HARDLINES™
Five years serving Canada's home improvement industry
November 13, 2000 - Volume vi, #43
Michael McLarney, Editor & Publisher
Ph: 416-489-3396 Fx: 416-489-6154
E-mail: buzz@hardlinesfax.com Check out our incredible Classifieds section!* * * * * *
* Totem's newest store will open by next February
* Canadian Tire acquires Vancouver area stores
* Beetle infestation threatens Nova Scotia timberlands
* Home Depot opens second Québec store this week
* Sodisco-Howden sponsors Canada's freestyle ski teamr
* * * * * *PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO READ THIS …You may be on the route slip for Hardlines, but how often have you finally gotten your hands on it hours -; or even days -; after the fact? That's why we 're offering an email special: Since you're already paying for a regularly priced subscription, we'll send additional subs to as many people as you like in your company for a mere $26 per person per year *. Let us do the routing for you! It ensures that everyone in your team gets Hardlines over the weekend (especially valuable for salespeople who are on the road first thing Monday morning). This arrangement is a value-added service for you and it means each member of your team can have their own access password to the Hardlines website. But it also helps us control our circulation and protect our copyright. So let us know who else at your company should be receiving Hardlines each week, and we'll sign them up!To get more info on this great package, please call Nancy Wright at hardline2@on.aibn.com; or phone her at: 416-489-3396. ( * Okay, here's the fine print: the low price is for additional email subs only, and only at the same company address. Ask Nancy about a "site licence" for multiple locations.)TOTEM LUMBER CONTINUES ALBERTA EXPANSIONDespite delays, Totem Building Supplies Ltd. is nearing completion of its 11th retail outlet in Alberta, with a 12th already on the books. Airdrie, a bedroom community about 20 minutes north of Calgary, is the site of the next store, which is expected to open by mid-February, with a grand opening at the beginning of March. It was originally slated to open its doors before the end of this year.At 24,000 sq.ft., plus a 16,000 sq.ft. drive-through, the Airdrie outlet will be slightly smaller than a typical Totem store, which averages 30,000 sq.ft. Less emphasis will be placed on housewares and flooring, while other lines will be beefed up, such as ceramic tile and hardwood flooring - "lines we're really, really good at," says Colin Robertson, Totem's vice-president, marketing. The store will have a square footprint, instead of the rectangular design of other Totem stores, making it easier to merchandise, Robertson adds.Totem will also go ahead with another store next year, this one in Camrose. It will be a smaller size store, like Airdrie, says Robertson. He expects it to open by September 2001. Totem currently has 10 building centres throughout Alberta plus one contractor sales office in Calgary.* * * * * *CANADIAN TIRE BUYS UP ITS VANCOUVER STORESCanadian Tire Corp. has taken control of a group of CTC stores in the lower mainland of British Columbia, effective September 1, 2000. The franchise for the region, a unique arrangement for Canadian Tire, originally belonged to Pacific Associate Stores Ltd., which had operated 20 Canadian Tire stores in the Greater Vancouver area.The acquisition will give CTC the control it wants to continue developing the greater Vancouver marketplace. That includes upgrading some of the older, smaller stores there to its "Class of" format. The stores will also be converted eventually to joint-venture operations, to conform with CTC's ownership model throughout the rest of the country.* * * * * *BEETLE INFESTATION MAY THREATEN NOVA SCOTIA FORESTSThe spread of the brown spruce longhorn beetle in the Maritimes has become a concern to the Nova Scotia Forest Products Association. It's legal counsel has submitted to the Federal Court of Canada a motion seeking "intervener status" in a current judicial review of the pest and its impact. The NSFPA hopew a ruling in its favour will force the Halifax Regional Municipality to dispose of the infected trees, which are located at Point Pleasant Park.Back in the summer, some 10,000 trees were identified as infested by the brown spruce longhorn beetle, including red, white, Norway and blue spruces; and Scotch and Austrian pines. However, a concerned citizens' group won a federal court injunction, halting further cutting and removal of any trees.Since the summer months, though, signs of infestation have been found beyond the boundaries of the park, sparking further concerns that the province's timber reserves are in peril. Forestry and related sectors employed about 13,000 people in Nova Scotia in 1998.The brown spruce longhorn beetle began its incursion of North America in Massachusetts, becoming a problem in cities such as Boston and Chicago.COMPANIES IN THE NEWSSodisco-Howden Group has become a major sponsor of Canada's Freestyle Ski Association. The three year-long, $500,000 sponsorship will put the Pro Hardware logo on team jackets and involve the 22 team members in openings and promotions in participating Pro and Do-it center stores across the country.Home Depot Canada will open its second Québec store on Thursday. This one is in Lachenaie and the opening will include Caroline Brunet, Canadian silver medalist at the Sydney Olympics; Marcel Therrien, mayor of Lachenaie; Annette Verschuren, president of Home Depot Canada and store manager Theresa Cerini. CLARIFICATION: A larger big box-style Kent store in St. John, NB to replace an existing 35,000-sq.ft. outlet is running ahead of schedule and now closed in. It is expected to open in Spring 2001. A second big box Kent store in St. John's, NF is expected to begin construction by Fall 2001.Sears Canada had total revenues for the four-week period ending October 29 of $577.0 million, up 3.8% from $555.9 million for the same period last year. Full-line store sales increased 5.0%, however same-store sales for full-line stores decreased 1.7%. Catalogue sales decreased by 4.3%. Off-mall sales increased 19.7%. Same store sales for off-mall stores decreased by 4.5%. For the third quarter period ended September 30, Lafarge Corp. posted net sales of $892.3 million, up 2% from $872.4 million last year. Net income was down, however, to $127.3 million, compared with $139.0 million in the third quarter of 1999. The company attributed the slip to declining drywall prices and higher operating costs. CANADIAN STOCK WATCH