Double digit growth rates

Two Canadian companies can regularly be found among the top 20 DIY retailers worldwide: Canadian Tire at eleventh place and Home Hardware at position 16 in the sales ranking. The ranking is published annually in the Statistics Home Improvement Retail by the editorial team at DIY International. The figures published here give an indication that the home improvement retailers in Canada went through the Covid-19 pandemic in a similar way to colleagues in other countries: they were more in demand than ever before.
For example, sales by the market leader Canadian Tire rose in the year 2020 by 16.5 per cent to CAD 8.640 bn (EUR 6.012 bn). The Home Hardware cooperative made around 17.0 per cent more than in the previous year and increased its volume to an estimated CAD 7.020 bn (EUR 4.885 bn).
Also similar to other parts of the world: no new stores needed to be opened for this (which always makes up a part of the sales gain in normal years). On the contrary: in the case of Home Hardware, the number of locations even dropped by around 50 (approx. 4.5 per cent) to 1 050. Of course, this also means that the retail space of the associated stores also declined, although not to the same extent (namely by 2.1 per cent) to around 840 000 m².
But Home Hardware of course remains the home improvement retail brand which is by far the most widespread in Canada. In comparison: the second largest group in terms of store numbers, the franchise chain Canadian Tire, doesn't even have half as many locations (504) but they are still sufficient to maintain its position at the top of the sales ranking.
Overall, the number of locations, which the twelve major players on the Canadian market muster, decreased somewhat in the pandemic year of 2020, namely by around 70 stores or around 2.3 per cent to 3 037 stores in the whole country.
Until 2016, Rona was still counted among the purely Canadian companies on the market. Then Lowe's took over the cooperative. The number two in the USA, the major southerly neighbour, and worldwide had already been in Canada for nine years at that time. The commitment at Rona also explains the high number of overall 240 locations - because only 61 operate under the Lowe's banner - as well as the comparably strong presence of 80 locations in Quebec.
Home Depot too, the US American and global number one, is active in Canada, however since 1994 already. Here, it stands at second place in the ranking with not all that much distance to the market leader, namely with…