RONA dealers got an update on head office’s new programs, its new retail brand, and where independents fit in with the company’s vision at the dealer conference and show, RONA Connexia, in Montreal on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. The event provided an opportunity for RONA affiliated dealers to meet with members of the RONA team, as well as some of their vendors, and discover what’s new for 2024.

Meetings on day one were held at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel. Connexia continued the next day at the RONA Planogram Facility in Boucherville with a showcase that highlighted products for the 2024 spring-summer season.

In those meetings, dealers were also introduced to a new identity designed exclusively for RONA’s affiliated dealers, based on a review of the signage outside of the stores and the brand elements inside. This new identity is designed to promote the entrepreneurial side of the dealers while capitalizing on RONA’s brand awareness.

And it’s unique to the independent RONA dealers. It involves a new, clean banner with room to further identify the store’s own name and brand, using its own colours and look. “The new look means the store is branded as a dealer store. We see tremendous value in identifying them as dealer-owned,” says Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux, senior vice-president, RONA affiliated dealers and public affairs. That branding will be extended through the interior of the store, as well.

And the refresh will be implemented at no charge to the dealers. “We’ll be paying for it all,” says Lamoureux. “It is a priority for us.” He notes that a locally-owned store is invaluable for a community and Canadians recognize the importance of that local advantage. “We wanted to capitalize on these assets, while focusing on the impact of each dealer in their communities.”

The roll-out of the rebranding will take place over the coming months, and he calls it “an important commitment by RONA to its dealers. “Next year is our 85th anniversary. RONA was created for and with independent dealers and we wanted to reflect that. We wanted to say the dealers are front and centre for us.”

Canadian Tire Retail expects slightly better 2023 margins despite forecast of tougher Q4

Canadian Tire Corp. went into the fourth quarter with its share of concerns, as the fiscal period will complete a year in which most hardlines retailers are facing challenges.

In a call to analysts following the release of the company’s third-quarter results, executives shared their expectations for the quarter—and the year ahead—as CTC works to reduce inventory costs and get customer traffic back up to pre-inflation levels.

“In fall-winter categories, the combination of higher inventory from last year and the majority of products shipping in Q3 this year compared to Q4 last year means our CTR dealers are very well stocked heading into our biggest selling season, and we expect to ship little fall-winter  product in Q4 unless consumer demand proves stronger than expected,” said Gregory Craig, EVP and CFO at Canadian Tire Corp. He further noted the reluctance of CTR dealers to hang on to extra inventory, due to higher interest rates.

The result: a more modest end to the year than previously hoped. “These factors will make for a tough revenue comp going into Q4 compared to a year ago,” Craig said, “when retail revenue excluding petroleum was up two percent, as dealers were still building Christmas and winter inventory.”

The company has also undertaken staff cuts during the last quarter of 2023. The initiative has been two-pronged, the first of which is targeted headcount reductions to reduce staffing levels by three percent or about 200 people. In addition, the elimination of open job vacancies was expected to take company’s headcount down by another three percent compared to 2022. While these cuts will result in a charge of up to $25 million in Canadian Tire’s fourth quarter, they are expected to result in overall longer-term savings of approximately $50 million.

While CTC is forecasting slightly smaller margin rates across the company, the outlook is more positive for its Canadian Tire Retail business, which includes Canadian Tire-bannered dealers. On the merchandise front, Canadian Tire remains committed to increasing the penetration of its private labels, which have helped squeeze out better margins for those dealers.  According to TJ Flood, president of Canadian Tire Retail, “We are expecting full-year margin rates at CTR to be slightly ahead of last year, and this is despite … what is going to be a tougher Q4 for us in CTR.”

However, the company is well-poised to weather the current softness, Flood added. “When you think about all of the weapons in our arsenal now—the Triangle Rewards program, our owned brands portfolio, our good-better-best range architecture—we provide a lot of choice for consumers, and we’re going to continue to try to expose them to the great value that we provide them as we go forward here.”

ABSDA’s HR conference gives Atlantic dealers valuable hiring, retention guidelinesThe Atlantic Building Supply Dealers Association held its second annual HR Conference last month, bringing together experts on hiring and recruitment with a room full of dealers looking for ways to cope with the ongoing shortage of available workers. More than 100 people from across Atlantic Canada were in attendance.

“It’s a perfect storm of aging demographics and a new generation coming up,” said ABSDA president Denis Melanson in his opening remarks. He added that 34 percent of the population in Atlantic Canada is now 62 years or older, “and we expect to have to hire 4,000 people in the coming years.”

Melanson and his team created the HR Conference last year in response to a survey of members that had addressed a range of hiring issues for dealers. These included recruitment, onboarding, and what kinds of policies are in place to help individuals along in their careers. “It identified some glaring gaps, but in turn it provided some opportunity for us as an association to provide services.”

The morning was devoted to a hands-on workshop conducted by HR expert and workplace issues expert and author Pierre Battah.

His presentation gave each table of delegates a set of tasks and challenges through the morning. At the heart of his talk was the need for communication—not full-on all the time, but tailored to the situation. And that includes addressing conflict within the team, something too many leaders are reluctant to face.

“We can lose people if we’re not prepared to have the difficult conversations,” Battah said. “A lot of what we do as managers is trying to get everyone on the same page.”

Julie Melanson is an HR consultant with JMC HR Consulting in Moncton, N.B. She took to the podium after lunch to share some tips and guidelines for hiring and retaining staff with her “HR tool kit.” She stressed the need to create a positive and welcoming environment for your candidates right from the start, reminding the audience that some people can be extremely nervous during a job interview. “It’s not something we do very often.”

The realities of today’s labour market require employers to consider new Canadians in their hiring. Jordan Remedios, program co-ordinator for the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia, talked to the delegates about how to make your workplace more welcoming to new hires, regardless of where they come from.

Fostering an environment that enables all workers, including new Canadians, to share ideas goes a long way to ensuring one’s workplace will reap the benefits of inter-cultural competency. These can include everything from providing prayer rooms to respecting a variety of holidays. And this can have a positive impact on both staff and customers, Remedios said. “The more we can commit to this, the more we can commit to inclusivity in the workplace.”

A car swerved out of control, crashed, and exploded at the entrance to the Rainbow Bridge last month, quickly becoming an international incident. The bridge spans the Niagara River between New York state and Ontario at Niagara Falls.

Because it’s one of the most travelled routes between the two countries, concerns quickly arose that the explosion was terrorist-related. Coverage of the incident filled TV news stations on both sides of the border. While tragic, the circumstances ultimately proved not to have international security implications.

It turns out the car, a Bentley Flying Spur, was owned by Kurt Villani, who was accompanied by his wife Monica. They lived in Grand Island, on the Niagara River between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, N.Y. They were the owners of Gui’s Lumber, a dealer with seven Ace Hardware stores in western New York.

For reasons that have still to be determined, the car raced out of control on the American side of the border crossing, hit a median, and crashed into a row of security booths and exploded. While the investigation continues into this incident, certain versions of the Bentley Flying Spur have been the subject of recalls, due to reports of gas pedals getting stuck.

At BMR Group, Vincent Chicoine has been appointed vice-president, pro sales, effective Jan. 8. He will report to Antonio Di Pasquale, BMR’s COO. Chicoine spent the past 15 years with IKO Industries, most recently as regional sales manager for eastern Canada.

Michael Gawtrey, Home Hardware’s director of loyalty and CRM, is retiring. He started 35 years ago as a buying assistant at Canadian Tire Retail, later moving to marketing to lead Canadian Tire’s loyalty efforts. This was followed by stints at LoyaltyOne (Air Miles) and Home Depot Canada before Gawtrey joined Home Hardware. There, he worked on Home’s loyalty and CRM programs, including its Pro marketing program and the launch of its loyalty partnership with Scene+.

The Western Retail Lumber Association has named Murray Finkbiner as its 2023 Industry Achievement Award recipient. This award recognizes someone who has contributed to their business, the building supply industry, the WRLA, and the communities in which they live. An active member of the building supply industry since he began working at his father’s lumber yard 51 years ago, he is best known for his tenure at AFA Forest Products. He joined the company in 1988 and took over as AFA’s president and COO in 2014, serving until its acquisition by Gillfor Distribution in 2022.

At Regal ideas, Joe Jacklin has been promoted to national sales director in Canada. Continuing on his launch of the company’s DeckStar Contractor program, he will be responsible for managing the dealer business. Brandon Taylor has joined Regal ideas as territory manager for southwestern Ontario. He comes over from Nuvo Iron and replaces Clifton Phelps, who has retired. Laurence Ballen has joined Regal ideas as territory manager for British Columbia. His background includes retailers such as Sherwin Williams.

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RETAILER NEWS

The Home Depot Canada held its 15th semi-annual Orange Door Project fundraising campaign last month. The campaign combats youth homelessness across Canada by collaborating with local charities to support ongoing initiatives aimed at providing safe, stable housing and life skills development to help youth find a path to housing. Since the program’s inception in 2009, the Foundation has raised over $18 million for youth across Canada, and it hopes to raise $125 million by 2030.

Through the remaining weeks of 2023, RONA continued to convert more of its Lowe’s-bannered stores to the new RONA+ brand. The latest rounds began with 13 stores, all in Alberta, including six in Calgary. The other conversions were in St. Albert, Edmonton North East, Edmonton South Common, Edmonton West, Sherwood Park, Red Deer, and Lethbridge. These were followed by nine more conversions in mid-December at locations around the Greater Toronto Area.

Castle Building Centres has announced its newest member, VP Resources in Invermere, B.C., owned by Bryan and Lauren Kroker. The couple plans to build a brand-new store to showcase a complete LBM and hardware offering for the area’s homebuilder and contractor market.

Quebec hardware chain Gagnon – La Grande Quincaillerie (Gagnon – The Great Hardware Store) held a big celebration in Montreal recently to mark the company’s 50th anniversary. The night included a video history of the company, and a tribute to Yves Gagnon, who had taken over a single store from his father in 1973 and built it into a thriving chain of five home centres. The business is currently run by Yves’ daughter, Geneviève Gagnon.

Patrick Morin, the founder of the retail home improvement chain of the same name, died earlier this month at the age of 96. Morin, along with his wife, Denise Benny, opened their first store in Ste-Marcelline-de-Kildare, in Quebec’s Lanaudière region, in 1960. Over time, the Patrick Morin stores grew to comprise one of the largest privately-held retail home improvement companies in the country, with 22 stores in Quebec. In 2021, Groupe Turcotte, which owns a group of Home Hardware stores in Quebec, bought the family-owned Patrick Morin business with additional investment from Home Hardware’s head office. Morin is survived by his wife and two sisters, along with eight children, 20 grandchildren, and 27 great-grandchildren.

Gillfor Distribution has forged a multi-year national sales and distribution partnership with IKO Industries. With this deal, Gillfor consolidates its shingle and roofing products segment across Canada to work exclusively with IKO to service Gillfor’s independent retail customers.

Alpagroup, a French group and European supplier in the furniture and home improvement industry, has made its official launch in North America, headed by a Canadian, general manager Maxime Lebon. Alpagroup is already a key supplier to many of Europe’s home and home improvement retailers. In North America, Alpagroup is backed by seven divisions that represent a range of products, including flooring, storage, bathroom and outdoor furniture, and custom B2B furniture.

The Lumber and Building Materials Association of Ontario (LBMAO) held its annual general meeting recently, followed by a gala dinner. In its AGM, the board reported that the association ended the year ahead of budget and is looking at developing a program in 2024 of site visits to suppliers’ facilities to increase product awareness among its dealer members. (Any suppliers interested in hosting a factory tour should contact the LBMAO’s president, Trevor Small.)

The Western Retail Lumber Association is holding the 30th anniversary edition of its Building & Hardware Showcase from Jan. 17 to 19. Members and suppliers will gather at the Winnipeg Convention Centre for new product launches and the latest tech, trends, and topics hitting the LBM industry. (Click here for more information and to register!)