Tour de force in Canada

Rona the leading Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, home renovation and gardening products, has just launched a new store concept: the “upgraded traditional hardware store.” The new stores will carry the Rona Le Rénovateur banner in Quebec and Rona Home Centre in Ontario and Western Canada. They combine the wide product range typically found in a big-box store with the higher level of service small stores are known for.
Rona’s upgraded traditional hardware store is designed to meet the needs of all consumers, male and female, do-it-yourselfers and contractors, the company sais. Dedicated environments within the store are designed to suit different consumer styles, as well as needs. Customers interested in interior decoration or renovation will find the special “boutique” shopping sections featuring paint, moldings, lighting, decorative items and related types of products. Other sections (lumber, tools and ironwork, for example) carry products and services to meet the demands of contractors and the building trades.
--nextpage--Describing the new store formula, Rona president and Chief Executive Officer Robert Dutton says, “We intend to use this new concept to upgrade Rona’s network of traditional stores right across Canada. Rona is the only company in Canada that’s capable of bringing off a tour de force like this, upgrading its small stores based on a big-box model.”
Opened a few months ago at a cost of $ nine million (€ five million), the new 3.900 m² Rona Le Rénovateur in Boucherville is the first upgraded traditional hardware store, with two more outlets being built or scheduled for construction in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Fort McMurray, Alberta. Retail space in the new stores will average 3.300 m², with indoor or outdoor lumberyards varying in size from 3.700 m² to 7.400 m². The upgraded traditional hardware store model is already attracting strong interest among many Rona-affiliated dealers looking to bring the new concept into their own communities in the near or not-too-distant future.
“We firmly believe in this concept,” Dutton continues. “Within the next year, Rona plans to invest about $ 30 million (€ 18 million) in building new retail locations. Thanks to our new upgraded traditional hardware stores, consumers in small communities, the same consumers who’ve made up our main customer base all along, will find a Rona store nearby that meets the latest standards in the hardware and renovation market.”
All in all, the company will invest more than $ 125 million (€ 76 million) over the next few months in the construction or renovation of selected points of sale in its network. In addition to implementing the new upgraded traditional hardware store concept, the company will build five Rona Home and Garden big-box stores. As well, two Rona Building Centres, specialty stores catering to building trades and contractors, will be constructed.