October 1, 2018 Volume xxiv, #36
"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
―George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright and essayist, 1856-1950)
IN THIS ISSUE:
- TIMBER MART plans new LBM distribution centre for Ontario
- Federated Co-op focuses on homegrown hardware products
- Changes at Home Hardware’s fall market reflect broader corporate shift
- PLUS: Amazon may expand its bricks and mortar, Home Hardware names rentals software provider, former RONA CEO talks about Lowe’s takeover, Home Depot starts same-day deliveries, Habitat for Humanity adds Toronto-area ReStore, Ceolin adds vendor partner, U.S. house sales, executive shuffle at Spectrum Brands, U.S. new-house sales and more!
TIMBER MART plans new LBM distribution centre for Ontario
VAUGHAN, Ont. — TIMBER MART is expanding its lumber and building materials distribution network into Ontario with the addition of a five-acre property in Mount Forest. The location was chosen for its proximity to the buying group’s member dealers throughout Southern, Central and Northern Ontario. The new facility will be located within a six-hour radius of many of those stores.
The new DC will offer a wide selection of LBM products and provide weekly deliveries, cross-docking/furtherance service and access for dealers picking up orders. It’s slated to open in January 2019.
“Our new distribution centre in Ontario will offer our members all of the conveniences that our existing facilities provide and that our members in B.C., Quebec and New Brunswick currently enjoy,” says Bernie Owens, president of TIMBER MART.
TIMBER MART has two other DCs. One is in St-Nicolas, Que. When TIMBER MART reorganized its hardware distribution business, Chalifour Canada, in late 2014, it shuttered a hardware distribution centre in Victoriaville, Que. But the LBM facility in St-Nicolas was left untouched, maintaining TIMBER MART’s commitment to the Quebec market. Chalifour Canada was eventually sold to U.S. hardware wholesaler Orgill.
In April 2017, the buying group opened a 27,000-square-foot LBM distribution centre in Langley, B.C. That facility shares space with Orgill, which houses its hardlines products serving dealer customers in parts of the Western market.
TIMBER MART expects to hire about 25 staff for the facility in the Mount Forest area when fully operational.
Federated Co-op focuses on homegrown hardware products
SASKATOON — Federated Co-op is working closely with domestic producers in a program called “Made by Us.” It’s FCL’s latest marketing campaign to spotlight its private-label product lines created together with small Canadian manufacturers.
This is the second year for the campaign, which proved successful in 2017 as a way to support Canadian businesses and give a major sales lift to the products featured in the campaign.
Last year, the featured product categories were fuel and food. This year, hardlines are being promoted for the first time. The latest TV and social media campaign features FCL’s own Imagine line of paint brushes and rollers. It tells the story of how Co-op makes these applicators together with Bennett Tools in Concord, Ont., which claims to be the only remaining Canadian manufacturer of paint tools.
The family business, run by Henry Silberman and his sons, share FCL’s values of product sustainability, as well as initiatives such as profit sharing and charitable giving. The Silberman family brought production of the company’s paint brushes back to Canada from Asia in 2010.
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Lowe's Canada showcases Ace growth at RONA Ace buying show
MONTREAL — RONA Ace Buying Show at the Palais des congrès de Montréal in September showcased the integration of the Ace banner with the rest of the Lowe’s Canada family. Bill Morrison, divisional VP for Ace Canada, said that the Ace team, now ensconced at Lowe’s Canada’s Mississauga offices, is “continuing to find ways to leverage the knowledge” of the Boucherville and Mississauga leadership. “We’ve had an incredible year and that’s only possible with Lowe’s Canada’s support.”
Ace and RONA dealer services, including the online Ace Learning Labs adopted from Ace in the U.S., were based in a single hub at one end of the exhibition hall. The Learning Labs feature online tutorials that allow staff to pick up and retain essential knowledge in a short time. Store management can assign specific lessons and track completion.
The more than 1,000 tutorials cover topics from product knowledge to sales skills, to make staff more confident and improve customer experience. “A lot of the time you see new staff run away when a customer comes into the store and wants, say, to get a key cut,” explains Guy Lichter, Ace Canada’s director of operations. The online training lets them lock down those skills. Stores also benefit from a telephone helpline.
Offers from the Craftsman line and appliance selections were geared to allow stores of any size to customize their product mix. Appliances are offered on a modular basis, so that stores can provide a basic selection of the most popular items in as little as 400 square feet. Stores prepared to devote more space to appliances can then add as many modules as they can accommodate.
Regardless of the in-store selection, all Ace stores are linked to the banner’s online channel with its full range of products. Ace’s e-retail system is “happening very fast,” says Morrison, a boon to Ace’s largely rural base.
Likewise, products in the Craftsman display featured colour-coded dots to help dealers tailor their selection to their store without having to reinvent the wheel. One colour marked the best-selling items to allow smaller stores to pick out their must-haves. Another highlighted popular buys for stores with space for a mid-sized range. Products with no dot are specialty items for stores looking to become a “destination,” according to Morrison.
Morrison is confident about the role Ace has to play among Lowe’s Canada’s banners, using the company’s services and resources to support local independent dealers in their own unique contexts. “We don’t just provide the tools, but the training and support from end to end.”
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Home Depot goes after the home décor market
SPECIAL REPORT — Home Depot is moving to position itself as the go-to destination for home décor products, in a shot across the bow of U.S. giants like J.C. Penney and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Declaring that it will become a “favourite décor destination,” the move is an indicator that Home Depot is planning to take advantage of the profile that e-retailer The Company Store, which it acquired at the end of last year, has built up in the upmarket housewares and design business.
At the time of the acquisition, a Credit Suisse analyst found that décor categories alone constituted just 3% of Home Depot’s sales, even though ancillary categories make up about one-quarter. Realtor.com placed home décor on a list of categories for which customers can find better deals elsewhere than home improvement big boxes. Yet an Apex Market Report earlier this summer placed Home Depot among the top players for wall décor.
In a recent promotion, Home Depot features offerings of furniture, linens, bath accessories and table and wall decorations. No fewer than 66 bath towels are available, some bearing the Company Store brand. Apart from area rugs, the retailer is sticking to offering “soft” items online for the time being, but execs will no doubt be watching sales closely. If the category is a success through the online channel, we could be seeing soft home offerings alongside Home Depot’s in-store hardlines.
This isn’t Home Depot’s first foray into home décor. In the ’90s, the company piloted a spin-off called Expo, a store for upmarket home improvement lines along with décor offerings such as textiles and dining ware. The Company Store takeover marks the first time Home Depot has seriously revisited the “soft” categories since it closed its Expo stores around the end of the last decade. With J.C. Penney, Bed Bath & Beyond and especially Sears all facing their own challenges, the timing may just be right.
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DID YOU KNOW...?
... that our Hardlines Market Share Report has just been released? This incredible PowerPoint report includes sales and market shares by province and region of every hardware and home improvement banner in Canada, including year-over-year comparisons. Order the Hardlines Retail Report and Market Share Report together to have all the information you need to plan for 2019. Get 15% off when you order both reports!
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RETAILER NEWS
BOUCHERVILLE, Que. — Groupe BMR will commence the renovation of its Potvin & Bouchard store in La Baie, Que., starting immediately and slated for completion next May. The project aims to create a more modern store to respond to customers’ needs. The planned realignment of the store’s format, which has been entrusted to Les Constructions Technipro of Saguenay, includes upgrading the storefront in line with previously renovated Potvin & Bouchard stores in Alma and Chicoutimi.
SEATTLE — Amazon may be expanding Amazon Go, the company’s bricks-and-mortar convenience store concept, to as many as 3,000 new locations in the U.S. by 2021, according to Bloomberg. The company opened its first Amazon Go location in Seattle in 2016, and since then has opened two additional sites in Seattle and one in Chicago. Shoppers use a smartphone app to enter the store and can then shop and later exit the store without stopping at a cash register.
ATLANTA — The Home Depot has rolled out express same-day and next-day local delivery for 20,000 of its most popular items to 35 major metro markets across the U.S. The new service is part of the company’s five-year expansion of its delivery offerings for DIY and pro customers. The ongoing investment calls for additional direct fulfillment centres and 100 new distribution sites to further extend delivery speed and reach.
MONTREAL — RONA made overtures to purchase Lowe’s Canadian stores almost four years before its own acquisition by Lowe’s, former CEO Robert Dutton recounts in a new memoir. Dutton writes that he first floated the offer at a meeting with a Lowe’s executive in the summer of 2011. “We could buy their Canadian stores before they’re dumping huge sums of money into a development that is slower, more expensive and more difficult than they expected,” he writes. According to Dutton, Lowe’s attitude to the offer cooled by the time of a second meeting a couple of weeks later, where the U.S. firm was keen to make its own offer for RONA’s big box stores.
TORONTO — Habitat for Humanity GTA has opened its 12th ReStore location, this one in the east end of Markham, just north of Toronto. The store will celebrate its grand opening on October 17.
SUPPLIER NEWS
TORONTO ― Ceolin & Associates Inc. has added a new vendor partner. The rep agency founded by Stephen Ceolin will now represent The Savogran Company, a Boston-based company focused on retail and industrial cleaning and paint preparation products.
CALGARY — Renoworks Software has entered into a strategic partnership with geospatial data firm Geomni, allowing the companies to act as mutual value-added resellers of their respective products. Initial deployment will be focused on manufacturer and materials supplier markets. The goal of the partnership is to speed up the process from home design to delivery.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
U.S. sales of new single-family houses in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 629,000. This is 3.5% above the July rate of 608,000 and is 12.7% above the August 2017 estimate of 558,000.—U.S. Census Bureau
NOTED
The 2018 Hardlines Retail Report is now available for marketers and planners. This incredible PowerPoint report features 200 slides, with in-depth analysis of the country’s top hardware and home improvement players and breakdowns of the Top 20 retail groups. And this year, it has more trends analysis and more forecasts than ever. But there’s more! The Hardlines Market Share Report is just days away from release. We have special bundled pricing if you buy both reports. Click here for details and to order both reports now!
OVERHEARD
“We look forward to opening the new facility in January of 2019 and providing our dealers with a great source of LBM products and competitive advantage in their local markets.”
—Bernie Owens, president of TIMBER MART, on the buying group’s announced addition of a distribution centre in Ontario.
NOTED
Space will be limited for this year’s Hardlines Conference. We’re holding it at the Queen’s Landing in historic Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., which is a smaller venue than we’re accustomed to. In fact, we’re already more than 50% sold out! So we encourage you to book now. Click here and secure your seat today!
Dy-Mon Sales has added to its sales team, rounding out the agency’s representation in Western Canada, reporting to Dy-Mon’s partners, Harvey Dyck and Larry T. Bryant. Alan Graham has joined and is based in Vancouver. He has spent the last 28 years in the retail hardware and building supply market, first as a sales representative, moving on to regional responsibilities and as a retail sales manager for RCR in Canada. He was most recently a sales manager at Tree Island Steel. (alang.dy-mon@outlook.com).
Also at Dy-Mon Sales, Stephen A. van Kampen joins and is based in Calgary. A 15-year veteran of the industry, he started out as a buyer, then moved into regional sales responsibilities, and was most recently a national sales director for Lanart Rug Inc. (stephenv.dy-mon@outlook.com)
Stéphane Gaumond has resigned as general manager for Canada at Continental Building Products. Gaumond has been with the company, which was formerly Lafarge North America’s gypsum division, for 11 years. Previously he was sales director at Metrie.
Yoga wear maker Lululemon has named former Sears Canada CEO Calvin McDonald as its CEO. McDonald had been president and CEO of cosmetics giant Sephora for the past five years.