Patrick Morin is looking to nearly double its store count over the next 10 years. Part of that growth comes from new store openings, including two in the works for this year. The first one will be in Brossard, Que., and later in the year another is set to open in Blainville. But an important part of its expansion plan is buying other independent dealers.

The company currently has 21 stores, all corporately owned. They range from 20,000 to 40,000 square feet, averaging around 35,000. The Brossard store also expands Patrick Morin’s geographic reach. “That will be our first store on the south shore of Montreal. So that’s a new market for us,” says Daniel Lampron, president and CEO of Patrick Morin. It’s scheduled to open at the end of April.

This location will feature a new look for the chain, starting with its size, says Lampron. It will be about 95,000 square feet. While the selling space will be similar to other stores, at 37,000 square feet, it will also include 20,000 square feet for a drive-through lumber section, plus additional space for storage.

The next store, in Blainville, will have a similar footprint, with a 35,000-square-foot sales floor and 20,000-square-foot drive-through. While it won’t have the warehouse space, the roof of the store will feature a 30,000-square-foot glass-enclosed greenhouse that can offer trees and shrubs year-round. Lampron says that location will open before the end of the year.

Merchandising changes are being made at the Blainville store that will take the company in a slightly different direction. “It will be more of a kind of boutique store, so we’re changing. We’re trying something new and that should be very interesting.”

Unlike the warehouse style of a big box store, it will offer more of a showroom approach with products arranged in vignettes. If a customer is looking for, say, a sink, the display will feature a full package, including faucets and bath. “So people can look and say, ‘Oh, that could be my new bathroom,’ so it’s a complete offer. It gives them an idea of what their kitchen or bathroom could look like,” he says. “That will be different for us.”

Through this greenfield expansion, Lampron expects to add about 10 stores over the coming decade. But the retailer is hoping to acquire other independent dealers who may be looking to sell their businesses outright. While any dealer represents an opportunity—and Lampron says his team is speaking with many of them—he especially has an eye on wooing RONA affiliate dealers who may be revaluating their banner options after the announcement by Lowe's that it is selling its Canadian operations to Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm.

Patrick Morin, formerly a member of the I.L.D.C. buying group, was acquired in February 2021 by Groupe Turcotte, a Home Hardware dealer with six locations in Quebec. To ensure the company’s affiliation with a buying group, Home Hardware got involved and is a minor partner as well.

Canadian Tire’s new, bigger stores tie bricks and mortar with digital experience

With a range of banners across hardware, automotive, clothing, and more, Canadian Tire Corp. never loses sight of the importance of its flagship banner. That includes ongoing re-examination and updating of the footprint of its Canadian Tire Retail stores. That focus has been sharpened as the company celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

The latest iteration is super-sized. Called “Remarkable Retail,” the format exceeds 100,000 square feet. Two such stores have been opened so far, one in Ottawa and the other in Welland, Ont. The company has a third location in the works, in Calgary, which is slated to open in 2025.

The first was opened in September 2022 in the nation’s capital. At 136,000 square feet, this is Canadian Tire’s largest store. It’s located at Ottawa’s Carlingwood Shopping Centre in a space that was once home to a Sears location. The Welland store opened about a month later. It’s about 120,000 square feet in size.

“These new stores represent the next generation of Canadian Tire’s large-format retail store and they are truly remarkable,” said Greg Hicks, CEO of Canadian Tire Corp. He shared details of the new concept on a call with analysts following the release of Canadian Tire’s third-quarter results.

While the size of these stores is impressive, it’s only part of the strategy behind the Remarkable Retail stores. “We have connected the digital and physical worlds, enabling both channels to complement and amplify each other, ultimately delivering an enhanced customer experience through an expanded assortment and seamless omnichannel shopping options, including click and collect, curbside pickup, and deliver to home.”

Hicks listed some of the innovations featured at the Ottawa store. They include a six-car customer pickup canopy area where shoppers can collect their online purchases, plus in-store technologies such as electronic shelf labels, employee-facing devices for real-time information, and scan-and-buy technology to help with bulkier items.

Both the Welland and Ottawa stores have enhanced merchandising displays to showcase Canadian Tire’s private-label brands and key national brands. “In Welland specifically, we have over 1,100 items on display, which allows customers to see the breadth of our assortment,” Hicks said.

“This store also features our most automated store warehouse, with over 550 feet of conveyors, advanced product sortation capabilities, new wearable technology to improve efficiency, and the capacity to hold over 170 full truckloads of product.”

Technology empowers staff on the sales floor at Canadian big box stores

Lowe’s Canada is doing more in its stores to drive the sale, even if it means tapping the company’s online assortments.

Lowe’s offering of online products that are not normally stocked in its bricks-and-mortar stores totals 300,000 SKUs, said Tony Cioffi, president of Lowe’s Canada. Similarly, Home Depot Canada arms its associates with “HdPhones” and claims to have one million items in its “Extended Aisle.” A new app called Sidekick was recently added to the devices that guides associates to prioritize the highest demand product, which shelf to restock, and the location of the excess product on overhead shelves.

Both retailers are busy training their staff never to give up on a sale just because a product is out of stock. “We are in the process of, hopefully next year, giving the associate credit for that sale,” Cioffi said.

Lowe’s Canada has done extensive research and focus groups with customers who, Cioffi says, indicate they prefer the “touch-and-feel” experience of a physical store. “I’ve talked to a lot of folks who’ve sat around the table and they’ve told us, ‘We don’t expect you to have in your physical stores everything in every assortment. We know that you will have more online. But something we like is to touch and feel the product. We want to come in and see the physical faucet, for example, but if we decide to select something from your endless aisle, help me to buy it.’”

Lowe’s is supporting staff on the floor to make those sales with enhanced technology tools. “We put Zebra devices in the hands of all of our associates in the last couple of years,” Cioffi said. The devices enable staff to identify what’s in stock and where to find it on the shelves. It can even determine if an out-of-stock product is available at another Lowe’s store.

“These handheld devices allow the associate to have all the data they need around in-stocks, so they can better serve the customer.”

(This is part of a larger story on retail technology that appears in the latest edition of our print publication, Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly. The new issue of HHIQ was mailed out last week to 11,000 dealers and store managers across the country.)

Quebec home improvement retailer Canac opened its 32nd location on Jan. 13. Located in Contrecœur, Que., the opening was originally slated for 2019, but was delayed.

The new store is part of Cité 3000, a two-million-square-foot industrial, commercial, and residential complex being built as a gateway to the Port of Montreal. The Contrecœur site represents a $20 million investment and the creation of 125 new jobs.

Canac’s next location will be in Magog, Que. A proposal for the store went before the municipality in December. Among the challenges is the plan’s environmental impact: the project will entail felling a number of trees, but the retailer intends to retain 28 percent of the site’s forest canopy. The plan could ultimately go to a referendum if enough residents oppose it.

To support its continued growth, Canac has invested $30 million in the construction of a store and fulfilment centre in Lévis, on the south shore of Quebec City. The distribution centre is the priority for the company, said Canac’s marketing director, Patrick Delisle, in an interview with Hardlines last year.

The new delivery centre will enable Canac to take the pressure off its existing delivery near Canac’s Quebec City head offices. It was expected to be operational by early 2023, with an adjoining store to be completed sometime in the future.

DID YOU KNOW...?

Castle Building Centres Group has added Hodgins Lumber, with two locations in southwestern Ontario, as a new member. Hodgins’ flagship location in Wingham first opened its doors in 1961 under the ownership of Jack Hodgins. His son Dave and Dave’s wife Melinda took over the business in 1980, acquiring the location in nearby Lucknow in 1988. Although the couple are still involved in the family owned and operated business, they have since passed on the torch to their sons Brock and Jordan Hodgins.

Canadian Tire’s real estate arm has filed paperwork with the city of Toronto to redevelop the site of a Canadian Tire store in the city’s east end. The proposed 44- and 33-storey towers on Danforth Avenue east of Main Street would centre on a three-storey base where Canadian Tire’s retail operations would continue. The plans also include a public park and an underground parking garage with a 13,400-square-foot Canadian Tire auto service centre. They follow on Canadian Tire’s application to the city in October for the development of a mixed-use complex at the site of its midtown Yonge Street flagship.

Toronto’s housing shortage means condo towers are continuing to proliferate—and urban hardware stores are often the victims. This appears to be the case for Deer Park Home Hardware on Yonge Street in midtown Toronto, which has posted multiple signs in its window that it is closing. “Another Toronto institution that will be gone for more awful and expensive tiny condos,” one person posted on a local Facebook group.

Last month’s 2022 AD eCommerce & Marketing Summit brought together digital and marketing leaders from AD owner/members, supplier partners and e-commerce partners in San Diego. The meeting theme, “What’s Next,” centred around emerging technologies and evolving business models. AD is a North American contractor and industrial products buying group. It acquired the LBM buying group TORBSA in 2022.

Amazon will lay off more than 18,000 employees as part of its previously announced workforce cuts, CEO Andy Jassy said in a note to staff. It’s unclear at this point how many of these layoffs will be in Canada. CBC News reports that the layoffs will affect roughly six percent of Amazon's 300,000-strong corporate workforce. Amazon has 1,468,000 workers globally, including warehouse workers.

SUPPLIER NEWS

Domtar will sell off two northern Ontario mills to assuage Competition Bureau concerns about its takeover of Resolute Forest Products. A review by the bureau had found that the two companies’ combined strength in northern bleached softwood kraft pulp would impact competition in central and eastern Canada. Under the terms of a consent agreement, Domtar has pledged to divest itself of its Dryden, Ont., pulp mill and Thunder Bay pulp and paper mill following its purchase of Resolute.

West Fraser Timber Co. has announced the “indefinite curtailment” of operations at its Perry Sawmill in Florida later this month. The company cited “high fibre costs and softening lumber markets” as motivating the decision.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

The total value of building permits in Canada jumped 14.1 percent in November to $11 billion, bouncing back from two consecutive monthly losses. The value of residential permits increased 13.7 percent to $7.1 billion. The single-family dwelling component advanced 7.1 percent following four consecutive monthly declines. Gains were posted in seven provinces. (StatCan)

NOTED

Shopify has told employees that it’s purging “all recurring meetings” of more than two people from its company calendars. The Ottawa-based online shopping giant says the ban will last “in perpetuity.” Shopify workers have also been told that they can’t hold meetings on Wednesdays, while non-recurring meetings of more than 50 people are restricted to a six-hour time frame on Thursdays. Shopify has an estimated 9,000 employees, having cut 1,000 employees in July 2022.

OVERHEARD...

“I’ve always enjoyed the home improvement industry. I’ve always enjoyed the independent dealers.” —Dave Campbell, outgoing president of the Lumber and Building Materials Association of Ontario. Campbell, who got his start on the retail side with companies like D.H. Howden & Co. (later Sodisco-Howden), spent the last 20 years at the helm of the LBMAO.