February 7, 2000 - Volume vi, #5
Michael McLarney, Editor & Publisher
Ph: 416-489-3396 Fx: 416-489-6154 Check out our incredible Classifieds section!VISIT HARDLINES AT CHS: BOOTH #5117 Drop by and visit us at the Canadian Hardware and Building Materials Show, February 6-8, 2000. Say 'hello', share the latest industry gossip and help us celebrate our fifth anniversary "We can't believe we're still in business" celebration! The Hardlines Show Breakfast is going to be packed!With huge thanks to this year's sponsors:
CANADIAN HARDWARE & HOUSEWARES MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION
* * * * * * *Time to build the sales team? Looking for agents or new lines? Want to announce new products or services? See our "Page Three Marketplace" at the bottom of this issue. Hardlines Classifieds get results fast. They cost only $16 per line for two weeks. Call Beverly at 416-489-3396, ext. 2, for more details. -- Michael This week in Hardlines:NEWSMAKERS HONOURED AT SHOW BREAKFASTHome Hardware and Sodisco-Howden Group shared the honour of being chosen Hardlines Newsmaker of the Year for 1999. The awards were presented at the fifth annual Hardlines Show Breakfast, which opened the Canadian Hardware and Building Materials Show on February 6, 2000. In a deal that had become a lightning rod for industry speculation for years, Beaver was acquired by Home Hardware last fall. Home will add Beaver's 138 joint venture dealers, with sales of $684 million in 1998, to its own $2.1 billion network of 960 hardware and building centres. This deal has conceivably had more impact on this industry than any other event of 1999.The last year of the century would have been a banner year for Sodisco-Howden even if its Howden Division had not been preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary.A series of aggressive initiatives regularly put Sodisco-Howden in the news. The reformation of the Spancan buying group, a groundbreaking deal with I.L.D.C., aggressive streamlining of its banner programs, and the development of the Air Miles and Welcome Neighbour dealer programs were all part of a strategic plan that was capped by several successive quarters of increased * * * * * * *RONA ADDS NEW DIVISION, NEW VPAs part of RONA's plan to go national, it has appointed former Wal-Mart vp Rick Blickstead as president and COO of a newly formed retail division. The move is part of a senior management reorganization at RONA that will separate the company's retail, management, and wholesale functions. Blickstead will oversee development of RONA's large surface stores into Ontario and the rest of Canada. He'll also be in charge of the box stores within Québec. Blickstead's lengthy career in retail includes BiWay and Wal-Mart, both in Canada and the U.S.* * * * * * *DEPOT FOUNDER WILL SPEAK AT HARDLINES CONFERENCEThe man who "invented" the big box home improvement retail store concept will be the keynote speaker at the Hardlines Fifth Anniversary Marketing Conference on September 14, 2000. Pat Farrah, executive vice president of merchandising for Home Depot in Atlanta, will head up a roster of industry speakers at the event. They include Bob Obernesser, retail consultant for MacMillan/Doolittle in Chicago, Tim Silk, from the faculty of Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario, and Will Rapp, CEO of Gardener's Supply in Burlington, Vermont. The Hardlines Marketing Conference will take place in Toronto on September 14, 2000, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Close to 200 senior decision makers in hardware and home improvement retailing, wholesaling and manufacturing will attend. Since its inauguration in 1995, the Hardlines Marketing Conference has featured significant players in the Canadian and U.S. hardware and home improvement sindustry as keynote speakers. For more information about the Conference this year, just call us at 416-489-3396. * * * * * * *MUTUAL ADDS MEMBERSMutual Hardware Inc. has added two new members. Ace Hardware Canada has joined the hardware buying group, along with Gregg Distributors, an industrial hardware distributor based in Edmonton. It specializes in automotive, farm and plumbing hardware.Mutual represents retail, wholesale and industrial distributors. It merged last year with industrial wholesale buying group AHW and now has 28 members, including TruServ Canada, Castle and Federated Co-op.COMPANIES IN THE NEWSRéno-Dépôt has announced the locations for two more Building Box stores in Ontario. The first will open in Cambridge, where it will join an existing Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire at the corner of Hespeler and Highway 401 by September, 2000. The next is in Mississauga at the corner of Highway 401 and Winston Churchill Drive. It will be part of a power centre with at least two other big box stores. Each store will be 125,000 sq.ft. and employ about 300. The Building Box is a division of Réno-Dépôt Inc., which is itself a subsidiary of the French company, Groupe Castorama. Home Depot Canada opened its fifth store in Edmonton on February 3. The company now employs 950 in that city, including staff at its western lumber distribution centre. Another store will open February 10 in Orleans, Ont., near Ottawa. This will be the third outlet in the capital region.Canadian Tire Corp. ended 1999 with total sales of $4.7 billion, up 8.8% from $4.3 billion in 1998. Canadian Tire associate dealers saw total retail sales climb 7.7% over 1998, reflecting the increased number of larger, new-format stores. Same-store sales, however, rose only 2.9%. The retail division accounted for sales of $3.8 billion, up 8.2% from the $3.5 billion recorded in 1998. The increase was driven by higher retail sales, which resulted in a year-over-year 8% increase in shipments to associate dealers.RONA's 12th big box L'entrepôt opened in Brossard, Qué., on February 2. It will comprise 163,000 sq.ft. of selling space and cost $20 million to build.CANADIAN STOCK WATCH
CANADIAN HARDWARE & HOUSEWARES MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION
* * * * * * *Time to build the sales team? Looking for agents or new lines? Want to announce new products or services? See our "Page Three Marketplace" at the bottom of this issue. Hardlines Classifieds get results fast. They cost only $16 per line for two weeks. Call Beverly at 416-489-3396, ext. 2, for more details. -- Michael This week in Hardlines:NEWSMAKERS HONOURED AT SHOW BREAKFASTHome Hardware and Sodisco-Howden Group shared the honour of being chosen Hardlines Newsmaker of the Year for 1999. The awards were presented at the fifth annual Hardlines Show Breakfast, which opened the Canadian Hardware and Building Materials Show on February 6, 2000. In a deal that had become a lightning rod for industry speculation for years, Beaver was acquired by Home Hardware last fall. Home will add Beaver's 138 joint venture dealers, with sales of $684 million in 1998, to its own $2.1 billion network of 960 hardware and building centres. This deal has conceivably had more impact on this industry than any other event of 1999.The last year of the century would have been a banner year for Sodisco-Howden even if its Howden Division had not been preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary.A series of aggressive initiatives regularly put Sodisco-Howden in the news. The reformation of the Spancan buying group, a groundbreaking deal with I.L.D.C., aggressive streamlining of its banner programs, and the development of the Air Miles and Welcome Neighbour dealer programs were all part of a strategic plan that was capped by several successive quarters of increased * * * * * * *RONA ADDS NEW DIVISION, NEW VPAs part of RONA's plan to go national, it has appointed former Wal-Mart vp Rick Blickstead as president and COO of a newly formed retail division. The move is part of a senior management reorganization at RONA that will separate the company's retail, management, and wholesale functions. Blickstead will oversee development of RONA's large surface stores into Ontario and the rest of Canada. He'll also be in charge of the box stores within Québec. Blickstead's lengthy career in retail includes BiWay and Wal-Mart, both in Canada and the U.S.* * * * * * *DEPOT FOUNDER WILL SPEAK AT HARDLINES CONFERENCEThe man who "invented" the big box home improvement retail store concept will be the keynote speaker at the Hardlines Fifth Anniversary Marketing Conference on September 14, 2000. Pat Farrah, executive vice president of merchandising for Home Depot in Atlanta, will head up a roster of industry speakers at the event. They include Bob Obernesser, retail consultant for MacMillan/Doolittle in Chicago, Tim Silk, from the faculty of Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario, and Will Rapp, CEO of Gardener's Supply in Burlington, Vermont. The Hardlines Marketing Conference will take place in Toronto on September 14, 2000, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Close to 200 senior decision makers in hardware and home improvement retailing, wholesaling and manufacturing will attend. Since its inauguration in 1995, the Hardlines Marketing Conference has featured significant players in the Canadian and U.S. hardware and home improvement sindustry as keynote speakers. For more information about the Conference this year, just call us at 416-489-3396. * * * * * * *MUTUAL ADDS MEMBERSMutual Hardware Inc. has added two new members. Ace Hardware Canada has joined the hardware buying group, along with Gregg Distributors, an industrial hardware distributor based in Edmonton. It specializes in automotive, farm and plumbing hardware.Mutual represents retail, wholesale and industrial distributors. It merged last year with industrial wholesale buying group AHW and now has 28 members, including TruServ Canada, Castle and Federated Co-op.COMPANIES IN THE NEWSRéno-Dépôt has announced the locations for two more Building Box stores in Ontario. The first will open in Cambridge, where it will join an existing Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire at the corner of Hespeler and Highway 401 by September, 2000. The next is in Mississauga at the corner of Highway 401 and Winston Churchill Drive. It will be part of a power centre with at least two other big box stores. Each store will be 125,000 sq.ft. and employ about 300. The Building Box is a division of Réno-Dépôt Inc., which is itself a subsidiary of the French company, Groupe Castorama. Home Depot Canada opened its fifth store in Edmonton on February 3. The company now employs 950 in that city, including staff at its western lumber distribution centre. Another store will open February 10 in Orleans, Ont., near Ottawa. This will be the third outlet in the capital region.Canadian Tire Corp. ended 1999 with total sales of $4.7 billion, up 8.8% from $4.3 billion in 1998. Canadian Tire associate dealers saw total retail sales climb 7.7% over 1998, reflecting the increased number of larger, new-format stores. Same-store sales, however, rose only 2.9%. The retail division accounted for sales of $3.8 billion, up 8.2% from the $3.5 billion recorded in 1998. The increase was driven by higher retail sales, which resulted in a year-over-year 8% increase in shipments to associate dealers.RONA's 12th big box L'entrepôt opened in Brossard, Qué., on February 2. It will comprise 163,000 sq.ft. of selling space and cost $20 million to build.CANADIAN STOCK WATCH