its liabilities.

BRAMPTON, Ont. — Loblaw Companies Ltd. is rolling out a subscription service to its PC Optimum members, offering free shipping and online order pickup for $99 a year. The program is being made available to all 16 million cardholders after an earlier soft launch, and is Loblaw’s answer to Amazon Prime, part of the grocer’s efforts to ramp up its online channel. In addition to in-store grocery pickup and free delivery for Shoppers Drug Mart and Joe Fresh orders, members will have get 20% back in PC Points on select products. Loblaw’s digital push also includes expansion of its click-and-collect program: the company aims to have 700 in-store pickup locations by year’s end.

OAK BROOK, Ill. — Ace Hardware reported record Q3 revenues of $1.43 billion, an increase of $84.8 million or 6.3% from a year ago. Net income however declined $17.5 million to $36.3 million, dragged down by warehouse expansion costs, among others.

SUPPLIER NEWS

VANCOUVER — CanWel Building Materials Group Ltd., through its wholly owned subsidiary CanWel Building Materials, has completed the acquisition of the lumber pressure treating plant and related equipment and business of Western Wood Treating, Inc. Western Wood Treating is in Woodland, Calif., and specializes in producing pressure treated wood products. It has been in business for more than 30 years. The newly acquired facility can service a wide range of lumber types, including, dimensional, timbers, fencing and plywood.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Honeywell International will transfer its head office, along with its Safety and Productivity Solutions unit, from Morris Plains, N.J., to Charlotte, N.C. The move will take between 150 and 200 senior managers to Charlotte, with the addition of new positions bringing the total number of local jobs up to about 750 over the next six years. About 1,000 employees will remain, spread across six locations in New Jersey.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Housing starts came to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 215,941 units in November, up from 206,753 units in October. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 2.2% in November to 202,054 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 3.9% to 151,596 units in November while single-detached urban starts decreased by 2.3% to 50,458 units. Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 13,887 units. (CMHC)

Canadian municipalities issued $8.1 billion worth of building permits in October, edging down 0.2% from September. The decrease was mainly attributable to lower construction intentions for industrial and institutional buildings. In the residential sector, the value of building permits increased 4.2% from September to $5.2 billion. (StatCan)

“Serial returners”, people who buy stuff then return it constantly, are costing retailers a lot of money, and opening them up to theft through fraudulent returns. The National Retail Federation has estimated that in the U.S. alone customers returned $351 billion worth of goods in 2017. That represents 10% of all sales. It’s further estimated that 6.5% of those returns, valued at $22.8 billion, were fraudulent. Companies like Amazon, Home Depot and even Costco are starting to knuckle down on repeat offenders.