Rona, Inc.

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For other meanings of Rona, see Rona (disambiguation)
Rona Inc.
Type Public
Traded as TSX: RON
Industry Home improvement
Founded Boucherville, Quebec (1939)
Headquarters Boucherville, Quebec
Number of locations over 800
Key people Robert Sawyer - Acting CEO
Robert Chevrier - Chairman
Products Retail (Home improvement)
Revenue $4.798.9 billion CAD (2010)[1]
Operating income Decrease $332.9 million CAD (2009)[1]
Net income Increase $43.2 million CAD (2010)[1]
Employees approx. 51,584 (2010)
Website www.rona.ca

Rona Inc. is a Canadian distributor and retailer hardware, home improvement and gardening products. Rona was founded in 1939.[2] Rona operates a network of over 800 stores and is the leading distributor and retailer in its market [3] with more than 28 000 employees. The Rona network represents annual retail sales of almost $6.0 billion.[4] The company holds a 19% share of its nationwide market.[3] The corporate headquarters are located in Boucherville, Quebec. Administration centres are located in Surrey, British Columbia, in Calgary, Alberta and Toronto, Ontario.

History

1939 - Rona is founded in September as "Les Marchands en Quincaillerie" (The Merchants of Hardware), an alliance of independent Montreal-area hardware retailers who sought the buying power to bypass wholesalers and deal directly with manufacturers.

1960 - July 20, 1960[5] Ro-Na name adopted, after ROlland Dansereau and NApoleon Piotte, two of the founders of Les Marchands en Quincaillerie. Ro-Na member stores begin adding the Ro-Na logo to identify themselves as members of the buying co-operative.

Rona's bird logo was introduced in 1965 and used on some products and affiliate store logos until 1998.

1982 - Rona purchased the assets of Botanix.

1984 - Rona created a purchasing alliance with Ontario-based Home Hardware Stores Ltd. through Alliance Rona Home Inc.

1988 - Rona merged with Dismat, another building materials company, to create Rona Dismat Group Inc.

1990 - Rona formed an alliance with Hardware Wholesalers, Inc. of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1997 - ITM Entreprises S.A., a France-based group, invests $30 million in the Rona Dismat Group Inc. ITM becomes a shareholder and forms a purchasing alliance with Rona.

1998 - Rona eliminates the Le Quincailleur and Dismat names and introduces Rona L'express, Rona L'express Matériaux and Rona Le Rénovateur Régional. It also changes its name from Rona Dismat Group Inc. to Rona Inc.

1999 - Rona opens a new warehouse adjacent to its headquarters, measuring 654,000 square feet (61,000 m²), doubling its warehousing capacity and achieving considerable cost savings.

2000 - Rona acquires Ontario-based Cashway Building Centres, with 66 stores. It permanently opens its online store on the rona.ca website.

2001 - Rona acquires 51 Revy Home and Garden, Revelstoke Home Centres (located in Western Canada) and Lansing (Ontario) stores, thus owning many more stores in the Greater Toronto Area. Revy was a BC-based company.

2002 - Rona closes a public offering consisting of a total offering of $150.1 million of Common Shares. Rona's Common Shares are then traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "RON".

2003 - Rona acquires Réno-Dépôt Inc. from British Kingfisher plc, including The Building Box stores. Rona also opens its third large distribution centre in Calgary, Alberta.

2004 - Rona acquires Totem Building Supplies Limited, an Alberta company. Rona Dream Home airs on Global. Rona also joins the AIR MILES Reward Program.

Rona in Quebec City

2005 - Rona Dream Home 2 airs on Global.

2006 - Rona acquires Stephens Home Centre/ Castle Inc., Sydney N.S

2006 - Rona acquires a majority (51%) stake in Matériaux Coupal Inc.

2006 - Rona acquires Curtis Lumber Building Supplies

2006 - Rona acquires St. John's, NL based Chester Dawe Limited

2007 - Rona acquires Burnaby, BC based Dick's Lumber

2007 - Rona acquires Concord, ON based Noble Trade

2010 - Rona acquires Pierceys, based in Nova Scotia and, through Noble Trade, Plomberie Payette & Perreault based at Boucherville, QC as well as Don Park Canada and TruServ

April 2012 - Rona announces they are closing 10 box stores, and replacing them with smaller specialty stores at new locations.

July 26, 2012 - Rona rejects an unsolicited takeover by American Lowe's.[6] Many groups including the government itself, emerged to opposed against such a transaction to occur.

September 2012 - Lowe's drops buyout plan.[7]

Rona "big box" stores

In the 1990s, under competitive pressure from The Home Depot and other big box retailers, Rona established the Rona Home & Garden stores.

Rona Home & Garden stores are large, ranging from 85,000 to 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2), with a warehouse-style similar to The Home Depot and Lowe's. Faced with chronic under-performance in some markets outside of Quebec, Rona closed six big boxes in 2012, five in Ontario and one in British Columbia.[8]

While The Home Depot and Lowe's stores are all company owned, Rona Home & Garden stores are a combination of corporately owned and franchised, despite the massive investment required to build such a store. As big box home improvement stores entered the market, Rona countered by bringing together successful owners of small Rona affiliate stores in Quebec to invest in one or more big box format stores. Many Rona Home & Garden locations in that province thus have local ownership, a tradition of the family hardware store, and a great deal of flexibility to adapt to the market at store level. Most of Rona's big-box format stores in the rest of Canada are entirely corporate-owned.

Companies operating under the Rona banner

Réno Dépôt in Sainte-Foy, Quebec
Cashway in Milton, Ontario
  • Curtis Lumber
  • Rona Building Centre
  • Rona Cash & Carry
  • Rona Hardware
  • Rona Home & Garden
  • Rona Home Centre
  • Rona L'entrepôt
  • Rona L'express
  • Rona matériaux
  • Rona Le Quincailler
  • Rona Rénovateur
  • Rona Rénovateur régional
  • Réno-Dépôt
  • The Building Box
  • Dicks Lumber
  • Hard Wood
  • BricoMax

Rona also owns discount retail banner Stedmans V&S and the TRU banner for indendendent hardware and building supply dealers through their ownership of TruServ Canada Incorporated.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "RONA 2009 Annual report". Retrieved 2010-05-17. 
  2. ↑ "A brief history of RONA". Rona.ca. Retrieved 2010-05-17. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ "Rona from 1939 to Today" ISBN 978-2-922068-17-7
  6. ↑ "Rona rejects bid from U.S. rival Lowe's". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2012-07-31. 
  7. ↑ "Lowe's withdraws buyout bid for Canada's Rona". News & Record. Associated Press. 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2012-09-17. 
  8. ↑ http://www.hardlines.ca newsletter for the retail home improvement industry ["RONA announces latest round of closures"]

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