Lowe's Canada Announces Newly Appointed Divisional Vice President of Merchandising

Lowe's Canada Announces Newly Appointed Divisional Vice President of Merchandising

Senior appointment supports Lowe's Canadian growth and business strategy

2016/01/11

[TORONTO, ON - January 11, 2016] — Lowe's Canada announced the appointment of Alan Blundell as Divisional Vice President, Merchandising effective January 11, 2016. Blundell joins Lowe's Canada with over 18 years of merchandising experience in the retail industry. In this newly created position, he will oversee the merchandising function and be responsible for leading a customer-centric approach to the company's category management strategy. Blundell will report to Igor Halencak, Head of Merchandising and Marketing for Lowe's Canada.

Blundell's appointment supports Lowe's efforts to be the first choice for home improvement in Canada in the markets it serves, while ensuring the optimal merchandising structure is in place to deliver on business and growth strategies.

"As we continue to focus on improving our assortment and offering great quality products and services at affordable prices that our Canadian customers expect, the time is right to have a merchandising lead that will solely focus on delivering an omni channel, customer centric category management focus to the organization," said Igor Halencak, Head of Merchandising and Marketing, Lowe's Canada. "Alan's experience and customer focused approach will be a great benefit to Lowe's and will allow us to further improve our customer experience."

Prior to Lowe's, Alan was with Walmart Canada for 16 years where he held various senior level merchandising roles, including his most recent leadership position as Vice President of Merchandise Operations.

Alan attended York University and also participated in a program for leadership development at Harvard Business School.

About Lowe's

Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE® 50 home improvement company serving approximately 16 million customers a week in the United States, Canada and Mexico through its stores and online. With fiscal year 2014 sales of $56.2 billion, Lowe's has more than 1,840 home improvement and hardware stores and 265,000 employees.

In Canada, Lowe's opened its first stores in December 2007 and now operates 40 stores in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia with more than 6,000 employees. In July 2015, Lowe's announced plans to open 14 new stores in Canada bringing its total store count to 54 locations. Since then, an additional store has also been announced in Cornwall, Ontario. Lowe's opened its 40th store in Saskatoon in August 2015, with its next locations set to open in Ancaster and Mississauga in late January. The company plans to grow to 70 stores by the end of 2017.