Our goal is that each and every RONA store, from the largest big-box to the smallest hardware store, be number one in its local market.
We trust we have a winning formula in our hands, and we’re more than happy to share it with dealer-owners from across the nation.
Contact your local director of development today.
Ever since a small group of retailers started to pool their purchases in 1939, RONA has been intently focused on the needs of the independent dealer. After seven decades at their service, that commitment is as strong as ever today.
Throughout North America, people are increasingly asking: what if independent stores didn’t survive? We would all miss the diversity and variety that only family owned retailers seem to be able to create. Megachains may have their place, but if that’s all there is, we will have sterile, boring communities.
We believe that different customers want different types of home improvement stores. We offer different store formats, including a RONA hardware store, a RONA home centre, a RONA building centre and a RONA big box (and some independently owned ones).
We are the only major home improvement retailer in North America with such a multi-format development strategy, blending family owned entrepreneurialism with the marketing muscle of a well-known national brand. We are determined to leave a legacy of service, choice, and respect of the family business.
The decision to choose a single buying alliance with A.R.E.N.A., whose international members have sales exceeding $30 billion, provides additional economies of scale for RONA dealers.
Whether you are a rural building centre focusing on building materials or a small urban hardware store, if you fly a RONA banner, you are part of RONA’s six-distribution-centres nationwide network.
They each have different purposes and serve distinct markets. Independent store owners and corporate store managers with RONA receive a better and more efficient distribution than what their local competitors do.
Three out of four retailers in our industry lack a workable succession plan to hand over their business or sell it when they retire. Without such a plan, either they or their descendants may end up making bad decisions—both for the business and the family members who will inherit the consequences. Actually, RONA can help the independent dealer-owner so that the succession plan is adapted to their own particular circumstances.
Compelling, imaginative, and original marketing—no retailer can succeed without it. That’s why RONA puts so much energy into creating dynamic, tightly focused promotional programs, all designed to establish RONA as the name in Canadian renovation and home improvement products.
Reaching close to seven million Canadian homes, RONA’s national flyers strengthen brand equity and create a strong presence in the minds of consumers. A single flyer is leading to all the RONA banners. This promotional tool gives an independently owned RONA store of a few thousand square feet the same marketing punch as the biggest big box of over 100,000 square feet.
By July 2012, www.rona.ca was receiving more than 2 million visits per month. With information on everything from building a deck to caring for a stone-paved driveway, www.rona.ca directs consumers into RONA stores through a store-locator button that pops up detailed maps for each location. Customers arrive ready to buy since they often have answered many of their questions online.
RONA’s private label line boosts the brand equity leveraging among consumers. Also, RONA only sources private label products that combine great quality and great price.
RONA offers to its clients the AIR MILES® program across Canada with a significant marketing campaign. This loyalty program is the most populair of its kind in Canada.
All RONA dealers have exclusive access to the eRONA Web-based system to get all the information they need to develop their business: the Merchandiser, a sku’s catalog, an online order system, marketing activities, merchandising instructions, planograms, flyers, and much more.
As you ponder your future in the face of massive industry changes, there are some questions you can ask yourself:
Ray Cyr
Business Development Manager, BC
Tel.: 250-746-4456
ray.cyr@rona.ca
Wade Schultz
Business Development Manager, Alberta
Tel.: 403-585-1949
wade.schultz@rona.ca
John Longo
Director, Development, Ontario and Atlantic
Tel.: 514-894-1856
john.longo@rona.ca
Styve Legault
Director, Development, Quebec
Tel.: 514-206-1778
styve.legault@rona.ca
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