HARDLINES™ Five years serving Canada's home improvement industry September 25, 2000 - Volume vi, #36 Michael McLarney, Editor & Publisher Ph: 416-489-3396 Fx: 416-489-6154 E-mail: buzz@hardlinesfax.com  
Check out our incredible Classifieds section!
* * * * * * * IN THIS ISSUE: * Who's the biggest: our latest study ranks the top retailers * Home Depot pushes globalized buying, environmental practices * Beaver dealers visit Home Hardware * GTA shootout: Revy vs. Home Depot * Housing prices inch up * Depot says R&D is up to vendor * * * * * *   HARDLINES WHO'S WHO 2000-2001 EDITION: The only annual guide to Canada's leading hardware and home improvement retailers, wholesalers, buying groups, mass merchants and co-ops. It lists more than 100 companies. Each listing features executives, product categories, sales, number of outlets, buyers, etc. No salesperson or marketing person should be without this little beauty! Order online or call us at 416-489-3396.  
HHOME DEPOT: GLOBALIZATION AND ENVIRONMENT   Improved service levels and greater environmental accountability were just two of the messages Home Depot delivered recently. Eric Petersen, vice-president of Home Depot Canada, exhorted vendors to function more globally. He spoke, along with his president, Annette Verschuren, at the Hardlines Marketing Conference in Toronto on September 14. Verschuren gave an overview of the company's growth and promotional plans. "We did 53 million transactions in 59 stores," she said of the company's performance in 1999. Home Depot's specialty concepts, EXPO and Villager's Hardware, will be coming to Canada sooner than later. EXPO is currently being given an expansion push that will add stores to the northeastern U.S. Canada, specifically Toronto, is slated to be part of that expansion. Home Depot has expanded into other niches through acquisition. The Floor Store, a 45,000-sq.ft. outlet, opened recently in Dallas, TX. Another is California Lighting, another chain bought by Home Depot. "We're good at buying expertise and then spreading that expertise throughout the company," said Verschuren. Petersen, who recently joined the Canadian team from Home Depot's northwest division, sent a strong message to vendors that service levels have to come up, especially given the globalization of negotiations. He cited Canadian companies such as MAAX and Premdor for providing that service with a global vision. He also advised that Home Depot will be working to streamline the distribution channel even more: "We will be taking the broker side of the equation out of the picture," he said. * * * * * * WHO'S THE BIGGEST? RETAIL SALES RANKED A new ranking of the top home improvement sales in Canada puts Home Hardware Stores at number one, with Home Depot Canada in second place. Including last year's acquisition of Beaver Lumber, Home Hardware's sales totalled $2.899 billion in 1999. Home Depot's were an estimated $2.3 billion. The top spot has traditionally been the domain of Canadian Tire, whose total gross operating revenue last year actually reached $4.728 billion. However, hardware and home improvement sales (not including sporting goods and automotive) by all dealers were an estimated $1.710 billion, putting Canadian Tire's sales in this category in the number four spot. Other companies in the top 10 included RONA , Sodisco-Howden and Revy. The ranking is included in the Hardlines Industry Report: Home Improvement Retailing in Canada, a major study that we'll have ready in a couple of weeks. * * * * * * BEAVER DEALERS SHOP LBM AT HOME HARDWARE MARKET Beaver Lumber dealers were invited for the first time to this weekend's Home Hardware fall market. They were able to place orders for lumber and building materials through Beaver's Markham, ON office, but hardware orders out of St. Jacob's must wait until Beaver's supply deal with Ace Hardware comes to an end on March 31, 2001. Home's installed sales program, "Home Installs", was also given a nationwide rollout at this market. The program had been introduced on a trial basis at Home's spring 2000 market, with about 10 stores in Ontario trying it out. * * * * * * R&D: WHO'S JOB IS IT - THE VENDOR'S OR THE RETAILER'S? The speakers at our recent Hardlines Marketing Conference had differing views about who should be investing in new product development. According to Eric Petersen, vice-president of merchandising at Home Depot Canada, that duty falls squarely on the shoulders of the vendor. Not so, said Will Raap. Raap is president of Gardener's Supply, a Vermont-based mail-order company that spends a lot of time talking to - and listening to - its customers. The results of that feedback go into developing new, proprietary products - products that sell. He showed examples that have appeared in his catalogue that are ennvironmentally sound and often wonderful in their simplicity. However, Petersen said the job of listening to customers was up to the vendors. "Who better to understand our customer's needs than you, the vendors?"
COMPANIES IN THE NEWS   Sears Canada will open a Sears Furniture and Appliances store in Moncton, NB at the Wheeler Park Power Centre in the spring of 2001. The 43,000-sq.ft. outlet will be devoted to furniture, rugs, accent-decor items and major home appliances and will employ about 40. This will be the second such store in the Atlantic region, following Halifax. Revy Home and Garden appears to be getting more aggressive in the Toronto market at last. Last weekend's full-page newspaper ad features the red Revy apron beside an orange apron labelled "The other guys" in Home Depot's characteristic typeface.The Revy apron is labelled "Proudly Canadian" while the orange one is called "Hardly Canadian." The Bay's national flagship location in Toronto will be commemorated tomorrow as an historic landmark by the Ontario Heritage Foundation. Built by Edmund Burke at the turn of the century, the store, on Queen Street at Yonge, it was the city's first fireproof building. Lowe's Cos. Inc. broke ground last Tuesday in Findlay, OH on a US$80 million regional distribution centre. It will supply products to approximately 100 stores throughout the Lower Great Lakes region and employ more than 500 people. The 1.25 million-sq.ft. facility is being built on about 110 acres near Interstate 75. It is scheduled to open in October 2001. National Manufacturing of Canada Inc. is relocating its sales and marketing offices from Markham, ON to its eastern distribution centre in Cobourg, ON: 711 Ontario Street, P.O. Box 640, Cobourg, ON K9A 4L3. The sale of Westburne Inc. to Rexel S.A. has been approved at a price of $22.75 per share, for a total of $987 million. Westburne had sales of $2.47 billion in 1999, while Rexel, a French distributor of electrical supplies, has sales of $8.5 billion. CORRECTION: ITM has not joined Alliance International LLC, as reported last week. However, thanks to its relationship with Alliance member RONA inc., the company has been invited to participate in some trial collective negotiations with the Alliance to test a more global buying model, starting with batteries.
  CANADIAN STOCK WATCH
COMPANY 52-WEEK HIGH 52-WEEK LOW CLOSE (FRI.)
       
Canadian Tire 37.35 18.40 19.90
Canfor 19.80 10.35 10.20
Goodfellow 12.55 8.75 9.60
Home Depot 70.00 39.37 55 15/16
Hudsons Bay 21.65 12.50 15.60
Lowe's Cos. 67.25 40.37 50 3/4
Sears Canada 42.50 30.75 33.90
Taiga Forest 14.20 6.80 8.35
West Fraser 39.50 27.00 28.50
    "What is now proved was once only imagined." - William Blake (1757-1827)
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE   At this weekend's Home Hardware fall market, Ray Gabel, vice-president, merchandise and marketing - hardlines, received an Estwing Gold Hammer Award from the Canadian Retail Hardware Association for 50 years of service in the hardware industry - all of them with Home Hardware. (519-664-2252)  
OVERHEARD...   "Our challenge for our customers is finding new ways to live in concert with nature." - Will Raap, president of Gardener's Supply. He kicked off the Hardlines Marketing Conference recently with his very personal approach to retail: trying to make a difference in the lives of one's customers by encouraging them, through their gardening, to get more in touch with nature and the world around them.  
MARKET INDICATORS   The new housing price rose 0.2% from June to July, says Stats Canada. The highest monthly increase was in Ottawa-Hull (+1.9%), while increases also occurred in St. John's (+0.6%) and Kitchener-Waterloo (+0.5%). Prices nationally in July were 2.4% higher than they were in July 1999. The composite index slowed to 0.4% in August from July, according to Stats Canada. Business spending was a big source of growth, while household demand for new housing slowed. Even Ontario was down a bit, following a boost in housing a month earlier after strikes there were settled. While furniture and appliance sales were up 0.2%, sales of other durable goods remained flat. The consumer price index was down 0.2% in August from July, however, year over year, the CPI was up 2.5%. Energy prices remained the largest contributor to the increase.  
WHY HARDLINES SUPPORTS THE WOMEN'S CONSUMER PRODUCTS NETWORK   Given the growing number of women in this industry, we are delighted there is finally a forum for them to meet and exchange ideas and insights. Anyone in hardware/housewares/packaged goods or related industries would benefit from checking out this organization. September 21: "Fully Alive From 9 to 5!" Featuring author Louise LeBrun. Details coming soon. Meanwhile, check out her website at: www.partnersinrenewal.com For more information, please call: (905) 212-3826; fax: (905) 274-7646; email:wcpn99@yahoo.com, website:www.wcpncanada.org (Hardlines is proud to be a sponsor of the WCPN)  
Hardlines Marketplace   Got new products? Looking for new staff or lines? Hardlines Marketplace is read each week by North America's key decision makers in home improvement retailing and manufacturing. If you want to build your sales team or find new agents or new lines, this is the place! Only $16 per line. Call Beverly at 416-489-3396, ext. 2, for more details. * * * * * * * HARDLINES™ the electronic newsletter. www.hardlinesfax.com phone: 416-489-3396; fax: 416-489-6154. E-mail: buzz@hardlinesfax.com Michael McLarney, Editor & Publisher (extension 1): mike@hardlinesfax.com Beverly Allen, Marketing Manager (extension 2): bev@hardlinesfax.com Nancy Wright, Administrative Assistant: nancy@hardlinesfax.com Hardlines is published weekly (except monthly in December and August) by McLARNEYCOM 542 Mount Pleasant Rd., Suite 302, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4S 2M7 © 2000 by Michael McLarney. Reproduction in whole or in part is very uncool and strictly forbidden and really and truly against the law. Call for information on a site license for your company. Subscription: $185+$12.95 GST = $197.95 (or $27.75 HST = $212.75) per year (GST #13987 0398 RT). (Please make cheque payable to McLarneyCom.)  
  HARDLINES™ Five years serving Canada's home improvement industry September 25, 2000 - Volume vi, #36 Michael McLarney, Editor & Publisher Ph: 416-489-3396 Fx: 416-489-6154 E-mail: buzz@hardlinesfax.com  
Check out our incredible Classifieds section!
* * * * * * * IN THIS ISSUE: * Who's the biggest: our latest study ranks the top retailers * Home Depot pushes globalized buying, environmental practices * Beaver dealers visit Home Hardware * GTA shootout: Revy vs. Home Depot * Housing prices inch up * Depot says R&D is up to vendor * * * * * *   HARDLINES WHO'S WHO 2000-2001 EDITION: The only annual guide to Canada's leading hardware and home improvement retailers, wholesalers, buying groups, mass merchants and co-ops. It lists more than 100 companies. Each listing features executives, product categories, sales, number of outlets, buyers, etc. No salesperson or marketing person should be without this little beauty! Order online or call us at 416-489-3396.  
HHOME DEPOT: GLOBALIZATION AND ENVIRONMENT   Improved service levels and greater environmental accountability were just two of the messages Home Depot delivered recently. Eric Petersen, vice-president of Home Depot Canada, exhorted vendors to function more globally. He spoke, along with his president, Annette Verschuren, at the Hardlines Marketing Conference in Toronto on September 14. Verschuren gave an overview of the company's growth and promotional plans. "We did 53 million transactions in 59 stores," she said of the company's performance in 1999. Home Depot's specialty concepts, EXPO and Villager's Hardware, will be coming to Canada sooner than later. EXPO is currently being given an expansion push that will add stores to the northeastern U.S. Canada, specifically Toronto, is slated to be part of that expansion. Home Depot has expanded into other niches through acquisition. The Floor Store, a 45,000-sq.ft. outlet, opened recently in Dallas, TX. Another is California Lighting, another chain bought by Home Depot. "We're good at buying expertise and then spreading that expertise throughout the company," said Verschuren. Petersen, who recently joined the Canadian team from Home Depot's northwest division, sent a strong message to vendors that service levels have to come up, especially given the globalization of negotiations. He cited Canadian companies such as MAAX and Premdor for providing that service with a global vision. He also advised that Home Depot will be working to streamline the distribution channel even more: "We will be taking the broker side of the equation out of the picture," he said. * * * * * * WHO'S THE BIGGEST? RETAIL SALES RANKED A new ranking of the top home improvement sales in Canada puts Home Hardware Stores at number one, with Home Depot Canada in second place. Including last year's acquisition of Beaver Lumber, Home Hardware's sales totalled $2.899 billion in 1999. Home Depot's were an estimated $2.3 billion. The top spot has traditionally been the domain of Canadian Tire, whose total gross operating revenue last year actually reached $4.728 billion. However, hardware and home improvement sales (not including sporting goods and automotive) by all dealers were an estimated $1.710 billion, putting Canadian Tire's sales in this category in the number four spot. Other companies in the top 10 included RONA , Sodisco-Howden and Revy. The ranking is included in the Hardlines Industry Report: Home Improvement Retailing in Canada, a major study that we'll have ready in a couple of weeks. * * * * * * BEAVER DEALERS SHOP LBM AT HOME HARDWARE MARKET Beaver Lumber dealers were invited for the first time to this weekend's Home Hardware fall market. They were able to place orders for lumber and building materials through Beaver's Markham, ON office, but hardware orders out of St. Jacob's must wait until Beaver's supply deal with Ace Hardware comes to an end on March 31, 2001. Home's installed sales program, "Home Installs", was also given a nationwide rollout at this market. The program had been introduced on a trial basis at Home's spring 2000 market, with about 10 stores in Ontario trying it out. * * * * * * R&D: WHO'S JOB IS IT - THE VENDOR'S OR THE RETAILER'S? The speakers at our recent Hardlines Marketing Conference had differing views about who should be investing in new product development. According to Eric Petersen, vice-president of merchandising at Home Depot Canada, that duty falls squarely on the shoulders of the vendor. Not so, said Will Raap. Raap is president of Gardener's Supply, a Vermont-based mail-order company that spends a lot of time talking to - and listening to - its customers. The results of that feedback go into developing new, proprietary products - products that sell. He showed examples that have appeared in his catalogue that are ennvironmentally sound and often wonderful in their simplicity. However, Petersen said the job of listening to customers was up to the vendors. "Who better to understand our customer's needs than you, the vendors?"
COMPANIES IN THE NEWS   Sears Canada will open a Sears Furniture and Appliances store in Moncton, NB at the Wheeler Park Power Centre in the spring of 2001. The 43,000-sq.ft. outlet will be devoted to furniture, rugs, accent-decor items and major home appliances and will employ about 40. This will be the second such store in the Atlantic region, following Halifax. Revy Home and Garden appears to be getting more aggressive in the Toronto market at last. Last weekend's full-page newspaper ad features the red Revy apron beside an orange apron labelled "The other guys" in Home Depot's characteristic typeface.The Revy apron is labelled "Proudly Canadian" while the orange one is called "Hardly Canadian." The Bay's national flagship location in Toronto will be commemorated tomorrow as an historic landmark by the Ontario Heritage Foundation. Built by Edmund Burke at the turn of the century, the store, on Queen Street at Yonge, it was the city's first fireproof building. Lowe's Cos. Inc. broke ground last Tuesday in Findlay, OH on a US$80 million regional distribution centre. It will supply products to approximately 100 stores throughout the Lower Great Lakes region and employ more than 500 people. The 1.25 million-sq.ft. facility is being built on about 110 acres near Interstate 75. It is scheduled to open in October 2001. National Manufacturing of Canada Inc. is relocating its sales and marketing offices from Markham, ON to its eastern distribution centre in Cobourg, ON: 711 Ontario Street, P.O. Box 640, Cobourg, ON K9A 4L3. The sale of Westburne Inc. to Rexel S.A. has been approved at a price of $22.75 per share, for a total of $987 million. Westburne had sales of $2.47 billion in 1999, while Rexel, a French distributor of electrical supplies, has sales of $8.5 billion. CORRECTION: ITM has not joined Alliance International LLC, as reported last week. However, thanks to its relationship with Alliance member RONA inc., the company has been invited to participate in some trial collective negotiations with the Alliance to test a more global buying model, starting with batteries.
  CANADIAN STOCK WATCH
COMPANY 52-WEEK HIGH 52-WEEK LOW CLOSE (FRI.)
       
Canadian Tire 37.35 18.40 19.90
Canfor 19.80 10.35 10.20
Goodfellow 12.55 8.75 9.60
Home Depot 70.00 39.37 55 15/16
Hudsons Bay 21.65 12.50 15.60
Lowe's Cos. 67.25 40.37 50 3/4
Sears Canada 42.50 30.75 33.90
Taiga Forest 14.20 6.80 8.35
West Fraser 39.50 27.00 28.50
    "What is now proved was once only imagined." - William Blake (1757-1827)
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE   At this weekend's Home Hardware fall market, Ray Gabel, vice-president, merchandise and marketing - hardlines, received an Estwing Gold Hammer Award from the Canadian Retail Hardware Association for 50 years of service in the hardware industry - all of them with Home Hardware. (519-664-2252)  
OVERHEARD...   "Our challenge for our customers is finding new ways to live in concert with nature." - Will Raap, president of Gardener's Supply. He kicked off the Hardlines Marketing Conference recently with his very personal approach to retail: trying to make a difference in the lives of one's customers by encouraging them, through their gardening, to get more in touch with nature and the world around them.  
MARKET INDICATORS   The new housing price rose 0.2% from June to July, says Stats Canada. The highest monthly increase was in Ottawa-Hull (+1.9%), while increases also occurred in St. John's (+0.6%) and Kitchener-Waterloo (+0.5%). Prices nationally in July were 2.4% higher than they were in July 1999. The composite index slowed to 0.4% in August from July, according to Stats Canada. Business spending was a big source of growth, while household demand for new housing slowed. Even Ontario was down a bit, following a boost in housing a month earlier after strikes there were settled. While furniture and appliance sales were up 0.2%, sales of other durable goods remained flat. The consumer price index was down 0.2% in August from July, however, year over year, the CPI was up 2.5%. Energy prices remained the largest contributor to the increase.  
WHY HARDLINES SUPPORTS THE WOMEN'S CONSUMER PRODUCTS NETWORK   Given the growing number of women in this industry, we are delighted there is finally a forum for them to meet and exchange ideas and insights. Anyone in hardware/housewares/packaged goods or related industries would benefit from checking out this organization. September 21: "Fully Alive From 9 to 5!" Featuring author Louise LeBrun. Details coming soon. Meanwhile, check out her website at: www.partnersinrenewal.com For more information, please call: (905) 212-3826; fax: (905) 274-7646; email:wcpn99@yahoo.com, website:www.wcpncanada.org (Hardlines is proud to be a sponsor of the WCPN)  
Hardlines Marketplace   Got new products? Looking for new staff or lines? Hardlines Marketplace is read each week by North America's key decision makers in home improvement retailing and manufacturing. If you want to build your sales team or find new agents or new lines, this is the place! Only $16 per line. Call Beverly at 416-489-3396, ext. 2, for more details. * * * * * * * HARDLINES™ the electronic newsletter. www.hardlinesfax.com phone: 416-489-3396; fax: 416-489-6154. E-mail: buzz@hardlinesfax.com Michael McLarney, Editor & Publisher (extension 1): mike@hardlinesfax.com Beverly Allen, Marketing Manager (extension 2): bev@hardlinesfax.com Nancy Wright, Administrative Assistant: nancy@hardlinesfax.com Hardlines is published weekly (except monthly in December and August) by McLARNEYCOM 542 Mount Pleasant Rd., Suite 302, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4S 2M7 © 2000 by Michael McLarney. Reproduction in whole or in part is very uncool and strictly forbidden and really and truly against the law. Call for information on a site license for your company. Subscription: $185+$12.95 GST = $197.95 (or $27.75 HST = $212.75) per year (GST #13987 0398 RT). (Please make cheque payable to McLarneyCom.)