CHHMA - EYE ON OUR INDUSTRY
Volume 16, Issue 13, March 30, 2016

Inside This Issue:

• CHHMA Spring Conference & AGM Two Weeks Away – Don’t Miss It!
• Register Now for CHHMA Quebec Golf Classic – May 19
• Early Bird Registration for CHHMA Ontario Golf Tournament Available for Spring Conference Attendees
• Join Your Fellow Canadians at Maple Leaf Night in Las Vegas – May 4
• ÉEQ to Conduct Webinar on April 19th Updating Latest on 2015-2016 Schedule of Contributions
• Larry Rossy Hands Off CEO’s Job at Dollarama to his Son Neil as Retailer Hikes Dividend on Higher Earnings
• Sears Canada Not Likely to Die While It Still Has Real Estate to Sell
• The Not-So-Pleasant Choices Faced by RONA’s Preferred Shareholders
• EBay Aims to Transform Shopping Experience to Compete with Alibaba, Amazon
• How Millennials Make Themselves at Home
• Canada’s Recovery at Risk in ‘Twilight Zone’ of Low Oil and Rising Loonie
• Chinese Are Buying Third of Vancouver Homes, Analyst’s Rough Tally Estimates
• 2016 Off To An Uneven Start For Canadian Retail Sales
• Latest U.S. Economic News


Association News
 
CHHMA Spring Conference & AGM Two Weeks Away – Don’t Miss It!

The 47th CHHMA Annual General Meeting & Spring Conference is set for Tuesday, April 12, 2016.

We have some great speakers and timely topics to help you with your business including:

- An economic review of the Global, U.S. and Canadian economies over the past year and the key projections moving forward by one of Canada’s top economists.

- Valuable topline advice and practical tips on how to improve your chances of success when managing price increases, as well as improving your understanding of the customer value chain, and the importance of “messaging” when communicating the need for price increases.

- An update on pension developments, with specific focus on recent Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) developments and implications for employers with Ontario employees.

- Insight on how to merge digital & social media with traditional marketing; how can you best use your website, retailers, Google and social media to market your company and brands.

It is also an opportunity to network with your fellow CHHMA members and get up to date with the latest association news, plans and programs during the AGM portion of the day.

The Industry Hall of Fame inductions will also take place during the conference luncheon prior to the afternoon program. This year’s inductees are Ms. Laurie O’Halloran Founder/Editor/Publisher of Home Style Magazine; Mr. Bill Calisina, retired (former Vice President & General Manager) of Bissell Canada, and Mr. James Mumby, retired (former President & CEO) of Dynamic Paint Products.

Here is a link providing some further background on this year’s inductees.  

Senior retail customers will once again be invited to attend the Hall of Fame luncheon and afternoon speaker presentation.

Click here for full details and to register.  

So we hope you can make it out with some of your colleagues on April 12th!


Register Now for CHHMA Quebec Golf Classic – May 19

This year’s CHHMA Classique de golf / Golf Classic is once again being held at the excellent Club de golf Le Fontainebleau in Blainville, Quebec on Thursday, May 19, limit of 144 golfers.

Registration and brunch will start at 9:00 a.m., with an 11:00 a.m. shotgun start.After golf, there will be dinner with wine followed by prize presentations.

In order to maintain the most reasonable cost possible, the tournament depends on company sponsors, so please consider sponsoring a hole while registering.

For full details and to register, click here: French Registration    English Registration

This golf day is always an industry highlight with great turn-out from the customer and vendor sides and we hope you can make it to this year’s event.


Early Bird Registration for CHHMA Ontario Golf Tournament Available for Spring Conference Attendees

The 47th Annual Ontario Golf Tournament, in support of the CHHMA Scholarship Program, will take place at the Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ontario on Tuesday, May 31,
7:45 a.m. shotgun start, limit of 144 golfers.

Members attending the CHHMA Spring Conference & AGM on April 12th will be able to register early for the tournament.

The event is open to CHHMA members and their invited customers.  It includes breakfast, golf, an executive lunch, awards and prizes.

Click here for an Early Bird registration form if you have registered or will be registering for the conference.

Full registration will commence after the Spring Conference & AGM.

So register soon and we hope you can join us with your colleagues and/or customers at this year’s tournament.


Join Your Fellow Canadians at Maple Leaf Night in Las Vegas – May 4

Maple Leaf Night is taking place this year on the evening of Wednesday, May 4th at the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.This popular social event is open to CHHMA members and their retail customers in town for the National Hardware Show (May 4-6).

Sponsorship is $775 CDN and entitles companies to corporate identification on all tickets, letterheads and event signage.It also entitles your company to one complimentary ticket for the host who will participate in the receiving line and two additional complimentary sponsor tickets.

Additional sponsor tickets can also be purchased for a reduced price of $125 CDN.

Regular individual tickets are $185 CDN or $225 CDN at the door.

Retailers/customers are invited to attend complimentary on behalf of the sponsors.

To register and/or sign up as a sponsor, click here. 


Stewardship News

ÉEQ to Conduct Webinar on April 19th Updating Latest on 2015-2016 Schedule of Contributions

While waiting for the Schedule of Contributions to be approved, Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ) will open a preliminary reporting on portal ECO-D on May 1, so stewards may begin entering data on materials generated between January 1 and December 31, 2014.

Also, ÉEQ will be holding an information webinar on April 19 to provide the latest developments regarding the 2015-2016 Schedule of Contributions since the consultations meeting.

Further details will be provided later but for the time being, please mark the date on your calendar.

Finally, a reminder that the deadline for applying for voluntary contributor status is today - March 30, 2016. Note that, in order to align with our Canadian stewardship counterparts, the deadline for such applications will be February 1 in future years.

For more information, go to: http://www.ecoentreprises.qc.ca/home or contact our CHHMA Stewardship Program Consultants:

Al Marks, 416-282-0022 ext.24, steward@chhma.ca
Duncan Deans, 416-282-0022 ext.22, ddeans@chhma.ca

Source: Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ) 


Industry News

Larry Rossy Hands Off CEO’s Job at Dollarama to his Son Neil as Retailer Hikes Dividend on Higher Earnings

There’s going to be a change at the top of the Dollarama discount retail chain as its founding chief executive steps back and his son takes on the top job.  Larry Rossy will continue as executive chairman, but his son Neil Rossy becomes Dollarama’s president and CEO on May 1.

The announcement came as Dollarama better than expected revenue and profit for its fourth quarter and raised its quarterly dividend by a penny to 10 cents per share.  For the quarter ended Jan. 31, sales were 766.5 million, up 14.6% from $669.1 million a year earlier. Same-store sales were up 7.9% from the same period in fiscal 2015.  Dollarama’s net income in the fourth quarter was $124.8 million or $1 per diluted share, up from $100.27 million or 76 cents per share a year earlier. The per-share profit was assisted by a decline in the number of shares outstanding.  Read More >>


Sears Canada Not Likely to Die While It Still Has Real Estate to Sell

As long as Sears Canada has viable real estate to sell — and management is able to keep shaving costs — the struggling retailer will likely stay alive despite posting years of declining sales and substantial operating losses.  That’s the view of a new report from Desjardins Securities, which notes the department store’s management has not been able to reduce its fixed and variable costs quickly enough to compensate for the company’s lower revenue productivity, even as it has closed unproductive locations and rebuilt some key product categories.  Read More >>  


The Not-So-Pleasant Choices Faced by RONA’s Preferred Shareholders

Shareholders of RONA gather in Montreal Thursday to vote on the $3.2 billion takeover by Lowe’s.

For common shareholders, the situation seems a no-brainer. There is no real alternative to tendering to the $24 a share offer, a price that represents a healthy premium to the shares’ recent trading price. And the price is almost $10 higher than the offer the same buyer made about three and a half years back.

For preferred shareholders — and RONA has 6.9 million outstanding for a face value of $172.5 million — the situation would also seem clear: tendering isn’t an option given they are being offered $20 a share, or a $5 a share haircut to the original purchase price.  Read More >>


EBay Aims to Transform Shopping Experience to Compete with Alibaba, Amazon

 EBay, regarded in its early days as an endless repository for Beanie babies and baseball trading cards, has transformed far beyond being a reliable place for collectables and gently used goods.  But though 80% of what’s sold nowadays on eBay Canada is new, its relationship with the remaining 20% is what makes the site special, according to Andrea Stairs, eBay Canada’s managing director. It also presents one of the online marketplace’s more bedeviling sticking points.  Read More >>


Marketplace Stats & Trends

How Millennials Make Themselves at Home

There’s no question Millennials are making their presence known in the marketplace.  New research from Home Furnishings News (HFN) on how Millennials make themselves at home was shared during the recent 2016 International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago.The keynote presentation was followed by a panel discussion on what it all means and why business will never be the same again.

HFN chief brand officer Maureen Azzato opened the session, “How Millennials Make Themselves at Home,” with key findings from HFN’s “2016 The Housewares Consumer Speaks” report.

“There are now more Millennials than Baby Boomers in the home and housewares market, and their buying intentions are strong,” said Azzato.  As a whole, “they love to entertain, eat out less, crave unique experiences and authenticity, are environmentally aware and socially conscious. Health and wellness is integral to their lives.”  Read More >>   


Economic News

Canada’s Recovery at Risk in ‘Twilight Zone’ of Low Oil and Rising Loonie

Following the recent crude oil price rally, economists say Canada’s economy risks getting caught in a bind where oil prices are not quite high enough but the loonie is not quite low enough.  Canada’s dollar has had a strong rebound in the past month, rising from about 68 cents against the U.S. dollar to 76 cents as of Monday. Oil prices have also rebounded nearly 50% in that time.

The Canadian economy has been feeling the pressure of low oil prices for two years now, causing recession in provinces such as Alberta and mass layoffs in the energy sector. But recent data suggests that oil’s pain has been the manufacturing sector’s gain, as cheaper gasoline prices and a weak loonie have helped the country’s non-energy industry’s become more profitable.  Read More >>  


Chinese Are Buying Third of Vancouver Homes, Analyst’s Rough Tally Estimates

Buyers from China comprised about one-third of purchases of Vancouver’s hot housing market in 2015, according to “back of the envelope calculations” by National Bank of Canada.

Chinese investors spent about $12.7 billion on real estate in the city in 2015, or 33% of its $38.5 billion in total sales, according to a note by financial analyst Peter Routledge last Wednesday. In Toronto, they made up 14% of purchases, or about $9 billion of the $63 billion in deals. Routledge compiled the data by extrapolating from a Financial Times survey of 77 high-end buyers and data from the U.S. National Association of Realtors.  Read More >> 


2016 Off To An Uneven Start For Canadian Retail Sales

Total Canadian retail sales were up 3.6% on a not seasonally adjusted basis in January 2016 versus a year ago, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada. The 3 month growth trend has now pulled slightly ahead of the underlying 12 month trend for the first time in over a year. Normally, this would indicate a recovery from the decelerating growth of 2015.

But all is not as good as it seems. Much of January's uptick in total retail is due to a double digit sales increase at automobile dealers, coupled with a markedly "less bad" decline at gasoline stations.  Read More >> 
    

Latest U.S. Economic News
       
Annualized U.S. single-family home prices rose less than expected in January, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

U.S. consumer spending rose marginally in February and overall inflation retreated, suggesting the Federal Reserve could take its time in raising interest rates this year despite a tightening labour market.

Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes rose sharply in February, reversing the previous month’s deep decline, as the volatility of the data continues to make it difficult to parse the strength of the housing market.  Read More >>  

  

 Upcoming CHHMA Events 

CHHMA Spring Conference & AGM
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
International Centre (Conference Facility), Mississauga, Ontario

CHHMA Maple Leaf Night
Held in Conjunction with the National Hardware Show
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
The Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada

CHHMA Quebec Golf Classic
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Club de golf Le Fontainebleau, Blainville, Quebec

CHHMA Ontario Golf Tournament
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Angus Glen Golf Club, Markham, Ontario         

CHHMA Industry Calendar

To register for all events visit our website at www.chhma.ca or call Pam Winter at (416) 282-0022 ext.21.

CHHMA Links


Freight Logistics Savings
No Obligation Consultation


Discount Cellular
Phone Rates


Long Distance &
Telecommunications Savings


Discount Gas & Diesel Rates


Logo Apparel &
Promotional Products



Office Product Discounts

"Eye On Our Industry" is published by the CHHMA as an information resource for our members. Member input regarding content and format is welcomed. Please contact Michael Jorgenson by email: mjorgenson@chhma.ca, or call at (416) 282-0022, ext. 34. CHHMA is located at 1335 Morningside Ave., Suite 101, Scarborough, ON, M1B 5M4 www.chhma.ca

If you would no longer like to receive our newsletter, please click here: Unsubscribe