Memorial Home Hardware Building Centre Expands!

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There have been significant renovations done inside and outside the original building as well.

“ We redid the storefront which was old and tired and gave it a much more pleasing look, more dramatic when you drive down Memorial Ave and see it. In the interior when we started we lifted the front of the store floor 5 inches, as the already have new lights and it is far brighter than ever before.”

Tom Jones Corporation was very good to work with stated Chris. The sub trade contractors were good.

There is a specialized company in Winnipeg that lifts the floor called Polymor Canada. They survey the floor and drill 3/4 inch holes in the floor and allows more inventory indoors and reduced labour and equipment costs.

“ The pandemic was a tough situation for us having just recently taken over the store.We were forced to deliver all of our products to our customers in the parking lot, taking orders over the phone. It was time consuming, hard and hectic with twice the number of people to sell half the product, so it was extremely challenging. Financially it wasn’t a good time to do a major renovation.We were getting shut down all the time as we couldn’t count on supplies or being able to work.” said Chris. “ Today things are moving along nicely. Interest rates are rising however which will put a damper on peoples renovations unfortunately.”

“ It is a good business to be in. I enjoy helping people bring their dreams and ideas to fruition. The home renovation market is a key area of our customers. We do new construction home work and have major industrial customers as well. We do a fairly large business with First Nations mostly through ice roads.”said Chris Sauer.

“ I enjoy being able to come to work and do what I want to do with my business, say renovate it, expand it or change it and don’t have to ask anyone. We can serve our customers in the way that best suits our community. There are some things that Home Hardware does that don’t make sense here in our market.” store was crooked being built on muskeg. We put in the bathroom design centre, the paint boutique is in and are working currently on the flooring centre. The customer service centre was moved to the back of the store. All of the store fixtures from the centre of the store back have been changed and updated. The warehouse in the back of the store has been updated as well.” said Chris

The Canadian owned company Home Hardware head office is located in St, Jacobs Ontario near Waterloo and has 1100 stores in Canada.

“ We are members, not franchises and own Home Hardware Store Ltd. The only way you can become a member is to have a Home Hardware store,” said Chris Sauer.

“They have store planning which helps us but all the 1100 stores are unique to their location and market so are different and have to be fitted in. About 500 of the stores sell lumber. The stores can range in size from a 200 square feet corner store to huge super centers of over 100,000 square feet. We lease the space for the building from Home Hardware Store Ltd. but are responsible for everything that goes on inside the building including the racking and all the interior renovations. The entire cost of our renovations to date is in the range of $ 3 million for all investments. We are getting close to being a state of the art Home Hardware. There is still a lot of work to do inside the store.We are looking at lifting other portions of the store floor this winter and put in new flooring.We pound a copper pipe 4 feet into the ground and inject foam into the peat under the gravel to stabilize. They then drill another hole into the slab and inject another material to lift it. It is a unique process according to Chris Sauer.

Paul at the Autostak company provided a unique stacking system with a roller bin combined with pallet racking, and cantilever rack designed to reduce display storage space needed by 35%. This