CHHMA - EYE ON OUR INDUSTRY
Volume 14, Issue 34, September 10, 2014
Inside This Issue:
• Home Hardware’s Bruce Webster Being Honoured at Industry Memorial Golf Classic
- Last Call
• Read About the 2014 CHHMA Scholarship Award Recipients
• Home Depot Confirms Data Breach in Canada, U.S. Stores
• Canadian Tire to Add Digital Option to Its Canadian Tire Money Program
• Dollar General Corp Goes Hostile with $9.1-Billion Family Dollar Bid
• Housing Starts Cool in August, Expected to Moderate Further
• Toronto, Vancouver Condos Push Canadian Building Permits to Record
• Canadians Finding it Harder to Move-Up to Bigger Homes
• Canadian Economy Sheds 11,000 Jobs in August with Record Drop in the
Private-Sector
• Fourth Quarter Hiring Outlook Falls
• U.S. Jobs Growth Smallest in Eight Months as Labour Force Shrinks
Association News
Home Hardware's Bruce Webster Being Honoured at Industry Memorial Golf Classic - Last Call
Terry Davis, Ray Gabel, Joel Marks, John Dyksterhuis and several of the buyers from Home Hardware will be in attendance at the 13th Annual Industry Memorial Golf Classic taking place on Wednesday, October 1st at the Blue Springs Golf Club in Acton, Ontario.
The Home Hardware executives will be on hand to help honour their former colleague who passed away just prior to last year’s event.
Register now to attend the Industry Memorial Golf Classic held on behalf of the hardware and housewares industry and which honours stalwarts from the industry who have passed away. CHHMA members and non-members are welcome to attend.
The other honourees this year are:
Tom Ross - Served for 33 years as the Executive Director of the Canadian Retail Hardware Association (CRHA). Tom passed away on June 26 of this year.
Ray Ceolin – Over his 40 year career, was an active member of the hardware and housewares community. Together with his brother Leo, they built a successful sales agency, Phaeton Limited, representing varied lines through many classes of trade. Ray passed away in October of 2012.
Read more on further details and how to register.
Read About the 2014 CHHMA Scholarship Award Recipients
As mentioned over the past couple of weeks, the CHHMA Board of Directors is pleased to announce the following five scholarship award recipients for 2014:
Graeme Blondon – son of Neil Blondon of Knape & Vogt.
Ben Zvikler – son of Ilan Zvikler of Taymor Industries Ltd.
Steven Winter – son of Lawrence Winter of Recochem Inc.
Jenny Gu – daughter of Da Ren Gu of Recochem Inc.
Jillian Newton – daughter of Tom Newton of Loxcreen Canada
We would like to once again congratulate the winners for their outstanding achievements and to the member companies for encouraging their employee participation.
For further information on each recipient and their plans, go to: http://www.chhma.ca/Public/2014-Scholarship-Winners
Since 2001, the CHHMA has awarded $150,000 towards scholarships and some 75 young people have benefited from the scholarship program. Recipients receive $1,000 per year for the first two years of study at an accredited post-secondary institution.
Industry News
Home Depot Confirms Data Breach in Canada, U.S. Stores
Home Depot Inc. confirmed Monday that its payment systems have suffered a security breach, and Canadian clients are among those affected.
The chain said the breach “could potentially impact customers using payment cards” in U.S. and Canadian stores, but there is no evidence the breach hit online customers or stores in Mexico.
Home Depot, which has been tight-lipped since it revealed last week it was investigating unusual activity that suggested a potential breach, said Monday that it still doesn’t know the “full scope, scale and impact of the breach.” It said there is no evidence that PIN numbers associated with the debit cards have been compromised. Its investigation is focusing on transactions from April onward.
The possible breach was first reported last Tuesday by the security news website Krebs on Security, run by computer security expert Brian Krebs. He said several banks had reported seeing evidence that Home Depot outlets “may be the source of a massive new batch of stolen credit and debit cards.”
Mr. Krebs said banks believe the breach may have begun in April or May. If that is the case “this breach could be many times larger than Target, which had 40 million credit and debit cards stolen over a three-week period.” Read More >>
Canadian Tire to Add Digital Option to Its Canadian Tire Money Program
Canadian Tire money, known for its fictional Scottish character Sandy McTire, is going digital.
Canadian Tire said on Tuesday it's expanding its rewards program next month by offering a digital option to customers who want to collect and redeem Canadian Tire money on a card or smartphone.
But the retailer wants its customers to know that the addition of the new digital option does not mean it's getting rid of its much-loved Canadian Tire paper currency.
Canadian Tire announced it is introducing My Canadian Tire 'Money'™, an easier way to collect and redeem Canadian Tire 'Money'. The program will launch in Nova Scotia on October 10 and to customers nationally on October 28, 2014. The digital rewards program will complement paper Canadian Tire 'Money', which will remain in circulation. Read More >>
Dollar General Corp Goes Hostile with $9.1-Billion Family Dollar Bid
Dollar General Corp took its US$9.1 billion offer for Family Dollar Stores Inc. hostile, directly approaching the shareholders of its smaller rival after being spurned twice by the company.
Dollar General said on Wednesday it had started a tender offer to buy all shares of Family Dollar for US$80 per share.
Family Dollar rejected Dollar General’s sweetened takeover bid last week, saying the offer still did not address antitrust concerns.
Dollar General has downplayed those concerns by committing to sell up to 1,500 stores to clear any competition review and also offered to pay US$500 million as break-up fee if the deal were to fall apart. Read More >>
Economic News
Housing Starts Cool in August, Expected to Moderate Further
Canadian housing starts cooled more than expected in August, while the previous month was also revised slightly lower, data showed on Tuesday, setting the stage for what is widely expected to be a slowing housing market as 2014 draws to a close.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) data showed the seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) of housing starts slipped 3.7% to 192,368 last month from a downwardly revised 199,813 units in July.
That was shy of analysts’ forecasts for 195,000. July was originally reported as 200,098.
The small drop brought the six-month moving average to 189,837, little changed in the last 12 months despite a big slowdown in the harsh winter months and a roaring bounce back in the spring and early summer. Read More >>
Toronto, Vancouver Condos Push Canadian Building Permits to Record
Canadian building permits jumped to a surprise record in July, led by Toronto and Vancouver condominiums and apartments, at a time when the central bank says high home prices and indebted consumers remain a key risk to the economy.
Statistics Canada reported on Monday that municipalities issued building permits worth $9.2 billion dollars in July, up 11.8% from June and the fourth consecutive monthly advance. The increase in July was mainly attributable to higher construction intentions for multi-family dwellings in Ontario and British Columbia as well as institutional buildings in Manitoba.
Residential and non-residential permits both reached records, rising 18.0% and 5.2% respectively. Read More >>
Canadians Finding it Harder to Move-Up to Bigger Homes
Having trouble moving into a bigger home? You’re not alone.
Prices of bigger and more expensive homes in Canada are rising significantly faster than those of cheaper properties, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce economist Benjamin Tal has found. The phenomenon is limiting peoples’ ability to trade up, and causing many to choose to renovate their existing home instead.
The trend is pronounced in cities including Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. Spending on home renovations as a percentage of total residential investment is at its highest level on record.
And the “move up” market is becoming paralyzed at the same time that tighter mortgage rules and higher home prices have knocked many potential first-time buyers out of the market, Mr. Tal says. “The homeownership rate among Canadians aged 25-35 (first-time homebuyers) has fallen from 55% in 2012 to the current 50%,” he says in a report released on Monday. The rate has remained stable for people over age 35. Read More >>
Canadian Economy Sheds 11,000 Jobs in August with Record Drop in the Private-Sector
The Canadian economy shed 11,000 jobs last month, more evidence of a weak labour market as the private sector posted a record drop in payrolls.
The country’s unemployment rate remained at 7% in August, Statistics Canada reported last Friday.
The numbers showed that private-sector hiring tumbled last month. Private companies shed 111,800 positions, the steepest decline on record, as the manufacturing, trade and financial services sectors cut jobs. The public sector added 14,000 jobs and self employment rose by 86,900.
Meanwhile, Derek Holt, VP at Scotiank Economics, urged clients to approach Statistics Canada’s latest reading on the country’s labour market with caution, calling some details in the report “very fishy.” Read More >>
Fourth Quarter Hiring Outlook Falls
Canadian employers are more reticent about expanding payrolls, with the hiring outlook falling to its lowest level in more than four years according to a new survey.
Manpower Canada’s latest quarterly employment survey shows fourth-quarter hiring plans are down from both the prior quarter and last year’s levels.
“Employers are cautious in this environment, so they’re using variable labour, part-time labour and not putting people full time on their payrolls because of that caution,” said Byrne Luft, vice-president of operations for Manpower Canada, a staffing firm, in a statement. Read More >>
U.S. Jobs Growth Smallest in Eight Months as Labour Force Shrinks
U.S. job growth slowed down sharply in August and more Americans gave up the hunt for work, giving a cautious Federal Reserve more reasons to wait a bit longer before raising interest rates.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 142,000 last month, the smallest increase in eight months, the Labor Department said last Friday. The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.1% as people dropped out of the labour force. Read More >>
Upcoming CHHMA Events
|
Industry Memorial Golf Classic
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Blue Springs Golf Club, Acton, Ontario
Industry Cocktail
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Casino de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec
Canada Night
Held in Conjunction with the International Home+Housewares Show
Sunday, March 8, 2015
InterContinental Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
CHHMA Ontario Golf Tournament
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
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