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July 7, 2014 Volume
xx, #27
“An idea can turn to dust or magic,
depending on the talent that rubs against it."
―William Bernbach (American advertising creative director, 1911-1982)
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Ace says it will look for new licensing partners in Canada
SPECIAL REPORT — Ace Hardware, faced with the termination of its long-standing partnership with TIM-BR MART Group in just two months, has contacted HARDLINES with an official statement about its intentions here in Canada.
The statement was first published by HARDLINES last week, and came from Robert Moschorak, president of Ace Hardware International. It makes clear Ace’s intention to find a new partner in Canada after TIM-BR MART Group notified its dealers on June 19 that it would end its licensing agreement with Ace Hardware.
More than 100 TIM-BR MART dealers in Canada, many of them in Quebec, carry the Ace banner, either by itself or in tandem with the TIMBER MART brand.
Here is Ace’s message in full:
“The Ace and TIM-BR MART relationship will end on August 31, 2014. Ace is currently in discussions with other Canadian distributors who are interested in becoming the new master licensee for Canada and serving the needs of our Ace retailers.
“Ace intends to play an important role in the Canadian home improvement market and we look forward to the exciting ‘next chapter’ in making Ace a premier brand in Canada.”
What that “next chapter” will actually look like remains to be seen. There are very few national distributors left that don’t have strong banners of their own, (i.e., Home Hardware, BMR). RONA already has a strong presence in Quebec, where most of the Ace stores are, and also has a relatively new banner of its own outside of Quebec with the TRU brand. TRU is driven out of RONA’s TruServ Canada distribution business in Winnipeg in three versions, hardware, LBM, and lawn and garden.
However, Ace just last week also announced it will become a hardware supplier for Mitre 10 in New Zealand. The member-owned co-op has stores that range from convenience hardware stores and home centres to big boxes, just like RONA—and expat RONA and Réno-Dépôt executives helped the group establish the dealer-owned big box concept in that country more than a decade ago.
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Design centres are “taking off” says Home Hardware CEO
ST. JACOBS, Ont. — A growing trend among Home Hardware dealers is the move into more building materials. As a traditional hardware store looks to add more products, expansion into a home centre format suits many of them.
This is just one of the insights into the direction of the giant hardware and home improvement co-op, under its new CEO, Terry Davis. Davis says a similar trend is working in reverse among its traditional lumber yards, as Home Building Centres are growing into full-line home centres under the Home Hardware Building Centre banner.
And as dealers take on more lines, décor showrooms are becoming the answer. “We’re definitely seeing more design centres. They’re just taking off like gangbusters,” Davis says.
If a dealer wants to expand their lines in, say, flooring, tiling, carpeting, or doors and windows, a design centre becomes a good way to expand the existing business. Sometimes it can be done right in the existing store, but more and more design centres are popping up as stand-alone outlets.
(This is an excerpt from an in-depth interview with Terry Davis that will appear in the next edition of our sister publication, Home Improvement Quarterly. It mails this week to our audited list of more than 11,500 dealers and managers across Canada. Vendors can also purchase their own copy by clicking here. —Editor)
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Two young leaders win a trip to the Hardlines Conference
WINNIPEG — Two young leaders from Western Canada have won a trip to the Hardlines Conference in Toronto this fall.
The Western Retail Lumber Association (WRLA) and NRHA Canada held a contest to select two members of the WRLA’s NexGEN group, who will attend the industry summit at the Sheraton Toronto Airport and Conference Centre October 22-23, 2014.
Joel Siebert, general manager of Mountain View Building Materials in Calgary, is the retail winner. Eric Palmer, Canadian sales operations manager for Jeld-Wen Windows and Doors in Winnipeg, is the supplier winner.
Both Joel and Eric submitted written testimonials about their experiences in the building materials industry and their hopes for the NexGEN group. Their prize includes: travel & accommodations; all access conference pass (including meals); a seat on an industry panel at the conference; and ticket to 2014 Outstanding Retailer Awards Gala.
They will be joined on the industry panel by Marc-André Dignard, a young leader from RONA’s retail team in Boucherville, Que.; and Kim Ytsma, owner of Alliston Home Hardware Building Centre in Alliston, Ont.
The 19th Annual Hardlines Conference features the theme: “At the Top of Your Game.” The event will be held October 22-23 at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel and Conference Centre. (Click here for full info on the lineup of incredible speakers and to register. —Michael)
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Canadian Tire’s loyalty program still stuck in test mode
TORONTO — Canadian Tire Corp. continues to try and get its arms around the online channel, but the process has been slow. A pilot project to test sales online in Nova Scotia was supposed to have been piloted for one year. But the company has only recently rolled out a system of buying online and picking up the order in-store, almost a year after it was supposed to get a full rollout.
In tandem with the pursuit of customers online is also the ability to gather data about them to provide more guidance and incentives for future sales. This is a field in which Amazon is dominant, but Canadian Tire had a lot of catching up to do. Consider that its “loyalty program” has historically been its Canadian Tire “money,” which offers no ability to track purchases or shopping habits.
The retailer is now trying a points system to mimic the Canadian Tire money, but it has been stalled in fully developing the program by an admitted inability to manage effectively all the data that the program is generating.
Following the release of its first-quarter results, Canadian Tire president and CEO Stephen Wetmore said the program is evolving. “We’ll get our national loyalty program extended electronically this year and on cards,” he told analysts. “We’ll then start building data. The thing is you can use it to drive some traffic.”
In the meantime, the company is continuing to fine-tune its IT infrastructure to be able to handle the data more effectively.
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ANALYSIS: HARDLINES forecasts slow growth
Poor weather and a sluggish economic recovery held back industry growth in 2013. And the current year is shaping up to be only slightly better. As a result, Canada’s retail home improvement industry grew only slightly in 2013 to $40.704 billion in 2013. That represents an increase over the previous year of just 0.7%, less than the rate of inflation.
This smaller growth reflects the overall sluggish recovery of the market, especially in areas that were expected to rebound quicker early last year, such as Alberta and Ontario.
The slight growth in 2013 was further compounded by the loss of sales by RONA and only modest increases by a number of larger retailers, especially the regional players. For the remainder of 2014, dealers across the country continue to be cautious in their forecasting. More than one-third still expect their sales to be flat or down this year. Based on the performance by dealers, overall market conditions, consumer confidence, and a weak housing outlook for 2014 and 2015, HARDLINES is maintaining a very moderate forecast for this year and next.
(All data drawn from the 2014-2015 Retail Report: Complete Review & Analysis of Canada’s Hardware/Home Improvement Industry by the Editors of HARDLINES. Click here for more information and to order your copy of this amazing Report! —Michael)
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Classified Ads
Senior Territory Manager – IC Field Sales
Required Location – Greater Toronto Area
As a Senior Territory Manager on the IC Field Sales team, you must possess passion, initiative and drive combined with exemplary sales leadership and planning skills. This senior level position requires the ability to build customer centric plans and end user selling strategies while managing 7 – 8 of Milwaukee’s highest opportunity customers.
You will be responsible for designing and executing sell in and sell through strategies for Milwaukee across core trade distribution. You will also be responsible for all aspects of your select distributor bases’ operational activities, including, POS tracking, line reviews, competitive programming analysis, product knowledge, MIT/MIS events and JSS user conversion strategies.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Lead the planning and execution strategy for your assigned customer base.
- Communication to Territory Managers covering off multi branch initiatives will be required.
- Grow your Customer Base by leveraging product assortment and competitive conversions.
- Meet and Exceed Assigned Territory Budget and stretch plan targets.
- Provide an Accurate Monthly Territory Forecast and Promotional sku level forecast.
- Know your Competition and leverage their weaknesses against them.
- Expert understanding of channel based marketing within your distributor base.
- Sound Product Knowledge
- Develop relationships throughout your customer’s organizations, through all layers of their management.
- Plan and execute new product launches
- Help with service solutions for the assigned brands.
Expectations
- Manage Co-op, LMF and leverage them creatively to drive sales growth.
- Manage T&E with the assigned Budget
- Leverage our JSS Team as a POS Driver for your distributors.
- Engage Channel and Product Marketing to ensure you are gaining program support.
- Support and implement strategic marketing initiatives.
- Report and comment on trends in competition
Education and Experience Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
- 5+ years sales leadership and planning experience with large volume customers.
- Proficient in Reporting and Analytical Skills and Microsoft Office applications.
- Possess effective business communication skills, broad business perspective, and market savvy.
- A valid driver’s license, clean driver’s abstract and passport
- Ability to travel significantly
All interested applicants please submit resume with cover letter to Human Resources by Friday, July 18, 2014 . HRCanada@ttigroupna.com Please note in subject line: Sr. TM Position - GTA
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Fusion Products Limited
General Manager
Fusion Products Ltd. is a leading supplier of landscape lighting to North America retailers, with head office in Mississauga, Ontario. We are seeking a dynamic individual to fill this role.
You will report to the owners and:
- be responsible for successfully directing all facets of our business.
- have a financial background, hr experience and strong leadership style.
- have industry sales experience to manage key accounts, a sales team and client base to achieve sales and financial goals
- be familiar with supply chain management, Asian factory import experience and product development skills.
Experience required:
- Post secondary education in Business and/or equivalent experience,
- 3+ years operational experience at an equivalent level
- Strong distribution experience in the hardlines channel,
- Strong organizational, interpersonal and computer skills,
- Vendor and third party contract management experience,
- Ability to travel,
- desire to exceed customer expectations
Competitive compensation package is offered. To apply for this exciting opportunity, please send your resume and cover letter to: zaf@fusionproducts.ca
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