Lowe’s Canada celebrates the opening of the first new model Lowe’s store in the Greater Ottawa Area
Boucherville, QC, 2018-Jan-08 — /EPR Retail News/ — Lowe’s Canada opened today its fifth store under the new model of Lowe’s stores in Canada which offers an enhanced shopping experience. The store, located at 1880 Innes Road in Gloucester, was converted from the former RONA Home and Garden. It was designed by taking the best of Lowe’s and RONA’s offering to create the new model of Lowe’s stores. This is the first new model Lowe’s store to open in the greater Ottawa area.
“We are thrilled to kick off the New Year with the grand opening of this new model Lowe’s store in Gloucester, which combines the best of what RONA and Lowe’s have to offer across the country,” says Guy Beaumier, Interim Executive President, Lowe’s Canada Big Box Retail. “In 2018, we will continue Lowe’s Big Box evolution to bring our enhanced shopping experience, which includes brand new features to better serve our commercial clientele, to even more Canadian customers.”
The store underwent an extensive 16-week physical transformation from the former RONA which involved construction, departmental sequencing of new racking and re-merchandising, branding and IT conversion, as well as a significant investment in our people with exhaustive training focused on new product knowledge and customer service.
New Retail Experience
The new Gloucester Lowe’s will offer an enhanced retail experience, including:
- A wider assortment of seasonal products such as patio, Halloween and items for the Holiday season in line with the latest fashion trends.
- The introduction of entirely new product categories such as appliances, Lowe’s private labels, and top brands such as John Deere, Husqvarna, and Cub Cadet.
- A broader selection of fashion plumbing products such as tubs, showers, toilets, vanities, sinks and faucets with the introduction of high-profile brands such as Kohler and Grohe.
- Floor displays featuring the latest fashions in wood flooring and tiles with larger displays at eye level allowing customers to better visualize their projects and better experience the texture of flooring products.
- Access to more than 100,000 products on www.lowes.ca
Enhanced Contractor Experience
The new Gloucester location offers an enhanced shopping experience for pros and commercial customers, including:
- The introduction of the Contractor Rewards Program (i.e. loyalty and pricing program)
- Access to a drive-through lumber yard where contractors can load their vehicles directly to save time, as well as have access to a broader lumber assortment.
- The Gloucester store is the fifth Lowe’s store in Canada to introduce charge accounts that will allow commercial customers to shop at any RONA corporate store and new model Lowe’s store in Canada and receive a single monthly invoice.
- Introduction of corporately owned and operated delivery trucks to provide a more personalized level of service for deliveries to contractors.
- Enhanced assortment in key contractor categories including lumber, building materials, millwork, tools, hardware, etc.
The new Gloucester Lowe’s marks the company’s 61st store in Canada under the Lowe’s banner and fourth Lowe’s location in the Greater Ottawa market. The store represents a local investment in excess of $5.16 million and created 35 new jobs – in total the store has 150 permanent positions and approximately 35 seasonal roles.
The store offers about 40,000 products in-stock to meet customers’ home improvement needs, and features retail offering space totaling more than 169,000 square feet, including 74,965 square feet of retail sales space, an adjacent garden centre of 30,706 square feet, a covered lumberyard of 25,698 square feet, and an additional outdoor drive-through lumberyard of 37,940 square feet.
Today, local dignitaries and Lowe’s executives joined employees from the store to celebrate the grand opening through an official board cutting ceremony and community grant presentation. Lowe’s donated $5,000 to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario to fund the purchase of oxygen blenders for the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Grand Opening Events
Grand opening activities for the new store, where customers can enjoy free sessions, giveaways and contests, will continue until Monday. These include:
- Children’s Workshop for families on Saturday, January 6 at 10 a.m.
- Live in-store radio remote with Hot 89.9 on Saturday, January 6, with a draw for a $250 Lowe’s gift card and a small appliance.
- Giveaways including: Char-Broil spatula (first 75 customers, Thursday only); Sylvania A19 LED 60-watt light bulb (first 1,000 customers, Friday only); $25 Lowe’s gift card (first 200 customers, Saturday only) and a DeWalt 4-pce. spade bit set (first 200 customers, Sunday only).
- Customers can also enter to win 1 of 4 grand prizes.
- Contractor exclusive VIP event on Monday, January 8 from 12 to 2 p.m. There will be a draw to win 1 of 3 $250 Lowe’s gift cards and contractors can fill out a ballot to win 1 of 4 tool prizes. To register, contractors can call the store at 613.741.6331 and ask to speak with the Contractor Specialist to request an invite.
About Lowe’s Canada
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE® 50 home improvement company serving more than 17 million customers a week in the United States, Canada and Mexico. With fiscal year 2016 sales of $65.0 billion, Lowe’s and its related businesses operate or service more than 2,370 home improvement and hardware stores and employ over 290,000 people. Based in Boucherville, Quebec, Lowe’s Canadian business, together with its wholly owned subsidiary, RONA inc., operates or services more than 600 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores in a number of complementary formats under different banners. These include Lowe’s, RONA, Réno-Dépôt, Marcil, Dick’s Lumber and Ace. In Canada, the companies have more than 25,000 employees, in addition to nearly 5,000 employees in the stores of RONA’s independent affiliate dealers. For more information, visit Lowes.ca.
For more information, please contact:
Valérie Gonzalo
Media Relations
514.626.6976
media@rona.ca