CANDIAC, Que. — Techniseal celebrated its 25th anniversary recently with the grand opening of a new facility. More than 200 guests, including Candiac mayor André J. Côté, were given a tour of the state-of-the-art manufacturing plant. What began as a snow-ploughing business operating from the family home by the Bélair brothers (Denis, André and Claude), has grown since 1984 into a worldwide supplier of some 50 maintenance and protecting products for pavers, asphalt, garage floors, roofing and exterior wood. SURREY, B.C. — Builders Without Borders partnered with the Aboriginal Women’s Shelter to build homes for the homeless in East Vancouver. The homes were built in part by aboriginal women. The program helped train aboriginal women in basic construction skills to help bring more aboriginal women into the trades. IRLY Distributors donated building materials and tools to the project. To learn more about this program, check out this youtube video. MONTREAL — RONA unveiled its newest retail concept last week, STUDIO by RONA. This dedicated paint and décor store, in the St-Leonard neighborhood of Montreal, is one of three such stores to open (the others are in Vaudreuil and Rosemère). More are planned across the country. Each store weighs in at about 10,000 square feet and is aimed at DIYers, professional painters and interior designers. GORMLEY, Ont. — Weston Forest Products has purchased Colony Ratcliff Lumber Inc.’s Industrial Lumber business. Colony Ratcliff, a Castle dealer, plans to focus on its core business, which includes serving the home building market. Weston Forest Products, based in Mississauga, Ont., is a family-owned business company that has been distributing and remanufacturing softwood, hardwood and panel products to industrial customers throughout North America since 1953. CALGARY — CanWel Hardware held its Western buying show last week in Calgary, hosting dealers mainly from TIM-BR MART, as well as some Castle members. Another show, for its Eastern dealers, will be held Nov. 21-22 in Quebec City. COLOGNE, Germany — What power tools are currently available on the market? What can they do, and what innovations will be available in the future? These are the questions that will be addressed by the special exhibition titled “Modern power tools for more productivity, safety and ergonomics” at the International Hardware Fair Feb. 28 to March 3, 2010. The exhibition is being organized in cooperation with the Association of German Tool Manufacturers and the German Tool Museum in Remscheid. For more info, click here. ATLANTA — Home Depot has launched an online gift card program with CashStar. Timed for the holiday season, the program provides hosted web technology that lets gift card buyers choose from several card images or design their own card with uploaded images and text. CANBERRA , Australia — A key element of the deal that will expand Lowe’s Cos.’ presence into Australia was put into place last week. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approved the takeover of Danks Group, a leading hardlines retailer and wholesaler, by Woolworths, the country’s largest retailer, and Lowe’s, a joint-venture partner in a strategy that plans to open at least 30 warehouse home improvement centers over the next five years. Lowe’s is one-third owner of the venture and has committed $100 million to it. The partnership reportedly is looking to secure up to 150 sites for new stores over the next 10 years. TORONTO — Northcore Technologies Inc., a global provider of asset management technology solutions, has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Home Hardware Stores Limited to provide an Intranet for Home Hardware dealers across Canada to more efficiently source assets for their business needs. Northcore will supply application hosting, application development and software customization. BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores had net sales for the third quarter of $98.67 billion, an increase of 1.1% from $97.62 billion in the third quarter last year. On a constant currency basis (which assumes currency exchange rates remained the same as the prior year), net sales for the third quarter would have been $2.617 billion higher, increasing 3.8% to approximately $101.28 billion. Income from continuing operations increased to $3.25 billion from $3.03 billion in the same period last year. DUSSELDORF, Germany & ROCKY HILL, Conn. — In the third quarter of 2009, Henkel generated sales of €3.49 billion, a decrease of 7.3% compared to the prior-year quarter. The drop was due to a 7.6% drop in the Adhesive Technologies division. Laundry & Home Care posted an increase in organic sales of 2.4% while Cosmetics/Toiletries saw organic sales rise of 3.7%. Net earnings for the quarter rose by 68.2%, from €107 million to €180 million. After deducting minority interests of €8 million, quarterly net earnings totaled €172 million, compared to €101 million.