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3 weeks ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. In our last issue before we took a short break for the summer, 25 years ago, we reported in our May 29, 2000, issue on Revy Home Centres’ big box expansion in Toronto. “Revy has its hands full here in Toronto,” Michael McLarney quoted Carl Grittner, then-president of Revy, as saying.
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3 weeks ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
Home Hardware Stores Limited has announced its sponsorship of the 2025 Ontario RAM Rodeo Tour, which will travel to 16 locations between May and October. “Partnering with the Ontario RAM Rodeo Tour is a natural fit for Home Hardware,” said Jennifer Bryl, the retailer’s director of brand and loyalty.
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3 weeks ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
Hardlines is looking to host an exclusive complimentary 60-75 person HR workshop at the 2025 Hardlines Conference at Fairmont Banff Springs, Oct. 21 and 22. The workshop will be hosted by Nicole Galucci, founder of In Good Company. Nicole is a strategic advisor and coach helping business leaders design growth-focused, values-driven organizations through actionable frameworks. It will be free to conference delegates. Please let us know your interest by filling out the very quick survey here.
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1 month ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
Manugypse, a TIMBER MART member with three locations in the province of Quebec, has been named one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies. The program awards excellence in private Canadian-owned companies with revenues of $50 million or greater. “We are honoured to receive this recognition for our team’s hard work, passion and dedication towards our customers’ satisfaction and innovation in interior systems,” says Steve Rancourt, CEO of Manugypse.
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1 month ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
The formerly named Building Products of Canada will now be known as BP Canada (see new logo, pictured), as the Montreal-based company celebrates its 120th anniversary. The company has passed through various owners in its existence—and in the 1960s and 1970s was owned by oil company Esso. In September 2023 it was acquired by Saint-Gobain, the international conglomerate that designs, manufactures, and distributes building materials.
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1 month ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
Throwback Thursday is a regular feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, on May 23, 2000, we reported on Réno-Dépôt opening its 11th big box in Quebec. The banner would be purchased by RONA three years later. And it would reach 20 stores in the province at its high-water mark. RONA, by then controlled by Sycamore Partners in New York City, would start to remove the branding on its Réno-Dépôt stores in favour of RONA+ in late 2023.
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1 month ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
The siding market has got a powerful new competitor from Canadian-owned Marwood Ltd., of Tracyville, N.B.The company has announced the launch of Cape Cod Engineered Custom Siding (ECS), effective June 16 in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. It says the line is Eastern Canada’s “first fully-serviced, custom-colour siding built on LP SmartSide.” Gillfor will distribute ECS alongside Cape Cod Siding in Ontario.
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1 month ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
Hudson’s Bay Co., closing its doors, has agreed to sell its intellectual property, including its famous stripes and logos, to Canadian Tire Corp. for $30 million. “Canadian Tire and the Hudson’s Bay Co. are among the nation’s longest-standing companies, with a combined Canadian heritage measured in centuries,” Canadian Tire CEO Greg Hicks said in a news release yesterday.
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1 month ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. Millwork Home Centre was once a thriving family business owned by the Lupton family, east of Toronto. It celebrated its 50th anniversary, we reported 25 years ago, in the pages of the May 15, 2000, Hardlines Weekly Report. ”Millwork prepares to do battle with the big boxes,” ran our headline, citing Millwork’s estimated sales of $40 million and two stores in Oshawa and Ajax, Ont.
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1 month ago | 
hardlines.ca | Steve Payne
The federal government will review, under the Investment Canada Act, the purchase of Calgary-based Parkland Corporation by U.S. gasoline giant Sunoco, announced last week. Under the act, Ottawa can disallow a foreign takeover if it finds there is likely to be damage to the national interest. Sunoco wants to buy Parkland, a Canadian firm, for US$9.1 billion. Parkland has 4,000 retail locations in 26 countries, and operates gas stations under the Chevron, Esso, and Fas Gas Plus brands.
