Suppliers and retailers from across Canada gathered last week to honour the retail home improvement industry’s best hardware and building supply retailers. The occasion was the 31st Annual Outstanding Retailer Awards, presented during a Gala Dinner during the annual Hardlines Conference. The event was held at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler resort in Whistler, B.C.

Retailers were honoured in eight categories covering the range of retail hardware and home improvement formats.

“While much of the chaos that marked the worst years of the pandemic is behind us, retailers face new and bigger challenges than ever before,” said David Chestnut, vice-president and publisher of Hardlines Inc. “These winning dealers represent the innovation and passion for their businesses, and commitment to customers, that makes them truly outstanding.”

This year’s winners were:

• Best Hardware Store – Hydway Hardware, Fort Vermilion, Alta. Ray Toews and Robyn Currie, Owners. Award sponsored by the National Hardware Show.
• Best Building Supply or Home Centre under 15,000 square feet – Nova Scotia Building Supplies (Castle), Blockhouse, N.S. Andrew Mills, Owner; Curtis Saulnier, General Manager. Award sponsored by Jeld-Wen.
• Best Building Supply or Home Centre over 15,000 square feet – Centre de rénovation Marieville (Home Hardware), Marieville, Que. Louis Turcotte, Eric Berthiaume, Simon Louvet, and Daniel Gervais, Owners. Eric Berthiaume, Store Manager. Award sponsored by BP.
• Best Contractor Specialist – The Cedar Shop (Sexton Group), Calgary, Alta. Tyler Palko and Brad Palko, Owners; Mitch Wile, President. Award sponsored by Trex.
• Best Large Surface Retailer – RONA+ Whitby, Whitby, Ont. Paul Santos, Store Manager. Award sponsored by JRTech Solutions.
• Retail Spirit Award – Hodgins Building Centre (Castle), Wingham, Ont. Brock Hodgins and Jordan Hodgins, Owners; Nik Glazounov, Manager. Award sponsored by Johns Manville.
• Young Retailer of the Year – Barry Eidt, Co-owner of Arthur Ace Hardware, Arthur, Ont. Award sponsored by Acceo Solutions.
• Marc Robichaud Community Leader – Nowco Home Hardware, Lacombe, Alta. Tyler and Deanna Nowochin, Owners; Tami Schneider, Manager. Award sponsored by BMF.

The winners were carefully chosen from a field of high-quality nominees submitted from every part of Canada. They stood out within this elite group thanks to their success in the areas of good business practices, customer relations, innovation, and niche marketing.

Launched in 1992, the Hardlines Outstanding Retailer Awards are the retail home improvement industry’s only national awards program dedicated to celebrating the achievements of hardware and building supply dealers across all banners in Canada. In its 31-year history, the program has honoured more than 170 retailers.

Hardlines Conference brings hot ideas, insights to industry’s decision makers

The 27th Hardlines Conference was held last week, with record attendance, at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler in Whistler, B.C. It was the first Hardlines Conference to be held in Western Canada.

And before delegates sat down to two days of top-flight retail speakers from across North America, they got the opportunity to network and relax at the RONA Pub Night. Retailers, retail group executives, and vendors gathered at Merlin’s Bar and Grill in Whistler for the traditional kick-off opening event at the conference.

The next morning, the event began in earnest as Jim Inglis, consultant and former Home Depot executive, got the ball rolling with his insights and experience, including wisdom drawn from the banner’s Canadian launch. He was followed by Geneviève Gagnon, who runs three companies and five building centres in Quebec. She spoke of her experience growing up in her family store and how she brings an unabashedly feminine touch to the customer experience.

In the afternoon, Hardlines president Michael McLarney gave a state-of-the-industry update that included a discussion of how climate change is impacting home improvement and the challenges of making bricks and mortar a compelling experience to compete against online sales.

Dan Tratensek provided a perspective from the North American Hardware and Paint Association. Cody Smith capped off the afternoon with an update on exciting new developments at Federated Co-op, including the expansion of the co-op’s LBM distribution network in Alberta.

The afternoon closed with a reception hosted by Home Hardware Stores Ltd., leading into the 31st Outstanding Retailer Awards gala dinner (see previous story).

Day two of the conference got started with a heartfelt story from the front lines of hardware retailing. Sylvain and Marilyne Laferriere shared their experience as owners of the Victory Ace store in Mackenzie, B.C. Their challenges running a business in a small community that sees its population dwindle and customers head to the big city to shop, while the town itself fails to provide adequate support for local businesses like theirs.

Zaida Fazlic is the VP of people and culture at Taiga Building Products. Back by popular demand after a heartfelt and informative presentation at last year’s conference, Fazlic again shared her insights into the HR world, outlining the differences and commonalities among the different generations of workers, and how best to manage and integrate those workers.

The day, and the conference, was capped by a presentation from Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux, SVP for RONA affiliates, wholesale, and public affairs at RONA inc. He talked about RONA’s ongoing commitment to its independent, or affiliate, dealers. He also took the time to share some best practices that any independent should follow to ensure success in a changing post-Covid marketplace.

The information shared by the speakers, along with the ability of delegates to network and meet dealers from every part of Canada, made the Hardlines Conference once again a great platform for industry individuals to share and learn from senior thought leaders—and from each other. The Hardlines Conference moves to the province of Quebec in 2024, from Oct. 21 to 23.

TIMBER MART adds Winnipeg distribution centre to serve Prairie members

TIMBER MART has launched a new LBM distribution facility on a three-acre property in Winnipeg. Located within a six-hour radius of buying group members in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and northwestern Ontario, it will offer weekly deliveries, cross-docking and furtherance service, and easy access for dealers looking to pick up their orders.

With an estimated 600 dealers nationwide, TIMBER MART has almost 120 in the Prairies, including about 35 dealers in Manitoba (source: 2023 Hardlines Market Share Report).

“Our new distribution centre in Winnipeg will offer many of our members in the Prairies all of the conveniences that our existing facilities provide for our members in B.C., Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick,” says Bernie Owens, president and CEO of TIMBER MART. “We look forward to providing our dealers with a great source of LBM products and competitive advantage in their local markets.”

TIMBER MART’s new distribution centre is located at 95 Paquin Rd. in Winnipeg. It will be the fourth facility the buying group operates and will represent a significant expansion of their current distribution network. It joins existing facilities in Langley, B.C.; Mount Forest, Ont.; and St-Nicolas, Que.

Geneviève Gagnon isn’t exaggerating when she says was born into the industry. “The home I was born in was literally in the lumber yard” of her family’s store, she recalled in an address to this year’s Hardlines Conference.

As a “pretty turbulent kid,” she was constantly trying to get into the yard, prompting her parents to erect a fence around the house. Even that wasn’t enough to keep her out, so the family moved to a farm they still own today.

Growing up “between the farm and the yard,” as she puts it, Gagnon’s childish persistence wore her parents down until they could no longer refuse to let her to work in the store. She was so young, she says, that isn’t even sure exactly how old she was at the time.

As an adult, she completed an education in finance and tax law. She also broadened her horizons in South Africa, and working on an international project in Tunisia—one that she found personally challenging.

Gagnon’s grandfather founded his general store in the 1940s in Chénéville, Que. In 1973, her father Yves converted it into a hardware store and lumberyard. That outfit was the kernel which grew into Gagnon, La Grande Quincaillerie. Today, with five locations, the banner is one of three businesses Gagnon helms.

The family business spent 35 years under the BMR banner, where Yves served as CEO and Geneviève was named financial director at 26, before going independent in 2020. Shortly after, Geneviève took the reins from her father, giving Yves “a much-deserved retirement,” and presiding over a period of growth and innovation. “Our two most recent stores are eco-friendly,” she notes.

It also benefits from distinctive marketing. The company’s logo uses a font that was developed in Quebec, and the store’s signature colour is a shade of purple. But it’s not a random choice for the stores’ visual identity. Says Gagnon: “You may think it’s because purple was the only colour not used in the industry. Well, that helped but it wasn’t the decision-maker.”

Rather, she said, “purple represents peace—and it’s a feminine colour and we stand by that.” The banner even has a signature fragrance to welcome customers into the store. Gagnon handed out samples of the scent to each of the conference tables.

“Hardware is soothing. It’s the family feel that we want people to have.”

(PHOTO: Annemarie Grudën)

The BSIA of B.C. handed out its 2023 Industry Merit Awards last week to three individuals who have made significant contributions over decades to building up the province’s retail home improvement industry. The honourees were: Bruce Allen, a RONA dealer-owner who is president of three RONA-bannered stores in North Vancouver, Powell River, and Salmon Arm; Brad McCluskie, business development manager of Coast Distributors, a prominent west coast hardlines distributor; and Ray Cyr, president of Fraser Valley Building Supplies, with six RONA stores in the province.

DID YOU KNOW...?

… that we had record attendance at our Hardlines Conference last week? We had more than 200 people join us in Whistler, B.C., including 85 delegates from the West Coast who were there for the very first time! It was great to meet so many wonderful dealers and suppliers from the British Columbia marketplace! Our thanks again to the BSIA of B.C. for partnering with us to make such a successful event!

RETAILER NEWS

RONA inc. has announced the conversion of nine more Lowe’s stores to the RONA+banner in Ontario. They are: Brampton South, Brampton North, Mississauga Central, Scarborough North-Markham, Scarborough West, Toronto York, Etobicoke South, Milton, and Burlington North. Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux, SVP for RONA affiliates, wholesale, and public affairs, told the Hardlines Conference last week that by year’s end, more than half of Lowe’s Canada stores will have converted to the RONA+ banner.

The BSIA’s 85th anniversary gala took place at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler resort last week, in conjunction with the 27th Hardlines Conference. The association used the event to present its 2023 Orion Awards. This year’s winners are: Parkland Building Supplies 1998 Ltd., a Home Building Centre dealer in Sicamous, which won in the urban hardware and rural lumberyard category; Central Hardware 2018, a TIMBER MART dealer in Enderby, for the building centre contractor yard category; Nelson Home Building Centre in Nelson, winner in the building centre-mini-box category; Windsor Plywood, Courtenay, in the finishing and specialty products category; and Arbutus Home Building Centre, Galiano Island, winner in the mystery shopping category.

Castle Building Centres has added Toronto’s Mr. Bin Inc. as its newest member. Founded in 2019 and proudly rooted in Toronto’s Canadian Chinese community, Mr. Bin encompasses three different business categories: LBM, hardscapes, and construction disposal services. With the move to Castle, the owners will place a renewed focus on the LBM side of the business. A grand opening celebration is planned for late fall.

A new promotion from Home Hardware Stores is designed to encourage its customers to use Home's newly adopted Scene+ loyalty card. Called the "Scan and Win" contest, the promotion automatically enters a customer into a draw to win a million points every time they scan their Scene+ card when making a purchase at Home Hardware. The contest continues until Dec. 31.

Hudson’s Bay, which is already busy with a relaunched banner (Zellers) and a repositioning at select Bay locations (the Outlet Store) has relaunched Hudson's Bay Rewards, its loyalty program. The Hudson's Bay Rewards app delivers exclusive offers personalized to members based on preferences and shopping habits, in-app “Quests” that give members bigger returns, access to special events, and other perks.

Ipex has held the grand opening of its new U.S. flagship manufacturing facility in Pineville, N.C. The 200,000-square-foot injection moulding plant features fully electric injection moulding machines, proprietary automation, and cloud connectivity.

The annualized rate of housing starts rose by eight percent in September to 270,466 units, from 250,383 units in August. The rate of urban starts increased by nine percent, with 250,766 units. Single-detached urban starts were up three percent to 43,077 units. (CMHC)

Sales of existing homes declined by 1.9 percent between August and September. It was the third consecutive monthly decrease, but only about half as large a drop as in August. Declines in Greater Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area offset gains in Edmonton, Montreal, and Kitchener–Waterloo. The actual (not seasonally adjusted) number of transactions in September came in 1.9 percent above September 2022. (Canadian Real Estate Assoc.)