The most important business relationship most vendors will ever have is with their key account buyers. And while those relationships build up over time and are based on trust and personal connection, buyers generally have a hard list of expectations of what vendors need to do to make that relationship successful.

In the next edition of our sister publication, Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly, our editors spoke with 10 merchants from the top retailers, wholesalers, and buying groups to get some insights into the buyer role—from their perspective.

When it comes to new products, Marie-Yannick Carrière doesn’t miss a beat. The category director for paint at RONA inc. says she is always on the lookout for four things: innovation, a product that solves a problem, features clear packaging for the consumer, and is well priced. “To illustrate what I mean by problem solving, let’s take paint that dries quickly, is more washable, more durable, or different products for different applications, for example.”

Kristen Fromm, housewares merchandise manager for Home Hardware Stores (shown here at last year’s Home Hardware Homecoming Market), agrees that products like paint need to address specific consumer concerns. “They are looking for a specific paint for a specific need. This requires guidance and advice, as customers are increasingly involved in their renovation projects, and paint is often at the heart of these projects.”

From vendors, she expects innovation, exclusivity, and competitive pricing. “However, the partnership goes beyond the products and pricing—is the supplier going to provide cost concession when market shifts occur? Are they meeting shipping dates? And, just as important, are they communicating in a timely manner when shipping dates need to be adjusted?”

John Magri is the director of programs at the Sexton Group. He observes that a great vendor relationship is built on the vendor’s “desire to grow their business with us, to grow the relationship.” He stresses the importance of good communications and a willingness to work with his group through “the ups and downs for the long term.”

When asked what he looks for in new products, Randy Martin, vice-president of procurement for TIMBER MART, said, “Innovation, particularly as building codes and the needs of contractors evolve. Our vendor partners are key to keeping our program offerings to our members current and relevant.”

All the merchants we spoke with cited the importance of clear and ongoing communication from vendors, as well as a desire to take a long-term approach to success, rather than looking to make a quick deal. And, adds Mathieu Villemaire, the category director for hand tools at RONA, “a steady supply of quality products.”

(The full story on what buyers are looking for, and some of the new products they are dealing with, appears in the upcoming edition of Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly, our print magazine for dealers and managers. HHIQ is free to retailers, and suppliers can subscribe for a fee. Click here to start or update your subscription to HHIQ!)

New RONA+ banner continues to appear on more former Lowe’s stores nationally

The company formerly known as Lowe’s Canada continues to reposition its stores to align with its updated identity. RONA inc. held simultaneous board cuttings on Sept. 21 to mark the conversion of another 15 Lowe’s stores to the new RONA+ banner.

The latest stores to adopt the yellow-bannered RONA+ brand, all in Ontario, are in Barrie, Belleville, East Gwillimbury (pictured here), Kanata, Kingston, London North West, London South West, Maple, Nepean, Orleans, Oshawa, Ottawa Gloucester, Pickering, Sudbury, and Whitby.

These fresh conversions follow closely on the heels of nine others that were made barely a week earlier—and the retailer’s first conversions outside Ontario. These stores are in British Columbia (Vancouver Grandview, Nanaimo, Victoria Langford, Victoria Tillicum, Abbotsford), Saskatchewan (Regina South, Saskatoon West), and Manitoba (Winnipeg East, Winnipeg South).

As part of the process, all the former Lowe’s stores have remained open during the facelifts.

“The conversion of the former Lowe’s stores to the brand-new RONA+ banner is part of a wider plan aimed at redefining how Canadians shop for home improvement and represents a significant local investment,” RONA said in a release. “Through this process, the company is looking to build on the strong legacy of the RONA brand and build momentum for this beloved Canadian-operated household name.”

(Jean-Sébastien Lamoureaux is the senior vice-president of RONA affiliates, wholesale, and public affairs. He will be our keynote speaker at the 27th annual Hardlines Conference, Oct. 17 and 18 in Whistler, B.C., in partnership with the BSIA of B.C. Delegates will get the lowdown on RONA’s plans for its new format stores, plus its relationship with its affiliate dealers. Not to be missed. Sign up now!)

IKEA is investing in bigger, more tech-friendly stores, better fulfilment

IKEA Canada intends to invest heavily in its fulfilment capabilities in the Greater Vancouver and Toronto Areas over the next couple of years. The multi-million-dollar investment will result in expanded fulfilment capabilities at IKEA’s store in Richmond, B.C.

When completed, the store will be about 50 percent larger, thanks to the addition of a two-storey wing with a floor area of 162,400 square feet. That will grow the total floor area of the store from 345,000 square feet to more than 507,000 square feet. It will provide enhanced click-and-collect and locker pickup services, while supporting truck, parcel, and collection-point delivery throughout the Lower Mainland.

IKEA also has a 330,000-square-foot distribution centre located in an industrial park in southeast Richmond.

In the Greater Toronto Area, the retailer is planning a number of expansion projects throughout southwestern Ontario, including a new customer distribution centre in Hamilton that is expected to be up and running in 2025. Its stores in Etobicoke and Vaughan will also undergo expansions by 2025 to strengthen their store fulfilment capabilities.

The expansions will also enable IKEA to better maintain inventory of high-demand products while keeping delivery times as short as possible. The company also has ambitions to build a new fulfilment facility in Hamilton, Ont.

The Hudson’s Bay department store chain has remade an existing store in the eastern suburbs of Toronto into a deep-discount location. The new Hudson’s Bay Outlet store, at Eglinton Square in Scarborough, is selling home goods, accessories, clothing, and footwear at up to 75 percent off.

The chain has tried the discount model before—years ago—but ultimately closed those outlets in Montreal and Toronto. Earlier this year, it capitalized on the consumer demand for its original discount retail concept when it began opening “pop-up” Zellers stores within its Hudson’s Bay stores across the country.

Like Zellers, the Outlet store is looking to be less fashion-forward and more family-oriented, offering “extreme savings” through a dedicated retail location. “Transforming our Eglinton Square location into an outlet store for customers creates a fun and unique shopping destination, distinct from the Hudson’s Bay full-line experience,” said Kosi Sivasankaran, Hudson’s Bay’s chief stores officer.

For Hudson’s Bay, adding an outlet store and reviving the Zellers brand gives the retailer a conduit for low-priced assortments that could help the company compete with discounters and dollar stores, which flourished early in the pandemic.

The rollout of the Zellers locations has spanned the last several months. The Zellers rebirth started as a series of pop-up boutiques within Hudson’s Bay stores. A similar pop-up Zellers section was launched earlier this summer at Hudson Bay’s flagship Queen Street store in Toronto (shown here). On Sept. 27, the latest store-within-a-store concept Zellers went up at the Hudson’s Bay store in Brampton at Bramalea Civic Centre, west of Toronto.

Zellers also appears in pop-up form at 23 other locations. The pop-ups range in size from 1,000 to 2,800 square feet and serve as strategic market tests to determine future Zellers store locations. In anticipation of the pending Christmas holiday season, Hudson’s Bay intends to add Zellers in all 78 stores across the country before the end of this month.

Gino DiGioacchino has been appointed president and CEO of Giant Tiger Stores Ltd. He formerly served on the Giant Tiger board and as interim president and CEO. DiGioacchino replaces Paul Wood, who held the CEO role for slightly more than two years before leaving the company in November 2022. DiGioacchino is best known to this industry for his time at The Home Depot Canada. As VP of merchandising, he was considered the number two in the company after then-president Annette Verschuren. He left Home Depot Canada in 2011 to become chief merchandising officer at Walmart Canada, a position he held until 2016. He joined the Giant Tiger board in 2017.

Stéphane Gaumond has joined AD as director, business development, for the Building Supplies – Canada division. Bringing with him over 25 years of industry experience, including stints at Metrie, Continental Building Products, and WSB Titan, he will now manage all aspects of business development for the division’s presence across Canada while maintaining a special emphasis on eastern Canada. He is based in Montreal.

DID YOU KNOW...?

… that the Hardlines Conference is just two weeks away in Whistler, B.C., Oct. 17 and 18? Our keynote speakers include executives from RONA, Home Depot, Federated Co-operatives' leading dealers on the west coast, representatives from Taiga, Johns Manville, RONA, Home Hardware, Home Depot, Castle, Sexton Group, Federated Co-op, and Taiga. As a Hardlines Premium Member-Subscriber, you get a 20 percent discount on your conference registration (which closes Oct. 4). Got a question? Contact our amazing Marketing and Events Manager, Michelle Porter!

RETAILER NEWS

The Home Depot is hosting an online promotion leading up to the holiday season that targets the retailer’s home décor and accessories products. “Décor Days” is an online-only sales event which offers its “biggest style savings of the year.” It runs from Oct. 5 to Oct. 9 and will feature deals on some 10,000 décor products, including national brands as well as its private brands like Home Decorators Collection, StyleWell, and The Company Store.

RONA inc. has received a Special Recognition Energy Star Canada Award, the fourth Energy Star distinction conferred on the organization. The award recognizes RONA’s participation in the Canadian Greener Homes Grant, staff training on eco-friendly product knowledge, and increased visibility and promotion of Energy Star-certified offerings, among other initiatives.

Home Hardware Stores Ltd. and its dealer-owners once again joined Tree Canada this year to mark National Tree Day and engage in nationwide community tree-planting events. Twenty-four Home stores across nine provinces planted trees to mark National Forest Week.

Amazon says it’s expanding its logistics network to allow selling partners to ship products from its storage service to outside warehouses and bricks-and-mortar stores. The new service, dubbed Multi-Channel Distribution, leverages the e-retail giant’s existing Amazon Warehousing Distribution, which previously allowed only for shipping directly to the consumer. It’s part of a strategy by Amazon to tackle end-to-end fulfilment, including customs clearance and ground transportation.

At Costco Wholesale Corp., net sales for the fourth quarter were $77.43 billion, an increase of 9.4 percent from $70.76 billion. Net sales for the fiscal year, which includes a 53rd week, reached $237.71 billion, up 6.7 percent from $222.73 billion. In Canada, where Costco has 107 stores, comp sales were up 8.1 percent. But not including the increase in gas prices and the impact of foreign currency exchange, the comp increase was a more modest 1.7 percent.

Registration is open for the Western Retail Lumber Association’s 30th Anniversary Building and Hardware Showcase. The show returns in January to Winnipeg’s RBC Convention Centre for an event that includes learning, networking, and presentations by top manufacturers, distributors, and service providers. The show will kick off with a new feature: a day-long series of business workshops. (Click here to register.)

Quebec will not follow the federal government in waiving taxes on building materials for rental housing, Premier François Legault said last week. “We are looking at several [other] scenarios to help tenants,” said the premier. “We don’t think it would be the most effective measure in the short term.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this month that GST on materials for the construction of new rental buildings would be eliminated, reviving a shelved 2015 campaign promise.

West Fraser Timber has reached an agreement to sell its Quesnel, B.C., and Slave Lake, Alta., pulp mills to Atlas Holdings. The deal, valued at $120 million, includes related woodlands operations and timber holdings in Alberta and a long-term fibre supply agreement for the Quesnel facility.

Retail sales increased by 0.3 percent to $66.1 billion in July. Sales increased in seven of the nine subsectors and were led by a 1.3 percent hike at food and beverage retailers. LBM and garden sales rose by 0.9 percent for the month. (StatCan)