RONA has, wait for it, a new CEO, and this time he was hired from within
“Loading the building” is key to GSD success
RONA updates interior and exterior image program for its affiliated dealer stores
As Hudson’s Bay’s footprint recedes, Quebec’s Simons is in expansion mode
PLUS: Canadian Tire’s new store in Kitchener, Home Depot completes acquisition of SRS Distribution, John Pierce promoted at Home Hardware, Nova Scotia Home Hardware celebrates centenary, IKEA turnover costs big, existing home sales, housing starts rise, building construction down, and more!
RONA inc. has tapped its existing executive ranks to find its newest president and CEO. Jean-Philippe (J.P.) Towner joined RONA barely a year ago, in October 2023, as CFO.
Before joining RONA, Towner spent three years at Dollarama as CFO. Prior to that he served as EVP and CFO at Pomerleau Inc., a commercial construction company based in Saint-Georges, Que.
Towner replaces Andrew Iacobucci, who was hired last June—exactly a year ago—in what turned out to be an interim position as president and CEO. Iacobucci brought with him a 20-year background in the grocery industry, a field from which many other RONA execs have been drawn in the past. His CV on LinkedIn indicates he’s filled an interim CEO role at least once before in the past, during his tenure at US Foods, a food service provider based in Rosemont, Ill.
In fact, since the departure of its founding CEO, Robert Dutton, RONA and Lowe’s Canada have had a variety of people leading the charge. Dutton was forced out after major shareholders, led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, insisted on his removal. He was at the helm for 20 years, until stepping down in November 2012.
Chief Executive Dominique Boies had been CFO and was pulled in as interim CEO after Dutton. But within a few months Robert Sawyer, a veteran grocery executive who came over from Metro, was hired. Sawyer oversaw the sale of RONA to Lowe’s Canada in 2016.
By then, Lowe’s Canada had installed a Quebecer, Sylvain Prud’homme, to run the Canadian business. When Sawyer resigned after selling RONA, Prud’homme took over the combined business. Like Sawyer, he had a background in grocery, including Loblaw, Sobeys, and Walmart Canada. He had joined as CEO of Lowe’s Canada in December 2017 and moved the company’s offices from Toronto to RONA’s head offices in Boucherville, Que.
Barely two years later, Prud’homme left and Tony Cioffi, Lowe’s Canada’s EVP for finance, real estate, and dealers, became interim president in October 2019. But by January 2020, Lowe’s sent up a new CEO, Tony Hurst, from Mooresville, and Cioffi continued in his EVP role, reporting to Hurst. When the RONA business was sold by Lowe’s to Sycamore Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, at the beginning of 2023, Cioffi was soon replaced by Iacobucci.
With Towner in place, he will be overseeing, among other things, the conversion of Lowe’s and RONA big boxes to the RONA+ banner, and the investment in the affiliated dealer base with a fresh identity program.
“I am greatly honored to assume the leadership of this Canadian household name. It’s an exciting time for RONA as we are building the future of this iconic brand that has been serving Canadians for the past 85 years. We have an exceptional team in place which I’m proud to lead into the next phase of this company as we strive to help Canadians build their homes and dreams,” said Towner in a release.
On April 19, Coastal Drywall Supplies, a distributor with three branches in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, coordinated with Pinaud Drywall + Acoustics, a local contractor, to deliver and place over 100 lifts of drywall (26 boards to a lift) at the jobsite of The Mills Residences, a mixed-use apartment community with 220 suites, whose construction in downtown Halifax, N.S., is scheduled for completion in late summer.
This delivery feat—which Coastal touted on its Facebook page the following day (see their photo of a crane lifting one of the lifts)—speaks to the competitive importance and centrality of customer service and logistics for Gypsum Specialty Dealers (GSDs). GSDs may be relatively few in number but they play outsized roles in helping Canadian contractors meet the demands of their commercial and residential clients.
“Service is the name of the game in drywall,” said Daniel Porter, Coastal’s general manager. “Early morning, late night, whenever.”
“Our vision is to be the best,” added Brian McCormick, president of Regina-based Kenroc Building Materials, a GSD with 15 locations. “That means more than just moving product from Point A, our distribution centre, to Point B, the customer’s jobsite. Performance is paramount, so when our customer has a problem, we have a problem.”
GSD sources agree that reliable and consistent customer service and delivery are what determine competitive advantage. Paul Green, president of Vaughn, Ont.-based GMS Canada, said that what sets his organization’s dealers apart is their ability to “load the building,” meaning that no matter a project’s scale, GMS Canada can deliver and place drywall to the building’s height and depth. Undergirding GMS Canada’s delivery services is a fleet that includes 350 heavy trucks, 73 trailers, and 120 light passenger trucks.
(This is part of a larger feature article on Canada’s GSD industry in the next issue (mailing in July) of Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly, our trade magazine. HHIQ subscriptions are free to bona fide dealers. Go to hardlines.ca to sign up.)
Amid changes at head office (see lead story—Editor), RONA continues to invest in the growth of its independent, or affiliated, dealer network. Last week, the company officially launched its new visual identity for stores owned by RONA affiliated dealers. The goal of this initiative is to “turn the spotlight” on RONA independent dealers by showcasing their entrepreneurial side, while leveraging the strength of the RONA brand.
The new look was first unveiled to the dealers at last November’s RONA show for independents, called Connexia.
“Our network of affiliated dealer stores is a key priority for the organization and, as such, we are investing to help our dealers stand out even more in their respective markets. We are proud to have welcomed more than ten new affiliated dealer stores since the beginning of the year,” says J.P. Towner, the brand-new president and CEO of RONA inc. (see lead story, again—your ever-helpful Editor).
The first store to get the complete new visual package is RONA Iberville, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. It will soon be followed by the RONA in Manotick, Ont., near Ottawa. The company says the signage has been modernized to highlight the entrepreneurship, unique history, and community spirit that characterize RONA affiliated dealers.
Elements of the new look include:
a logo specific to dealer owners, which includes their company name, to help customers easily identify RONA stores owned by independent dealers
outdoor pylon bearing the words “Dealer Owner” (Marchand Propriétaire)
a sticker to be displayed in the main door of the stores, bearing the words “Dealer Owner” and the year each store was founded
wall panels presenting the history and values of each store
“The unique history and strong local roots of each affiliated store are differentiating elements, and we wanted to clearly highlight them with this new visual identity,” said Catherine Laporte, SVP, marketing and customer experience, at RONA inc.
The retail landscape in Canada, challenging at the best of times, has seen banners come and go over the past decade. American chains such as Target and Nordstrom have entered and then withdrawn from the Canadian market.
But the struggle isn’t limited to them: even Hudson’s Bay Co., a proverbial “part of our heritage,” is downsizing. Its downtown Montreal location is having its footprint cut in half, while the one in Calgary is slimming down to three storeys. In Toronto, the company in 2022 closed the Bay location at Yonge and Bloor, which served as its flagship in that city before the acquisition and conversion of the former Simpson’s store south of the Eaton Centre.
That complex is itself a case study in the life cycle of retailers. After the collapse of the namesake Eatons banner, it hosted Sears and Nordstrom as flagship tenants, both of which in turn have since made their exits from the country.
Now Quebec City-based La Maison Simons is to be the latest addition to the space, taking over a portion of the former Nordstrom site. It’s also adding a new store at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in the north end of the city. These stores will be the 18th and 19th for the chain, which first ventured outside Quebec in 2012 with a location at the West Edmonton Mall.
Simons’ business model offers mid-to-higher-end fashions at a variety of price points. Some analysts think it has a chance of defying the odds that have seemed stacked against other retailers.
Toronto Metropolitan University retail management professor Joseph Aversa told CBC News that, since the family business appointed Bernard Leblanc as its first outside CEO in 2022, it has been “very calculated in terms of expansions. They’ve grown relatively organically across the country.”
The fact that it is a homegrown retailer (the first Simons began as a dry goods store in 1840) is also a factor. Liza Amlani, co-founder of Retail Strategy Group, told the CBC that American have tried at their peril to replicate their business models in Canada.
“We are different. We are not another state out of the U.S.; we are another country. And across Canada, we’re very different: The Vancouver customer is very different from the Toronto customer.”
(This story is the first instalment of a two-part series on the state of department stores and discount retailers in Canada. Catch the rest in next week’s Hardlines Weekly Report!)
Home Hardware Stores Ltd. has announced the appointment of John Pierce as chief retail operations officer. Reporting to CEO and president Kevin Macnab, he will oversee field operations, dealer support functions, business development, real estate and construction, store design and space planning, Home’s Innovation Centre, communications, events, and public relations. His previous role was VP of retail business development.
… tthat the latest issue of Hardlines HR Advisor hit inboxes last week? In this edition, we explore how Pet Valu attracts top-calibre staff, IKEA Canada’s financial literacy efforts, and tips for creating an inclusive workplace both during and beyond Pride Month. HR Advisor is monthly and it’s free: click here to sign up today!
Canadian Tire Corp. is building a new store at the Stanley Park Mall in Kitchener. The new Canadian Tire store, which is forecast to open this fall, will replace the existing Canadian Tire store at Victoria and Frederick streets in Kitchener. The new store will occupy the location vacated by Walmart at the mall.
The Home Depot has completed its acquisition of SRS Distribution, Inc., a building products distributor with more than 760 locations across 47 U.S. states. The deal, first announced March 28, is worth about US$18.25 billion. SRS serves professional roofers, landscapers, and pool contractors, with a sales force of 2,500 and a fleet of some 4,000 trucks. Home Depot expects the acquisition to accelerate its growth with the residential contractor and builder with bulk orders.
Wilson’s Home Hardware Building Centre in Barrington Passage, N.S., is celebrating its centenary. The Wilson family has been in charge for four generations. “Our roots are as a general store. Then it morphed into a grocery store and then we took on the home hardware banner in 1967 and I’ve just kind of continued to grow from there,” dealer-owner Mike Wilson said.
Employee retention has been on every retailer’s mind since Covid, but now we’ve got some statistics showing costly that can be. According to Quartz, the business news service, IKEA lost 62,000 employees globally in 2022, at a cost of about $5,000 to replace each employee—or a massive $310 million. IKEA has since raised pay, benefits, and introduced more flexible work schedules. (Listen to our podcast with Michael McLarney interviewing Tanja Fratangeli, chief people officer at IKEA Canada, here).
Gypsum Management & Supply Inc. announced Q4 sales of US$1.41 billion, up 8.4 percent from a year earlier. Net income declined 25.4 percent to $56.4 million, compared to $75.6 million in the previous Q4. For its fiscal year 2024, which ended April 30, GMS saw sales grow by 3.2 percent to $5.5 billion. Annual net income came to $276.1 million, a 17.1 percent from $333.0 million in 2023.
Sales of existing homes edged down 0.6 percent between April and May, remaining a little below the average of the last 10 years. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 5.9 percent below May 2023. The number of newly listed homes was up in May, though only by 0.5 percent on a month-over-month basis. (Canadian Real Estate Assoc.)
Housing starts rose to an annualized rate of 264,506 units in May, compared to 241,111 in April. The actual number of urban housing starts was up 39 percent to 21,652 units in May compared to 15,606 units a year earlier. Total starts declined in Vancouver but increased in Toronto and Montreal. (CMHC)
Investment in building construction decreased 2.0 percent to $20.5 billion in April from March. The residential sector declined 2.7 percent to $14.2 billion, while the non-residential sector fell 0.5 percent to $6.3 billion. Nationally, single-family home investment fell 4.7 percent to $6.9 billion. Saskatchewan was the only province to report a spending increase (17.7 percent) in that subsector. (StatCan)
Business Wire informs us that there is a current call for entries for the China International Industrial Design Competition for Hardware Products, which has been held for 18 consecutive years, organizers say. If you have designed a sensational product for which you would like to share specifications, pictures, plans, etc. with the organizers (your cynical yet unbiased Editor), you can send them to Yongkang, China, for a chance to win an unknown part of the ¥3.63 million (C$689,700) prize money. Those still interested will find the link easily throughout the internet.
“Our dealers have been an integral part of our organization since the very beginnings of RONA, an iconic brand with nearly 85 years of history. They are present across the country, and are often pillars in their communities. The entrepreneurial and committed values of these families in business are an essential element of RONA’s success, and I’m proud to be part of a company that supports independent dealers in such a wonderful way.”
—Alain Ménard, senior vice-president for RONA Affiliated Dealers at RONA inc., on the company’s latest initiatives to support independent RONA dealers with a new store signage package.
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General Manager, Ontario
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