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March 10, 2014 Volume
xx, #10
“We’re so happy and that’s how we’re gonna stay; singin’ doo wah diddy, diddy dum, diddy doo.” —Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich (American song-writing team)
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FCL sees opportunity for growth with independents
SASKATOON — Following a strong year in 2013, Federated Co-operatives Ltd. is poised for growth, which includes developing its independent dealer base.
While it does big business in fuel and feed and seed, the hardware business is an important part of its retail strategy, one that reflects the company’s farm roots. “Backed by the fuel and crop input, we’re basically into all these products that sell into the farm category,” says Tony Steier, director of FCL’s home and building supplies department.
Steier anticipates continued growth in 2014. The economy overall in the Prairie provinces is expected to stay strong, and FCL wants to take advantage of that through aggressive marketing and new stores.
He stresses too that FCL is “truly a Canadian company. It’s 100% Canadian owned.” Whether through its Coop stores or its independents, says Steier, “FCL’s strength is in our people in our stores.”
Many of those independents operate under the ValuMaster banner. While FCL offers the full range of services and programs for independents to operate successfully, he says, the ValuMaster program comes with no strings attached. Dealers can pick and choose whether to take on flyers, etc., as suits them. The goal for those independents, he says, is to “get product on time at a fair price.”
Headquartered in Saskatoon, Steier says the co-op offers “a strong alternative to buying south of the border or from Eastern Canada and British Columbia.” FCL is now even shipping to the Yukon, and he sees an opportunity to grow even further geographically.
“And we can tailor assortments to serve local communities. For us to be able to support the independents with all their needs is quite remarkable actually.”
(See our January 27/14 edition for more on FCL’s year-end results. —Editor)
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“Paint Essentials” are focus of latest TIM-BR MART show
TORONTO — This year’s TIM-BR MART buying show showcased an array of services to support the retail operations of its members. Attendees were introduced to TIM-BR MART’s “Solutions Centre,” which presented marketing, merchandising, distribution, and LBM support.
Chalifour Canada, TIM-BR MART’s wholesale distribution arm, had another strong presence at the show this year, with category managers stationed throughout the show.
At last year’s show, Chalifour put a big emphasis on its then newly expanded plumbing department. That category saw even more refinements this year, including a big focus on fashion plumbing that presented ideas for inspiring dealers to develop more upscale plumbing and bath showrooms of their own. “It’s a growing trend in our industry,” said Andrew Pantelides, procurement and merchandising manager at Chalifour Canada. “It’s all about showing the dealers how to get more margin.”
This year, however, the merchandising spotlight was on a new “Paint Essentials” program that featured 1,400 square feet of merchandising and planograms for paint and paint sundries. The modular program offers a range of services to help the dealer become a destination for paint supported by retail, distribution, merchandising, and marketing initiatives. The message, Pantelides pointed out, is that “We are a one-stop shop for paint, hardware, and building materials.”
It also it reflects a cohesiveness within the TIM-BR MART Group to deliver turnkey merchandising solutions to its members, he said.
Chalifour’s main paint lines are PPG, Sico, and Ace’s proprietary, upscale Clark + Kensington brand.
“Whether you’re big or small, whether you’re Ace or TIM-BR MART, it’s your chance as a dealer to become more profitable in your field,” Pantelides added.
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Orgill show features new programs for independents
ORLANDO, Fla. —Orgill continues to add products for its Canadian customers, and now claims to have more than 50,000 Canadian-compliant SKUs. Almost 200 Canadian dealers were down recently at the Orange County Convention Centre for the Memphis-based hardware wholesaler’s dealer market. There, a 14,000-square-foot model store named “Kodiak Trail Hardware & Supply” featured a completely Canadian-compliant assortment. This new store was almost double the size of a similar model, called “Windsor Falls Hardware,” that was featured at last year’s show.
“The number of Canada flags featured on our product displays has become so impressive in the last three years that soon there will be no need for differentiation,” said Ron Beal, president of Orgill. “Vendors are motivated and willing to do what it takes to become Canadian compliant.”
The Kodiak Trail model offered dealers the opportunity to develop a self-contained hardware business for their own location, with customized, regionally based, product assortments backed by merchandising aids from Orgill. The store also featured several niche programs, including a rental program and an assortment for the maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) market.
Orgill also launched a North American e-commerce platform called “Boost,” which includes a complete e-catalogue of Orgill products and e-commerce software that enables independents to add, price, and manage hardware and other LBM products in a fully-functional online store within their own existing website.
Orgill’s efforts on behalf of its Canadian customers appears to be gaining traction, especially among members of Castle Building Centres, with which Orgill first partnered upon its entry into Canada. “Castle members now enjoy a well-rounded product assortment through our partners at Orgill,” said James Jones, vice president, national marketing for Castle, “and additional Canadian vendor products are being added weekly.”
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AQMAT celebrates innovative Canadian products
BELOEIL, Que. — Ten hardware and home improvement products took centre stage at this year’s Pavillon Innovations. The awards were presented by AQMAT, the association for the Quebec home improvement industry. The event was part of the 5th Congrès des Décideurs, held recently at the Hotel Rive Gauche in Beloeil, Que.
The products that were awarded had to be “Canadian Products,” i.e., products having undergone their last significant transformation in this country, with at least 98% direct production or manufacturing costs conducted in Canada; or products “Made in Canada,” which had their last significant transformation in Canada and at least 51% of the production or manufacturing costs from within Canada.
The winning products were chosen by a jury consisting of dealers from four different retail banners. The winners are:
BioLub BLC-446 Environmentally-Friendly Degreaser (biolubcanada.com)
BP Canada R-4 HP Thermal Exterior Sheathing made with wood fibres and type 2 extruded polystyrene (bpcan.com)
Dural PVA AW0020 liquid adhesive for high-humidity areas (adhesifsdurapro.com)
Fertilec All-In-One Lawn Care that combines soil, moss, and manure (fertilec.com)
Garant Shovels with glass fibre core engineered resin handles (garant.com)
InsulFloor Sound-Proofed Engineered Sub-Flooring−an alternative to poured cement (insulfloor.com)
Isolofoam Flexible, Inter-Locking Insulating Panels to insulate concrete slabs (isolofoam.com)
King PSI 6000 High-Performance Pre-mixed Concrete withstands freeze/thaw cycles and flaking (kpmindustries.com)
Matériaux Spécialisés Louiseville ’s SONOpan2 Sound-Proofing Panels made with recycled wood fibres in a variety of profiles. (mslfibre.com)
TGV1A Rot-Proof Fibreglass Balcony with naval construction type wood doesn’t absorb any water. (tgv1.ca)
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HARDLINES READERSHIP SURVEY
Dear Hardlines eNewsletter Subscribers:
In our ongoing effort to bring you the latest news and information on the Home Improvement Industry, we want to make sure we are fulfilling the needs of our subscribers. In order to do this, we have put together a quick survey. If you have not done so already, please take a moment to complete this survey.
As a thank you for filling this survey out, you have the option to enter your name and contact info to be entered into a draw for a free BOSE SoundDock® Series II digital music system!
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Classifieds
World Kitchen, LLC.
National Account Manager – OLFA Business.
(Oakville, ON)
Reporting to the VP/GM, this role is charged with managing a customer
portfolio totaling $8M-$12M plus in annual sales revenue, and requires a
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