Home Depot Canada is currently getting its newest facility up and running at full capacity to fill in an important part of its supply chain. The flatbed distribution centre, erected last year in Mississauga, Ont., and now being outfitted, is designed to get large loads of products directly to contractor jobsites. The 300,000-square-foot DC shares space with an equally large bulk distribution centre, which ships commodities to the stores themselves.

Canada’s largest home improvement retailer remains committed to its regular business and expects to build more stores to serve those channels, but Home Depot recognizes the importance of the pro customer and sees huge growth potential with it. In fact, in the U.S., 10 percent of its customers are pros and builders, but they account for almost 50 percent of Home Depot’s sales. According to Michael Rowe, president of Home Depot Canada, the Canadian stores lag slightly behind the U.S. stores when it comes to attracting pros, but that’s changing and the new FDC is key to the strategy to make that happen.

“The ratio of pros here in Canada is very, very close now. We’re not far behind.”

The facility, which has a fleet of large flatbed trucks delivering products by next day if orders are place as late as 4 p.m. (a deadline the company is working to push to 8 p.m.) will go a long way to putting Home Depot on the radar of Canadian contractors. And as the country expands its new housing programs, the potential is huge—but Rowe is still not satisfied. “There’s more to do, clearly.”

That includes the likelihood of even more FDCs in Canada. There are already 17 in the U.S., with more planned. “We’ll add more BDCs and FDCs in smaller markets.” Rowe wouldn’t confirm other locations or timelines—“We’re largely figuring out ourselves how many FDCs”—the obvious suspects are expected to be on the list: Vancouver, Edmonton, possibly Calgary, and Montreal. The company also renamed its contractor loyalty program to ProExtra to conform to the U.S. program. “Renaming this was quite an accelerator for us,” he says.

While the year has started slow, there is opportunity ahead for the retail home improvement industry as Canada shapes its housing policy to increase the number of homes in this country. And Home Hardware CEO Kevin Macnab says the timing is right.

“We all know additional housing in Canada is an absolute necessity. We can and will play a part in helping address the housing shortage by providing expert advice and quality price. But in addition to that, we have a national partnership we’ve established with Skills Canada to help develop skilled tradespeople—because, of course, the country needs that.”

That expected push to build more housing, he adds, will be good for Home Hardware and for the entire industry. “That’s going to benefit us and benefit the sector.”

Michael Rowe, president of Home Depot Canada, agrees. Canada’s commitment to build more housing represents “an opportunity in the Canadian marketplace.” His company is working to gear up its services to sell to larger pro customers, including builders and the commercial or maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) segment, which addresses the servicing and care of large institutions and civic projects. This is a market, he says, that Home Depot wants to grow.

Both retailers are doing more to address the heavy pro market. Home Depot Canada has opened its first flatbed distribution centre (see story above) to get large commodities deliveries to jobsites within 24 hours or less.

Home Hardware has signed on as a presenting sponsor of the Skills Canada National Competition for 2024. Skills Canada is a not-for-profit organization that actively promotes careers in the skilled trades and technologies to youth and their communities in Canada. The competition will take place in Quebec City on May 30 and 31.

Members of AQMAT, the Quebec Hardware and Building Supply Association, heard a presentation from president Richard Darveau ahead of their annual general meeting last week. Darveau outlined the highlights of the latest edition of the organization’s annual “Family Portrait” of the industry that included tracking movement between the province’s two main banners, RONA and BMR.

With a showman’s flair, Darveau donned a series of coloured novelty eyeglasses to illustrate looking at the industry through different lenses, such as rose-coloured for the positives of the past year, black for the negatives, green to consider an ecological perspective, and a distinctly Québécois blue when examining the impact of buy-local initiatives.

The document offers an overview of the main retail banners for the year, like the Hardlines Retail Report does for Canada as a whole. The Quebec report covers developments including banner changes and store closures, as well as data on the activities of the small number of true independents.

Darveau said it’s a key tool in a world where big “Big Data” is increasingly a force to be reckoned with. “The data is more complex, more varied” than ever, he explained. “There are people my age in this room who remember the ‘good old days’ when everything was slower.”

He sketched a picture of an industry with a sales tally of about $19 billion in a year that saw 18 stores close. In the same period, eight dealers changed banners and another nine stores got new owners while remaining under their existing brands. Five former true independents signed onto banners, while eight retailers shed theirs to strike out on their own. Among six new store openings were a new Canac in the port of Contrecœur, Que., and the largest Patrick Morin to date in Brossard, on Montreal’s South Shore.

Across Quebec, corporate stores comprise some 56 percent of dealers. Independent affiliates make up another 40 percent, while 3.5 percent of stores are unaffiliated. RONA continued to dominate market share in the province, accounting for over a third of total sales. Home Depot was a distant second at just under 15 percent.

Darveau stressed that having an accurate picture of the industry as a whole is key to countering misinformation. As a sports enthusiast, he also compared it to training the body in order to remain competitive. In developing the report, he said, AQMAT strove to be “fair and equitable to all our members,” preferring to work with self-reported figures from head offices wherever possible.

Pedro Da Silva has been named vice-president, industrial divisions, at Goodfellow Inc. Da Silva has been with Goodfellow for almost eight years, most recently in the role of general manager.

Joel Pletch, store manager at Walkerton Home Hardware in southwestern Ontario, has won the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) 2024 Young Retailer of the Year Award. The Young Retailer of the Year program, now in its 28th year, identifies and promotes the next generation of aspiring independent home improvement, paint, and decorating retailers. It recognizes individuals aged 35 and younger throughout the U.S. and Canada.

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RETAILER NEWS

Kent Building Supplies has opened a new store on Findlay Blvd. in Riverview, N.B. It replaces another location that is now closed on Coverdale Rd. The new location ramped up last month with a contractor event before its grand opening. It hosted some 30 vendors and attracted 250 pro customers along with giveaways and draws.

Peavey Industries recently celebrated the grand opening of a new Peavey Mart store in Steinbach, Man. The new location clocks in at 28,800 square feet, plus an additional 1,440-square-feet greenhouse. A seasonal section will cater to homeowners’ lawn, yard, and garden needs before converting into a Christmas and toy department later in the year.

RONA inc. has welcomed six new dealers as independent affiliates. They are RONA Quincaillerie Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Quebec, RONA Manotick and RONA Timmins in Ontario, RONA Lac La Biche and RONA Olds in Alberta, and RONA Agassiz in British Columbia.

A Stratford, Ont., Giant Tiger store is among the latest retailers to get rid of its self-checkout stations. Owner Scott Savage told CBC News that the decision was motivated not by loss prevention concerns but by feedback from his clientele, many of whom are seniors. “The biggest complaint you have from everybody is, ‘You don’t pay me to work here,’ ” he said.

All through May, customers who visit a participating RONA store will have the opportunity to donate at checkout to support the construction or renovation project of an organization in the province. The RONA Foundation’s Build from the Heart program aims to help organizations across the country carry out projects to revitalize living environments or make it easier to access housing for Canadian populations in need. Last year, the RONA Foundation donated $500,000 to community projects across Canada. The goal this year is to double that amount.

Yantzi Home Building Centre and Tavistock Home Hardware in southwestern Ontario have a new official shareholder of both businesses. Steffan Yantzi, 27, officially became the dealer-owner on Jan. 1. Yantzi Building Supplies is in its 73rd year of operation and joined the Home Hardware banner in 2016. The family purchased Tavistock Home Hardware in 2018.

AD Canada has been recognized as a Great Place to Work for the second year in a row, according to the Top Workplace rankings by Energage LLC, an HR technology company. In addition, AD Canada has been recognized in the ranks of 2024 Best Workplaces in Canada among firms with fewer than 100 Canadian employees, ranking 10th nationally for its size category.

King Marketing’s team of full-time sales representatives gathered for their national sales meeting in Niagara Falls last week. The event culminated with King’s awards night that celebrated the achievements of the sales agency’s reps across the country. Jeremy Ross won the Peddler of the Year Award “for his exemplary work on behalf of his represented vendors,” the company said in a release.

The governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan have awarded $595,000 to fund programs for the building supply industry and directly support members of the Western Retail Lumber Association. Liz Kovach, WRLA president, and Andrew Reimer, WRLA Chair, had the opportunity late last month to thank the Alberta government personally for “enabling us to put ambitious new programs into action.” The first such effort will be to add a permanent Workforce Development position to the WRLA team.

“We live in an ecosystem where everyone interacts together. And we’re the only retail sector with a vertical structure.” —Richard Darveau, president of Quebec trade association AQMAT, describing the unique position of the home improvement retail marketplace.