HARDLINES™
Five years serving Canada's home improvement industry
May 29, 2000 - Volume vi, #21
Michael McLarney, Editor & Publisher
Ph: 416-489-3396 Fx: 416-489-6154
E-mail: buzz@hardlinesfax.com Check out our incredible Classifieds section!* * * * * *
* IN THIS ISSUE:
* Revy keeps expansion plans to Toronto area for now
* Hickman's sells one yard to Notre Dame Agencies
* Castle slowly gaining ground in Québec
* Schurman president gets inducted into the P.E.I. Business Hall of Fame
* * * * * *Hardlines Networking EventMy thanks to everyone who came down to the Rancho Relaxo last Wednesday for the 3rd Annual Hardlines Networking Event. About 75 people gathered for a lecture on organizing our lives and businesses, plus drinks, fajitas, music by the Wayward Angels, prizes and more! And special thanks to ACNielsen for sponsoring the event. - Michael* * * * * *REVY KEEPS FOCUS ON TORONTO AREARevy Home Centres will continue to concentrate its big box expansion in the Greater Toronto Area, even though it is securing properties in other cities. One of those cities is Montréal, where rival Home Depot will open its first store in August.Carl Grittner, president of Revy, says the company is actively shopping for its own sites in Montréal, but no stores will be developed there yet. "Revy has its hands full here in Toronto," he says. "We want to put stores around our competition [in the GTA], wherever they have a profitable store." That gives consumers a choice, he says, between big boxes, "and with that choice, enough of them will choose us."Grittner counts Lansing's Scarborough store among its fleet of Toronto area big boxes. But at 85,000 sq.ft., it falls short of the 110,000-sq.ft.-plus of Home Depot and Réno-Dépot. Grittner bristles at the suggestion that this store doesn't have the selection of its rivals. He points out that the Scarborough store also has a one-acre yard and 15,000 sq.ft. of outdoor seasonal. "How much more can you have in a bigger store? Theres not much more you can put in them," he says. "It's all bull-t... Thye've all got everything you want."After the Stockyards, the next Revy boxes to open will be in Scarborough on June 24, followed by Mississauga, at Burnamthorpe and Mavis Drive, then Oshawa. The company expects to have an additional six sites in the next few years, for a total of 12 Revys in the GTA.* * * * * *CASTLE DEALERS ADD STORES, GROW RANKSCastle Building Centres has added eight new stores to its ranks so far this year, including two by existing dealers. Les Yates of Bulkley Valley Home Centre in Telkwa, B.C., has acquired a second store, a former co-op in Houston, B.C. Notre Dame Agencies continues to grow in Newfoundland with the purchase of its 11th store there. This one is in Corner Brook, a former Hickman's yard that changed hands the beginning of April and reduces the number of Hickman's outlets to three: one in St. John's and two rural stores in Fortune and South River.Castle has also signed two dealers in Québec, Chistapitin in Chisasibi, and Tullik in the native community of Kuujjuaq. This brings the ranks of Castle dealers in Québec to six. The other new members, ABC Siding &Windows, St. John's; Covell Building Supplies, Lombardy, Ont.; Fox Lake Hardware & Lumber, Gillam, Man.; and Kintore Boxes, Kintore, Ont., bring the total number of Castle stores to 222.COMPANIES IN THE NEWSRona Inc. broke ground last week on its first big box store in the Toronto area. The outlet, in Brampton, is scheduled to open by October or November. This store will be followed by one in Mississauga, Ont.As it prepares to open its first store in Québec (Laval in August), Home Depot Canada held a career fair this past weekend to hire about 200 store staff. A district office will open in Montréal about the same time.CanWel Distribution has moved its head office from Burnaby to 1400 - 625 Howe St., Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2T6. Phone and fax stay the same. Hudson's Bay Co. had sales and revenue in the first quarter ended April 30 of $1.55 billion, up 4.4% over last year. Retail sales rose 4.9% while other revenues decreased by 3.6%. The company had a profit of $12.1 million before interest expense and income taxes (EBIT), compared with a loss of $3.7 million. Net loss improved by $14.1 million to $6.5 million from $20.6 million. Revenues at the Bay increased by 11.4%, with same-store sales increasing 12.7%. EBIT went from a loss of $2.2 million last year to earnings of $9.6 million. At Zellers, revenues were up 0.9%, with same-store sales up 2.7%. Zellers had EBIT of $6.6 million, up from $4.6 million. CANADIAN STOCK WATCH