Canadian Tire restructures its senior buying ranks

TORONTO—Following a shakeup of its ranks in recent months, Canadian Tire Corp. is restructuring its merchandising teams in its Retail business unit. The latest move at CTR is, in fact, an internal one. Laila Zichmanis, formerly vice-president, Home Products at Canadian Tire Retail, has been appointed president of Canadian Tire Petroleum. In her former role, she had reported to Dave Roussy, senior vice-president, marketing. When Roussy left early in June to head up the much smaller, closely held farm and hardware retailer TSC — taking with him division vice-president of store design and merchandising Greg Hicks — there was speculation that Zichmanis would follow him, as well. However, this latest promotion secures her firmly within the Canadian Tire ranks. Zichmanis has been replaced on the CTR merchandising team by Ed Johnston, a longtime buyer who had been most recently in charge of offshore sourcing as divisional vice-president, Global Sourcing. He is now vice-president, Home Products, CTR. One outsider has been added to the ranks: Duncan Reith, formerly chief merchandising officer at Sobey's Inc., has been appointed senior vice-president, Merchandising, CTR. The shakeup began when Mark Foote, at the time president of Canadian Tire Retail, defected to join grocery giant Loblaw Cos. as its vice-president of merchandising for general merchandise. Foote’Äôs shoes were quickly filled by Mike Arnett, who had been Canadian Tire’Äôs vp of new business development. Ten days later, Foote’Äôs former boss Wayne Sales, who was president of the entire $9.1 billion Canadian Tire operation, announced his decision to retire. The former president of Canadian Tire Financial Services, Tom Gauld, was quickly pulled out of retirement to replace him. To top it all off, when the world’Äôs number-two home improvement retailer, Lowe’Äôs Cos., began recruiting merchants for its new Canadian team earlier this spring, Canadian Tire was especially hard hit, with a number of its buyers defecting to Lowe’Äôs Canada. 

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RONA puts finishing touches on newest big box

BARRIE, Ont.—RONA staffers attach a maple leaf to the new RONA Home & Garden in Barrie. The store, at 61 Mapleview Drive East, will officially open on August 2. RONA now has a network of more than 600 franchise, affiliate and corporate stores, including 66 big boxes.

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Home Hardware’Äôs launches "emo" paint system

BURFORD, Ont.—Home Hardware Stores Ltd. has redesigned its paint colour system, in an effort to simplify choices for consumers. Home’Äôs own brand, Beauti-Tone, which is manufactured at the dealer-owned co-op’Äôs own paint factory near the company’Äôs head offices in St. Jacobs, Ont., has introduced the new system under the name "Colours for Living". Colours for Living features 786 colours organized into six distinct colour palettes: Enriching, Energizing, Relaxing, Alluring, Comforting and Inviting. Designed to capture a particular mood, the approach is reminiscent of a paint line launched last year by Canadian Tire Corp. under the Debbie Travis brand. Like that line, customers are encouraged to determine what "mood" they wish to invoke in a particular room, then find which of the 131 specially selected colour choices best reflects that mood. There's even a cool little quiz online at Home Hardware's paint website, www.beauti-tone.ca, that lets customers determine which of the four moods best suits their lifestyle. "Paint is the most inexpensive way to make a dramatic impact in a room," said Bev Bell, Beauti-Tone’Äôs Creative Director. "Yet, the challenge of selecting the right colour often intimidates people. Colours for Living simplifies things. You choose the mood and Beauti-Tone provides colour choices that create and complement that mood."

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Home Depot to test furniture boutiques

ATLANTA—Home Depot plans to experiment with furniture boutiques inside at least two or three of the stores it will open this year. The Chicago Tribune reports that this test is part of a larger effort by the retail giant to plant its flag deeper into the home furnishings segment of the business. This summer, Home Depot mailed a catalogue to customers that the Tribune reports could have been mistaken for something coming from a specialty retailer like Pottery Barn. The catalogue, distributed by the dealer’Äôs Home Depot Direct division, features furniture (including a $1,000 chaise lounge and $500 ottoman), tableware, lighting, window treatments, and other home furnishings that put Home Depot into more direct competition with such dealers as Ikea, Target, Crate and Barrel, and Restoration Hardware. Home Depot Direct’Äôs other catalogues include 10 Crescent Lane, which features high-end indoor and outdoor fixtures; and Paces Trading Co., which showcases lighting. Last April, Depot acquired Home Dˆ©cor Collections, a home dˆ©cor catalogue business that also sells through a retail network. It will open its seventh store in Lake Zurich, Ill., next month. Ironically, Home Depot tried to sell furniture in its stores once before in the late 1980s. But the category was soon dropped entirely, partly because it was taking up too much space, but also because the company’Äôs corporate managers didn’Äôt think furniture was a category that Home Depot could dominate in its warehouse-home center format.

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Home Depot steps up web presence with vendor ads

NEW YORK—Online sales will be a cornerstone of Home Depot’Äôs expansion plans for the next five years. Now, to maximize the high traffic online, the world’Äôs biggest home improvement retailer is seeking added revenue from its key vendors to advertise on online. The giant home improvement retailer is negotiating with vendors to place ads on its main website, www.homedepot.com, to reach more than four million consumers each week. "Our goal is to allow a few key vendor partners the opportunity to educate millions of home improvement consumers about their distinctive and innovative products," said Harvey Seegers, president of Home Depot Direct in a prepared release. Vendors already signed on to advertise online including Moen Inc. Homedepot.com is a part of Home Depot Direct, the company’Äôs direct-to-consumer division that is a critical element of the company's plans to extend its business into new channels, especially in light of the fact that the rate of new store openings will be cut in half over the next five years. Home Depot has a goal of generating $1 billion in online sales by 2010 and is using the online sales tool to expand a number of categories, such as appliances and consumer electronics. For example, Home Depot has 25-30 SKUs of cooling and heating products in-store, but 100 are available online. Though no ads appear on the website yet, a page is already up on the Home Depot site at www.homedepot.com/advertise that invites vendors to participate in the program. Some of the benefits of advertising listed on that web page include high traffic levels—more than two billion page visits annually and in excess of 15 million monthly customer visits. Home Depot also has a weekly e-mail newsletter with close to six million opt-in subscribers. Information on the site promises vendors to "supercharge your brand". When consumers click on the ads on homedepot.com, they will enter an advertiser's branded site. There, they can view interactive demos, streaming video, and in–depth product content.

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Strober adds New York-based pro dealer

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—Pro-Build Holdings, through its Strober Building Supply division, has acquired pro dealer Rowley Building Products and Rowley’Äôs construction financing business Builder’Äôs Capital. The terms of this deal were not disclosed. Rowley — with 12 yards that specialize in millwork and kitchens, a millwork distribution center and a liquidation center — services builders and remodelers in the Hudson Valley and Westchester, N.Y., markets. The dealer generated $104 million in revenue in 2005. Rowley will change the name of its locations to Strober Building Supply. This acquisition enhances Strober’Äôs ability to service customers in New York and New Jersey, said Richard Young, president of the 46-unit Strober Building Supply, which is based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and sells to customers in seven northeastern states. It’Äôs part of Pro-Build, which was formed early this year by the combination of the Strober Organization and Lanoga Corp. Last year, Pro-Build’Äôs combined businesses generated $4.6 billion from 420 locations nationwide.

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