July 3, 2017 Volume xxiii, #27

“There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run, when the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun.”
—Gordon Lightfoot (Canadian folk singer and songwriter, 1938- , from “The Railroad Trilogy”)

"I drew a map of Canada, Oh Canada.”
—Joni Mitchell, (Canadian folk singer and songwriter, 1941- , from “I could Drink a Case of You”)

“Raise a little hell, raise a little hell, raise a little hell.”
—Ramon Mcguire & Brian Smith (of the band Trooper, from, you guessed it, “Raise a Little Hell”)

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Home Improvement eRetailer Summit: tools for our industry to succeed online

TRUMBULL, Conn. — As more and more big retailers focus on e-commerce, a stark disparity is emerging between the big players that are leading the way and smaller retailers or dealer-owned groups. Many are struggling to catch up—or aren't even in the game.

The second annual Home Improvement eRetailer Summit is committed to closing that gap. The event, September 13 to 15, 2017, at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Fla., will feature a powerful conference series and valuable networking among vendors and leading e-commerce retailers.

The purpose is simple: to help the hardware and tools, home decor, paint, housewares, lawn and garden, outdoor living, and flooring sectors develop winning e-commerce strategies. This year’s event has expanded its category reach to include the full range of home products, including housewares and kitchenwares, outdoor living, furniture, and large appliances.

The highlight of this year’s eRetailer Summit is an “e-commerce boot camp” for retailers and vendors to learn best practices from leaders in the online selling marketplace. Keynotes will include both leading digital experts and front-line sellers. The conference will be capped by a presentation by Alyssa Steele, Divisional Merchandise Manager-Home and Garden for eBay. 

The other presenters include: Steve Greenspon, CEO of Honey-Can-Do International; Al Meyers, of the world-renowned retail consultancy Kalypso; and Elizabeth Ragone, SVP, Direct to Consumer for Lenox. A logistics Q&A will examine the demands being put on the delivery aspect of online sales, featuring Bob Careless, sales manager for the Home and Outdoor Division of D&H Distributing, a leading technology distributor of IT and electronics.

“We are thrilled to expand the scope of the second annual Home Improvement eRetailer Summit,” said Sonya Ruff Jarvis, managing member, Jarvis Consultants and the event’s founder, who has partnered with HARDLINES to produce this event. “We want to make sure retailers and vendors alike are on top of the trends affecting all these important categories.”

Retailers looking to understand the e-commerce space and vendors who wish to make real connections with leading eRetail decision makers will find this ground-breaking forum a way to meet, share ideas, and develop concrete strategies for growing online sales.

(This event has been tailor-made for hardware and home improvement retailers and suppliers of every size. If you want to close the gap in your understanding of eRetailing, you should not miss this one! For more information, please contact our Publisher, Beverly Allen.)

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Home Hardware launches campaign built around project selling for millennials

ST. JACOBS, Ont. — Driven by a new, hip downtown ad agency, Home Hardware has launched a brand campaign to Canadian consumers that focuses on a younger demographic—and the support they’ll need to repair and renovate their homes.

The new campaign underscores the relaunch of Home’s own brand to reach out to millennial Canadians, who are now actively involved in starting their own families and establishing homes of their own. The cornerstone of the campaign is a 60-second video that shows a young couple turning a fixer-upper into their first home. The video ends with the line: “Do it yourself doesn’t mean do it alone. Here’s How.” The campaign will be supported through social and digital channels, as well as television.

The campaign takes a project-focused approach to show how Home Hardware is serving the needs of Canadian communities.

“DIY can sound intimidating. Especially to a younger generation of buyers who might be getting into their first apartment or house. We know that they want to get their hands dirty as they fix up their space, but they aren’t quite sure how to do it,” says Angus Tucker, executive creative director of john st., the company that won the business back in September.

The campaign concept, complete with the new company tagline, “Here’s How,” was shared with Home Hardware’s dealer network at the 2017 spring market in April.

“There is real momentum behind this new work with our dealer network,” says Rob Wallace, director, marketing at Home Hardware. “They love the more contemporary positioning of the brand and they feel that ‘Here’s How’ really describes the role that they can play with our customers.”

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Lowe’s completes acquisition of MRO supply company

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lowe’s Cos. has completed the acquisition of Maintenance Supply Headquarters, a distributor of maintenance, repair, and operations products to the multi-family housing industry, for a total value of $512 million. The deal was first announced in mid-May.

Based in Houston, Maintenance Supply Headquarters operates 13 distribution centres serving customers primarily in the western, southeastern, and south central U.S., with a portfolio of more than 5,300 products. The acquisition is part of Lowe’s outreach strategy to pro customers who service the MRO field. It follows the purchase in November 2016 of Central Wholesalers, a distributor in the Mid-Atlantic.

And the acquisitions mirror similar moves in the U.S. by Lowe’s rival, Home Depot.

“Together, Maintenance Supply Headquarters and Central Wholesalers expand Lowe’s ability to serve the highly attractive and growing multi-family housing industry while strengthening our foundation for future growth with enhanced product and service offerings,” said Michael Tummillo, senior vice president of Lowe’s pro sales. “With this latest transaction, we look forward to delivering even more value for our pro customers.”

These “large-spend pros” are a target for Home Depot, as well. In the U.S., particularly, contractors spend more year over year than the average DIY customer. Home Depot acquired Florida-based Interline Brands in 2015, another company that sells to the MRO segment.

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With tariffs about to be imposed, feds vow to fight softwood duties


OTTAWA — The Trudeau government has promised to defend Canada’s softwood lumber industry in the wake of new anti-dumping duties announced by the U.S. Commerce Department. The preliminary tariffs add an average of 6.87% to the current countervailing duties of 19.88%. Announced in April, the latter are set to expire on August 27, with the two rates overlapping until then for a total average of about 27%.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also announced a preliminary decision to ultimately exclude softwood from three out of four Atlantic provinces from the duties. At the behest of U.S. lumber lobbyists, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland & Labrador—but not New Brunswick—could be exempted from final duties, though the U.S. government will continue to collect them pending a final ruling.

Lumber in the three provinces named as potential exceptions is largely harvested from privately-owned land, in line with U.S. industry practice, but in contrast to most Canadian provinces where most wood comes from Crown land at advantageous “stumpage fee” rates. New Brunswick, which borders on Maine and is a major lumber producer, was not cited in the preliminary exemption despite having dispatched a special envoy to the U.S. in May to broker a favourable deal.

Softwood lumber has, since the early 1980s, been a perennial sore spot for the U.S., which considers Canadian product unfairly subsidized. Its four previous attempts to impose duties have all been reversed or overturned by international rulings. Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland teamed up to denounce the “unfair and punitive anti-dumping duties.”

In their statement, they pledged to “vigorously defend Canada’s softwood lumber industry, including through litigation, and we expect to prevail as we have in the past.” At the same time, they added that they are “confident that a negotiated settlement is both possible and in the best interests of our two countries.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured reporters earlier last week that the two countries are “working towards a deal,” but pulling back from NAFTA remains a policy plank for the Trump administration, with renegotiations expected later in the summer.

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