A walk through the latest in-person dealer market held by Home Hardware Stores Ltd. revealed lots of new products, along with a plethora of services for the dealers. Called “Homecoming,” the market was held for the second consecutive year at the Enercare Centre at Exhibition Place in Toronto.

On the product front, categories that are seeing continued strength included outdoor living. The company’s range of patio furniture and décor was front and centre at the market. Home offers a “Basics” program, which provides entry price points for its products, and in the case of outdoor furniture that meant patio chairs starting at $29. At the high end of the category, natural colours and muted tones dominated. Wooden outdoor tables with the natural look of “living edge” finishes were complemented by other finishes in red, blue, beige, and grey.

Moving into the paint department, Home was showcasing an extended line of spray paints under its BeautiTone brand. The number of available colours has doubled from 12 to 24—including some nods to the latest pop culture trends like Barbie pink.

That pink was also found in the bath category, with—wait for it—pink tubs. Other colours featured in fashion plumbing included gold, which remains a popular choice, along with black, which a Home Hardware spokesperson said is now the number-one colour for faucets. In fact, one bath vanity set mixed black and gold together.

An overriding trend throughout the products was the focus on private labels. In addition to legacy brands such as Benchmark (including a battery-powered riding lawnmower featured at the market), Home Hardware has been investing in other labels, which reflect, along with the pro focus, a parallel push on home products. InStyle comprises everything from wine glasses and mirrors to towels, shower curtains, vases, and even flooring.

“Home has focused on our private-label brands to deliver trusted products to Canadian consumers in various categories like paint, tools, home décor, and more,” said Marianne Thompson, Home Hardware’s chief commercial officer. She added that the private brands are an important way for Home Hardware dealers to bring innovation and value to their customers.

Another important Home Hardware brand is Mosaic, a mid-range line that replaces Kuradori and is expanding this year into small appliances such as microwaves and toasters. The KitchenAid brand remains the retailer’s high-end brand.

The beefed-up housewares and kitchenwares offerings are designed to make Home Hardware stores a destination for these categories.

“We are thrilled to expand the Mosaic brand into the small appliances category, as it completes our kitchen story to the customer,” said Kristen Fromm, Home’s merchandise manager for housewares and small appliances. “From cookware and bakeware to gadgets and small appliances, the Mosaic brand encourages customers to define their kitchen space with a range of products they can trust to prepare meals of any size for any occasion.”

Castle keeps growing with the addition of new members Canada-wide

Dealers continue to move between banners, and one group that’s managed to pick up new members from right across the country in recent months is Castle Building Centres Group.

Castle, which currently boasts more than 325 members nationwide, has been adding stores that are both traditional building centres and more specialized dealers that can fit the diverse profile that Castle represents.

“Changes in ownership and corporate direction are being questioned by more and more independents. We are experiencing this every day,” says Ken Jenkins, the group’s president and CEO. He points out Castle’s focus on each dealer’s own brand as taking precedence for the group.

“We have a compelling story that focuses entirely on the success of the entrepreneur. At the same time, making the right choice of buying groups is also essential. Our ability to exhibit that an independent’s cost of affiliation to a buying group is as important as their cost of goods is opening their eyes to an increasing number of opportunities at Castle.”

Those opportunities include Commercial Building Supplies (CBS), the group’s division that caters specifically to commercial members. The latest dealer to fit that category is located in Alberta’s capital city. Edmonton Roof Truss includes a truss manufacturing facility and a wide range of engineered wood products. Owners Don Clement and Nicole Caney-Clement bought an existing truss facility that had been established over 40 years ago.

Moving farther west, Island Home & Garden in Gabriola, B.C., is returning to the group after stints with other banners. The business was founded just under a decade ago by Nick and Robin Hock. The Hocks have a second location in the pipeline in Cumberland, B.C., which they expect to open in the fall.

Most recently, Castle signed Maada’oozhgamig Castle Building Centre in Nipigon, Ont., a First Nation-owned home improvement dealer. Owners Shawn Sobush and The Grossi Group purchased an existing retail store and switched it to Castle.

There’s also a brand-new store in Woodstock, Ont.—although the business joined Castle (then known as BOLD) in 1964. Husband-and-wife owners Jamie Adams and Tasha Birtch (shown here) held a grand opening for Adams Building Supply earlier this month. The 10,000-square-foot store represents a renaming and a new location for Adams’ and Birtch’s Allen Building Centre, which has been operating for 60 years. The new location features a four-acre lumberyard and a double-drive-through covered pickup area for contractors. The owners have a sister store in nearby Shakespeare, Ont.

“We are well positioned for both the growth of new members to Castle and the incredible organic growth of our current base,” Jenkins says. “Business is good at Castle!”

What are the top banners in Canada? Find out in new Market Share Report

Did you know that three retail groups, Home Hardware, RONA, and Canadian Tire, all share about the same volume of sales in British Columbia? But another retailer has almost twice as much of the market in that province than each of these three.

Across the country in Nova Scotia, Home Hardware is the market leader, owning almost one-third of the market for retail home improvement sales in that province. Kent is firmly in second place.

These are just some of the valuable facts you’ll find in the latest edition of the Hardlines 2023 Market Share Report, which is available now—and exclusive to Hardlines. This report details total sales by store format and individual banner in every province and territory. The store counts, sales volumes, and market shares of every key banner are listed by province and territory.

The Hardlines 2023 Market Share Report identifies each national retail banner, including Home Hardware, RONA, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware, plus the buying groups like AD Canada, Castle, TIMBER MART, and Sexton Group.

But this important research also measures the sales and market shares of the regional players, such as Canac in Quebec, Windsor Plywood in British Columbia, McMunn & Yates in Manitoba, and Fries Tallman Lumber in Saskatchewan.

The Hardlines 2023 Market Share Report features 80 slides in handy PowerPoint format. As a Premium Member-Subscriber, you save more than 20 percent on your order. And save more than 30 percent when you buy the Market Share Report bundled with its companion research, the Hardlines Retail Report. (Click here to order your Reports today!)

RONA inc. is continuing with its plan to convert its Lowe’s stores to the RONA+ banner. Another nine locations were announced most recently, marking the first conversions outside of Ontario.

The stores are in British Columbia (Vancouver Grandview, Nanaimo, Victoria Langford, Victoria Tillicum, Abbotsford), Saskatchewan (Regina South, Saskatoon West), and Manitoba (Winnipeg East, Winnipeg South). The stores will remain open during the conversions.

The first 25 conversions of Lowe’s stores to the new banner took place starting in late July in Ontario, where new RONA+ banners went up at Lowe’s stores in southern and southwestern Ontario. The first 10 Lowe’s stores to be converted are located in Ancaster, Brantford, Cambridge, Hamilton, Kitchener, Niagara Falls (shown here), Sarnia, Waterloo, and the two stores in Windsor. They were soon followed by another round of switches, in Barrie, Belleville, East Gwillimbury, Kanata, Kingston, London North West, London South West, Maple, Nepean, Orleans, Oshawa, Ottawa Gloucester, Pickering, Sudbury, and Whitby.

RONA inc. developed its RONA+ banner after Lowe’s Cos. sold its Canadian banners to Sycamore Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm, earlier this year. Among the stores acquired were 61 Lowe’s stores in this country. Those will eventually be converted to RONA+, except for at least one that has been closed instead, in Vaughan, Ont. RONA has now identified the conversions of just over half its Lowe’s outlets.

As the Lowe’s stores are converted, Lowe’s products will continue to be available—and gift cards and warranties will continue to be honoured—in the new-look RONA+ stores.

In addition to the Vaughan location, two RONA big box stores in Ontario were slated for closure. One is located in Belleville and the other in London. The retail and pro activities at those stores will be consolidated into other nearby RONA stores in each of those markets.

(Get the latest on RONA’s plans for its new format stores, plus its relationship with its affiliate dealers, at the 27th annual Hardlines Conference, Oct. 17 and 18 in Whistler, B.C., in partnership with the BSIA of B.C. None other than Jean-Sébastien Lamoureaux, SVP, RONA affiliates, wholesale, and public affairs, will be our keynote speaker at this event!)

At W.W. Grainger, Matt Fortin has been promoted to SVP and chief human resources officer. Fortin joined Grainger in 2006 and most recently served as the group VP for merchandising and supplier management. His tenure with the firm also includes time leading its sourcing and commercial operations in China. Prior to joining Grainger, he spent 16 years at General Motors.

DID YOU KNOW...?

… that the Hardlines Conference is just three weeks away? It takes place in Whistler, B.C., on Oct. 17 and 18. Delegates include the leading dealers on the west coast, representatives from Taiga, Johns Manville, RONA, Home Hardware, Home Depot, Castle, Sexton Group, Federated Co-op, and more. As a Hardlines Premium Member-Subscriber, you get a 20 percent discount on your conference registration. Got a question? Contact our amazing Marketing & Events Manager, Michelle Porter!

RETAILER NEWS

TIMBER MART’s charitable foundation, Timberkids, raised a record-breaking $38,000 during its annual Quebec golf tournament and silent auction on Aug. 29 at the Thetford Golf Club in Thetford Mines, Que. Over 110 guests attended the 12th annual edition of the event from across the province, including nearly 40 TIMBER MART dealers and some 25 vendors. The event is one of three held each summer, in addition to golf tournaments in Ontario and Atlantic Canada.

IKEA Canada has opened a distribution centre in Beauharnois, Que., weighing in at just over one million square feet. It replaces a 925,696-square-foot facility in Brossard, on the south shore of Montreal. The dual-purpose warehouse both ships to stores and fulfils e-commerce orders directly to customers. Automation features include a storage and retrieval system and an interface that detects the right size of box for an order.

Home Hardware last week named its Walter J. Hachborn Store of the Year. The award went to Wilson’s Home Hardware Building Centre in Barrington Passage, N.S., and was presented during Home Hardware's Homecoming buying show in Toronto. The store’s dealer-owner, Mike Wilson, represents the fourth generation of his family to run the business.

Giant Tiger Stores held the grand opening of a new store last week in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. The 20,000-square-foot location, on the west side of the city, is the discount mass merchant retailer’s second location in the Soo.

Wolseley Canada will hold the grand opening of its newest location in Toronto on Sept. 26. The store, located on Bermondsey Rd. in East York, is a 29,000-square-foot facility offering a full range of Wolseley Canada’s plumbing and HVAC products. Wolseley Canada now has more than 220 locations across the country.

Sales of existing Canadian homes were down 4.1 percent in August compared to the previous month. National sales were dragged down by declines in markets including Greater Vancouver, Montreal, and Hamilton-Burlington. The actual (not seasonally adjusted) number of transactions came in 5.3 percent above August 2022. (Canadian Real Estate Assoc.)

The annualized pace of housing starts in Canada fell by 1.0 percent in August to 252,787 units, from 255,232 units in July. The rate of urban starts declined by the same percentage, with 233,075 units recorded in August. (CMHC)

Investment in building construction declined 2.6 percent to $17.5 billion in July. Residential construction spending was down 4.1 percent to $11.5 billion. Single-family home construction investment declined 5.5 percent to $5.8 billion, the lowest level since August 2020, with Ontario accounting for most of the fall. (StatCan)

Canada’s Big Six banks have indicated their openness to the possibility of refinancing loans made to small businesses under the Canada Emergency Business Account. Under a revised timeline issued by the federal government, loans repaid by Jan. 18 of next year will be partially forgiven in the amount of either $10,000 or $20,000. Ottawa announced last week that beyond that, businesses can still qualify for partial forgiveness if they reach a refinancing deal with their banks by March 28, 2024.