February 15, 2016 Volume xxii, #7

“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”
— Muhammad Ali (American heavyweight boxer, named Sportsman of the Century, 1942- )

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Exclusive interview: Ace, independents all part of Lowe’s mix

• New eRetailer Summit will connect online buyers and vendors

• RONA to open three new Réno-Dépôts in Quebec

• Smart home products get awards at Consumer Electronics Show

• PLUS: Home Depot hires for spring, Lowe’s in Milton, Richelieu, Teamsters, housing starts, Acadian Timber —and more!

Exclusive interview: Ace, independents all part of Lowe’s mix

TORONTO — What will Lowe’s Canada do with the independent dealers in RONA’s affiliate network of stores after its acquisition of RONA is complete? The answer, says Lowe’s Canada President Sylvain Prud’homme, is simple: keep them all.

Lowe’s plans to maintain the RONA network, including the existing banners and store formats, without disruption. “We have no plans to remove these banners,” he says. “It’s part of our strategy to operate multiple store formats.”

That concept of stores beyond the rigid big box format that has been the secret to Lowe’s growth for decades is one Lowe’s has been working on for a few years. In fact, before it made its first bid for RONA in 2012, then-vice president of international development Doug Robinson told HARDLINES that it was interested in opening smaller stores. And when the company entered Australia soon after its foray into Canada, it did so through a joint venture with Aussie retail giant Woolworths.

It then acquired Danks, a wholesaler serving both corporate stores and independents—much like RONA itself.

While the Australian venture has turned into a money loser, due to the failure of its big box Masters stores to gain acceptance down under, the wholesale business, which sells to 1,500 independents, has been doing well. Prud’homme himself served on the board of directors for the Aussie operation, but he doesn’t have to look that far to find value in multiple banners and ownership models. As a former VP at grocery giant Sobeys, he dealt with “10 or 11 banners. It’s very interesting—and very effective,” he adds. “Independent dealers are very important to the model we have in mind. They can really connect with their communities.”

New eRetailer Summit will connect online buyers and vendors

TRUMBULL, Conn. — Retailers and suppliers alike are looking for ways to maximize their sales in the burgeoning world of online retailing. That’s why a symposium strictly for the retail home improvement industry has been created.

The eRetailer Summit is a top-level conference for industry-leading retailers doing business online. The event will provide a forum for them to collaborate with progressive vendors and distributors to develop new partnerships and new strategies for success. The eRetailer Summit will be held at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, October 26 to 28, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Over a day and a half, a small, select group of eRetail executives and buyers will develop their business ambitions and strategies with a group of suppliers. The event will combine one-on-one meetings; understandings, and learnings directly from the eRetailers; leading keynote speakers; seminars for eRetailers clarifying confusing topics; and true networking in an intimate setting. 

“The eRetailer Summit will provide a great opportunity for internet retailers and the hardware/home improvement manufacturers to gain beneficial knowledge of the dynamic workings of e-commerce,” said Michael Hargrave, divisional merchandise manager for online tools at Sears.com and Kmart.com.

“In this industry, eRetailers are moving together to make home improvement online a more powerful presence,” added Sonya Ruff Jarvis, manager, Jarvis Consultants, who is mounting the event in partnership with Hardlines Inc. “By bringing together a focused group of high-calibre retailers interested in pursuing and increasing their online product sell, we’re creating an environment for these retail leaders to share their goals for increasing online sales with select supplier partners.”

For more information about the Home Improvement eRetailer Summit, contact Sonya Ruff Jarvis: 347-886-0275; or Beverly Allen at Hardlines: 647-880-4589.

RONA to open three new Réno-Dépôts in Quebec

BOUCHERVILLE, Que. ― RONA inc. is continuing its store expansion strategy, with a number of new and expanded outlets in multiple formats being opened in coming months. Three of those openings will be new Réno-Dépôts in Quebec—in Boucherville, Trois-Rivières, and Valleyfield, along with two new traditional RONA “proximity” stores, in Saint-Félix-de-Valois, Que., and Moose Jaw, Sask. Two more proximity stores, in Saskatoon and in Châteauguay, Que., are being expanded and converted into big boxes, under the RONA Home and Garden and RONA L’entrepôt banners respectively.

Despite the announced takeover of RONA by Lowe’s, business is continuing as usual. The deal isn’t expected to close until after March 31, when RONA will hold a special meeting to let shareholders vote on the Lowe’s offer. The acquisition must also be cleared by the Canadian Competition Board, a process which could prolong the closing several weeks more.

“Last year, we were very active with our plans to open new stores and we are pleased to begin 2016 with all these projects under way. The markets for the stores were carefully selected to increase our reach and to provide better service to surrounding-area communities,’’ says Luc Rodier, RONA’s executive vice-president, retail.

With the addition of the three new stores, the number of Réno-Dépôt locations will increase to 22. However, these latest ones will be smaller than the big box footprint of the original Réno-Dépôt concept. The 70,000-square-foot Boucherville store will be located in a former Maxi store on Nobel Street and will open its doors in July. The two other Réno-Dépôt stores will each occupy 50,000 square feet. The Trois-Rivières outlet will be in a former Target location at Les Rivières shopping centre and is scheduled to open in June. Construction of the new Réno-Dépôt store in Valleyfield on Monseigneur-Langlois Boulevard will begin this year with a planned opening in early 2017.

“The new Réno-Dépôt store concept that occupies 50,000 square feet allows us to optimize our retail space and gives us access to a greater number of markets across the country, compared to the traditional 80,000-square-foot space reserved for big-box stores,” adds Luc Rodier.

The new proximity stores will be smaller still. In Saint-Félix-de-Valois, in the Lanaudière region, construction of a new 25,000-square-foot store will begin this year, with a scheduled opening in early 2017. In Moose Jaw, the new RONA store will occupy 35,000 square feet of space in a former Sobeys location. That one is expected to open in March.

Smart home products get awards at Consumer Electronics Show

LAS VEGAS ― The Consumer Electronics Show has become the place to see innovative and breakthrough technologies, and this year, home improvement products for the smart home got a lot of attention. At the latest edition of CES, manufacturers and developers from around the world wowed attendees with award-winning innovations in appliances, home security, lighting, and more.

Home safety and security was a theme with several manufacturers. The EYE smoke detector from the Altyor Group uses LED technology instead of an optical chamber to eliminate false alarms and reduce response times over traditional smoke detectors. Halo Smart Labs also won an award for its Halo and Halo+, which combines a smoke and CO alarm with weather alerts for external threats such as tornadoes and hurricanes.

Schlage won an award for its Sense lock system. It works with Apple HomeKit technology for key-free access, and users can control the lock with their voice using Siri. Engie Group introduced the Homnistat, a smart thermostat with a gas meter reading. Users can set their preferred temperature and maximum budget, and the thermostat will manage energy consumption accordingly.

Smart appliances were also a highlight of the smart home category. Whirlpool presented a couple of smart home appliances that won awards for their innovation. The Smart Dishwasher is programmable and can be stopped, started, and monitored remotely with a device. It will even automatically order more detergent by using Amazon’s Dash program.

DID YOU KNOW…?

RETAILER NEWS

TORONTO — The Home Depot is hiring nearly 6,000 associates across the country to support the spring season. The company is seeking full-, part-time, and seasonal staff to ensure all 182 stores are ready for the seasonal rush. “There’s no better time than spring to join the team,” said Home Depot Canada president Jeff Kinnaird, noting that he began his own career with the company in 1996 working in the lumber aisle.

MILTON, Ont. — Lowe’s has applied to the town of Milton, 40 kilometres west of Toronto, for a zoning bylaw amendment that would allow it to install a new store in Milton Mall, the Milton Canadian Champion reports. At a public meeting recently, the town council discussed the retailer’s proposal to modify the former Target store to accommodate a garden centre along the mall’s facade. The company is also requesting the elimination of a handful of parking spaces to create room for a staging area and cart storage.

MONTREAL — Teamsters Canada Local 1999 has signalled its concern about Lowe’s planned acquisition of RONA. The union had previously opposed Lowe’s 2012 bid to buy the Quebec retail giant out of fears for the survival of its members’ jobs.  “Managers at Lowe’s need to know that we’ll be very vigilant regarding the more than 2,000 Teamster jobs at Rona,” said the President of Local Union 1999, Serge Bérubé. “A meeting between the Union and the new management team took place this morning and other meetings are planned in the course of the day.” At the same time, the local welcomed the news that Lowe’s will leave RONA’s Boucherville, Que.-based operations intact.

SUPPLIER NEWS
MONTREAL — Richelieu Hardware announced that it has obtained approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange for the three-for-one split of its outstanding common shares. The share split was initiated by the company’s board of directors in an effort to improve the liquidity of Richelieu’s shares and keep common shares accessible to individual shareholders. The split will not dilute shareholders’ equity and will not have unfavourable tax consequences for shareholders under Canadian tax laws.

VANCOUVER — Acadian Timber Corp. reported that net sales at year end rose 9% compared to 2014, totalling $84.4 million on consolidated sales volume of 1,290 thousand cubic metres. The increase in net sales reflects a 9% improvement in the average selling price of all log products and a 31% increase in biomass sales. For Q4, the company drew net sales of $21.7 million, $0.8 million less than in the same period last year. The 3% decrease is attributable to a 14% decrease in sales volume mostly offset by a 9% higher weighted average log selling price.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS
The standalone monthly rate of housing starts was 165,861 units seasonally adjusted in January, down from 172,533 units in December. The seasonally adjusted rate of urban starts decreased by 3% in January to 153,701 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 5.3% to 95,406 units and single-detached urban starts increased by 1% to 58,295 units. In January, starts decreased in Quebec, the Prairies, and British Columbia, but increased in Ontario and Atlantic Canada. (CMHC)

The value of building permits rose 11.3% to $6.9 billion in December, following a 19.9% decline the previous month. Higher construction intentions for multi-family dwellings in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta accounted for the advance. Construction intentions in the residential sector increased 16.3% to $4.7 billion in December, with higher construction intentions for multi-family dwellings leading the advance. (StatCan)

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Gary Gill has left Graham & Brown and started at Apex Tool Group as national account manager on the Canadian Tire business. Apex supplies not only private-label sockets and ratchets under the Mastercraft and Maximum names to Canadian Tire, but also branded hand tools including Lufkin, Weller, and Wiss.  (Gary.gill@apextoolgroup.com)

OUT & ABOUT
Our Quebec Field Editor Geoffrey McLarney will be at the TIM-BR MART Show in Montreal this Friday. Got a scoop? Let him know!

CLASSIFIED ADS