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 30th Annual Outstanding Retailer Awards, presented during a Gala Dinner at the annual Hardlines Conference. The event was held Oct. 18 at the Queen’s Landing Hotel in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

Retailers were honoured in eight categories covering the range of hardware and home improvement retailing formats. This year’s winners were:

• Best Hardware Store – Quincaillerie Jean Denis (Home Hardware), St-Raymond, Que. Sophie Denis and Philippe Moisan, Owners. Award sponsored by JRTech Solutions.
• Best Building Supply or Home Centre under 15,000 square feet – Grunthal Lumber (Castle), Grunthal, Man. Mel Funk and Murray Rempel, Owners; Mike Bourgeois, Manager. Award sponsored by Johns Manville Canada.
• Best Building Supply or Home Centre over 15,000 square feet – Grande Prairie Home Hardware Building Centre, Grande Prairie, Alta. Kevin Gillman, Manager. Award sponsored by Trex.
• Best Contractor Specialist – Pierre Naud Inc. (BMR), Trois Rivières, Que. Marc-André Lebel and Philippe Lebel, Owners; Jessica Bastarache, Manager. Award sponsored by the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA).
• Best Large Surface Retailer – Lowe’s Pickering, Pickering, Ont. Angelo Tzogas, Store Manager. Award sponsored by the National Hardware Show.
• Retail Spirit Award – Gander Bay Building Supplies (Castle), Victoria Cove, Gander Bay, N.L. Deborah and Todd Brinson, Owners. Award sponsored by Kohltech.
• Best Young Retailer – BMR Paulin Moisan Inc., St-Raymond, Que. Marianne Moisan and Mathieu Moisan, Owners. Award sponsored by Acceo.
• Marc Robichaud Community Leader – RONA Fort Erie, Fort Erie, Ont. Dennis Doidge, Owner; Jeff Hill, Manager. Award sponsored by BMF.

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

“The past two and a half years were marked by a level of disruption not seen in this industry in our lifetime,” said Michael McLarney, president of Hardlines Inc. “In a field of entries where the bar was already raised high by pandemic conditions, this year’s winners shine bright.”

Hardlines Conference reunites the industry in Niagara-on-the-Lake

The 26th Annual Hardlines Conference hosted almost 150 delegates at the Queen’s Landing Hotel in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., last week. The in-person gathering was supplemented by a large number of delegates watching virtually from their devices.

The two-day event at the Queen’s Landing Hotel represented a veritable who’s who of the industry, with attendees from BMR, Castle, Federated Co-op, Home Hardware, Lowe’s/RONA, Peavey Industries, and Sexton Group, among others. Virtual delegates included top execs from Home Depot and RONA along with key independent dealers. The vendor community was well represented on both the LBM and hardlines side of the industry, with a number of wholesalers, sales agents, and distributors in attendance.

Presentations by senior executives from BMR, Lowe’s Canada, and Sexton Group were followed on stage by thought-provoking presentations by a well-known housing and land economist and one of the country’s leading retail gurus.

The traditional opening pub night, held in a nearby Irish pub and hosted by RONA, was packed, noisy, and opinionated. For many delegates this was their first national gathering in our industry in almost three years.

Alison Fletcher, owner of Cookery—a kitchenwares retailer with stores in Toronto and Montreal—opened on day one with a no-holds-barred description of the career battles she has gone through in several decades in the food and beverage industry. Cookery’s charismatic owner urged delegates to follow their dreams—and the data.

Eric Palmer, VP and general manager of the Sexton Group, gave a personalized overview of the dealer-focused organization founded in 1985 by industry icon Ken Sexton. Palmer talked about his own career path through the organization. He also referenced the recent sale of the Sexton Family of Companies to an investor group, PFM of Regina, Sask., in a deal that is expected to close later this fall.

Altus Group economist Peter Norman, no stranger to Hardlines Conference delegates (he has appeared at the conference more than a dozen times), was blunt at the outset of his presentation. “Uncertainty and caution are what we’re going to talk about this morning,” he warned. “But also some good things,” he promised. The upside? Canada is not likely to experience a housing crash, Norman said. But interest rate hikes will likely mean the heady times for home improvement retailers are over.

Zaida Fazlic, VP people, culture and change management at Taiga Building Products, focused on the skills required to be a good leader. She talked about collaborative leadership and servant leadership, which both require listening carefully and authentically to the feedback and needs of employees.

Tony Cioffi, president of Lowe’s Canada, outlined how his organization, which includes the RONA and Réno-Dépôt banners, was able to lead the industry in converting to e-commerce during the early days of COVID. He gave some detailed insights into how his banners are not resting on their laurels, but tooling up for any future interruptions from future public health crises.

Charles Grégoire-Béliveau, VP merchandising at BMR, took delegates through a tour of what he called “BMR 2.0.” The Quebec-based group is continuing to expand in Ontario and the Atlantic Provinces as well as aggressively signing new dealers in its home province.

Rob and Joanne Lawrie, winners of an Outstanding Retailer Award at last year’s conference, talked about their company’s growth from a single store in Annapolis Royal to seven Home Hardware stores today. Rob had straight-talking advice for anyone who thinks expansion should stop once an extra store is added to their single one. “Do not stop at two stores,” he said. “Do not do it!”

Doug Stephens, known as the Retail Prophet, was back from last year, too, by popular request. He explained why our supply chains became so broken by the pandemic and offered a prescription to avoid future fractures to supply that includes a change in philosophy from always seeking the lowest landed cost for products.

Starting next year, the Hardlines Conference is going on the road. Our 27th annual conference will take place at the Chateau Whistler in Whistler, B.C., Oct. 17 and 18, 2023.

Lowe’s Canada’s president talks to delegates about the changing face of retail

The pace of change in retail has been accelerating, Tony Cioffi told the 2022 Hardlines Conference last week, and it’s about to ramp up even more.

“It’s really important that we adapt to change faster than we have ever adapted before,” Lowe’s Canada’s president said in his address. Flexibility in the way consumers shop is one example. “Today they might want buy-online-pick-up-in-store. Tomorrow they might want to buy online and get it delivered. The next day they might want to come in” to shop in person.

That makes a seamless omnichannel experience more crucial than it has ever been. The average grill purchase, Cioffi noted, is preceded by more than 60 online searches, but only one in-store visit—making it imperative to get the experience of that in-person visit right.

One way that Lowe’s Canada is working toward that seamless experience is by having staff assist in placing orders for items that are available only online. Those items can be shipped directly to the customer’s home. The plan is to have those stores and staff receive credit for such sales by the end of next year.

Another part of the equation is making the best possible use of staff talent. With the labour shortages exacerbated by the pandemic, self-checkout has been “a godsend,” Cioffi says, freeing up would-be cashiers to serve in more complex roles.

Customer expectations around delivery are also evolving. “Two-day delivery is the norm,” with most shoppers expecting to receive items in no more than three days. “Soon, same-day will be the expectation,” Cioffi declared, adding that for about a third of customers it already is.

Lowe’s Canada is responding to demand by changing the way it warehouses orders. “We have three stores in Quebec that we’ve converted this year into direct distribution centres.” Cioffi noted the company has just opened a new bulk DC in the Calgary area.

He continues to look for more ways to work with vendors to respond to customers’ needs. “I’m always challenging our buying team: can the vendor deliver directly to the customer? Can the vendor deliver to the job site?” he said.

“At the end of the day, in this inflationary market, we can’t impose [more] costs on our customers. We need to find a way to be more productive together.”

Canada’s third-largest LBM distributor is poised for some strong growth, and it intends to stay close to its preferred vendors to realize that growth.

“Our vision does not just apply downstream to our customers, but also upstream to the vendors,” says Mike Schneider, vice president of business development at Gillfor Distribution.

The Woodstock, Ont.-based wholesaler was established when OWL Distribution in Woodstock, Ont., and McIlveen Lumber, an LBM wholesaler based in Calgary, merged in 2017. A year later, the company added Brown & Rutherford in Winnipeg and Brunswick Valley Distribution, based in Fredericton. But the acquisition of Bolton, Ont.-based AFA Distribution, completed on June 30 of this year, was the play that catapulted the company to a new plateau.

Schneider says 2023 will be a year of rapid growth, as the company will unite all its divisions clearly under the Gillfor brand (see our Oct. 10 edition—Editor). Gillfor’s vision includes working with “best-in-class vendors and developing real partnerships to grow the market and to take share.”

Gillfor is working to combine its offering to its dealer customers across the country. The base of its existing lines is the specialty building materials category, while the AFA acquisition added a broader range of LBM commodities to the mix. The company’s push in 2023 will be toward a more consolidated approach to the market as it will relaunch all divisions under one brand: Gillfor.

However, Schneider says, that uniformity of marketing will not be at the expense of the wholesaler’s regional strengths, as realized through almost 20 facilities countrywide. Rather, Gillfor’s centralized model will enable it to implement its national programs along with that regional sensitivity, which will come down to the account managers serving their customers in each region and the branches themselves.

“We have an unbelievable respect and confidence in our managers at the branches,” he says. “We believe they are the pillars.”

At BMR Group, Jean-Marc Prudhomme has been named VP, forest products, reporting to CEO Alexandre Lefebvre. Prudhomme joined BMR in 2011 as director of purchasing and was most recently senior director, commodity sales and purchasing.

DID YOU KNOW...?

... the latest edition of Hardlines HR Advisor hits inboxes on Wednesday? In this issue, we talk about the role of great mentors, plus managing the transition back to in-person work. If you’re not already receiving HR Advisor, click here to sign up for free!!

The Home Depot Canada’s nine stores in Atlantic Canada will donate $125,000 to the Canadian Red Cross for relief efforts following Hurricane Fiona. Each store will donate over $13,000 to show their support to local Castle Building Centres Group has announced the addition of Maderas, a new member in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., The new store will be a full-service home improvement centre complete with lumber yard, warehouse, and retail space. For co-owners Jonathan Gauthier and Hugo Dallaire Savard, it’s the fulfilment of a long-time dream to open a building centre.

Peavey Industries will open the doors of its newest store, in Salmon Arm, B.C., by the end of the month. The approximately 25,000-square-foot store in Centenoka Park Mall will be the third Peavey Mart in the province, joining locations in Dawson Creek and Kamloops. It will be the chain’s 91st location overall. It follows on the heels of an opening last month in Bedford, N.S., which was the chain’s first Peavey Mart store in the Maritimes.

SUPPLIER NEWS

Canadian Tire Corp. has submitted a request for a zoning variance that would allow the development of two high-rise residential towers at its downtown Toronto flagship. The design from Adamson Associates Architects preserves the façade of the current retail location. A new Canadian Tire outlet would anchor the project, which would consist of 49-storey north tower opposite a 41-storey tower fronting the subway. A new green space would replace the gas station at the existing store.

The Home Depot in the U.S. has launched a jobseeker marketplace to connect skilled tradespeople to trades professionals in the construction and home improvement industries. It’s part of Home Depot's “Path to Pro” program to help address the growing skilled labour shortage in the U.S. Skilled trades jobseekers can visit PathtoPro.com to create a profile, upload their resumé, and add photos of their work to connect with Home Depot’s pro customers looking to hire in their local area.

SUPPLIER NEWS

JELD-WEN of Canada is donating $25,000 to the Canadian Red Cross to aid relief following the impact of Hurricane Fiona. The Canadian Red Cross is providing emergency shelter, financial aid, food, and clothing to those affected. The Government of Canada matched donations made by individuals and corporations up until Oct. 23.

JRTech Solutions has secured agreements to install its shelf label technology and cloud platform in 24 RONA affiliate stores. Among them are the nine stores under RONA Moffatt & Powell.

A.O. Smith, Blackstone, and Mansfield Plumbing have been recognized by Lowe’s Cos. as the retailer’s 2022 Vendor Partners of the Year. At the same time Lowe’s presented its Sustainability Award to Owens Corning, which has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by about 60 percent since 2007.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Sales of existing homes fell by 3.9 percent between August and September. While about 60 percent of all local markets saw sales fall, the national number was pulled lower by declines in Greater Vancouver, Calgary, the Greater Toronto Area, and Montreal. The actual (not seasonally adjusted) number of transactions in September came in 32.2 percent below September 2021 and about 12 percent below the pre-pandemic 10-year average for that month. (Canadian Real Estate Association)

The annualized rate of housing starts in September was at the highest since November 2021 at 299,589 units, up 11 percent from August. The rate of urban starts rose 12 percent to 276,142 units, though single-detached urban starts were flat at 59,593 units. (CMHC)

NOTED

The latest episode of our podcast series What’s In Store is now live! In this edition, we talk to Geneviève Gagnon, CEO of Groupe Gagnon, a flourishing chain of stores in Quebec. She talks about her trajectory from studying tax law to the multiple businesses she now manages and her passion for supporting causes such as palliative care. (Sign up now to get these Hardlines Podcasts. They are free!)

OVERHEARD...

“I think it’s important we don’t profit from the communities we serve in without giving back.”
—Rob Lawrie, of the Lawrie Group of Companies, who with his wife and business partner Joanne Lawrie told the story of their growth to a chain of seven Home Hardware stores in Nova Scotia. They presented at the latest Hardlines Conference, held last week in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.