New Calgary MacLeod Lowe's store with enhanced customer offering opens today

Lowe’s Canada celebrates the opening of the second new model Lowe’s store in the Greater Calgary

Boucherville, QC – September 20, 2018 — Lowe’s Canada opened today its second store in the Greater Calgary featuring the new model of Lowe’s stores which offers an enhanced shopping experience. The store, located at 9630 MacLeod Trail South, was converted from the former RONA Home and Garden. It was designed by taking the best of Lowe’s and RONA’s offerings to create the new model of Lowe’s stores.

"We are thrilled to celebrate the opening of this second new model Lowe’s in the Greater Calgary area to provide local customers with an enhanced shopping experience," says Guy Beaumier, Executive Vice-President, Big Box for Lowe’s Canada. "With this new store, we are continuing Lowe’s Big Box evolution to bring our unique offering to even more Canadians and become the country’s No. 1 choice for home improvement projects."

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 Calgary MacLeod Lowe’s offers an enhanced retail experience, including:

  • A wider assortment of seasonal products such as Halloween decorations, items for the Holiday season and outdoor furniture including the latest fashion trends.
  • A complete selection of appliances and the introduction of entirely new product categories including 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 Calgary MacLeod location also 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 Calgary MacLeod store is the second Lowe’s store in Calgary to introduce charge accounts that 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 Calgary MacLeod Lowe’s marks the company’s 66th store in Canada under the Lowe’s banner and seventh Lowe’s location in the Greater Calgary market. The store represents a local investment in excess of $4.8 million and created 20 to 25 new jobs – in total the store has
130 permanent positions and approximately 30 to 40 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 146,000 square feet, including 124,000 square feet of retail sales space, an adjacent garden centre of 14,000 square feet, and an outdoor drive-through lumberyard of 8,000 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 Society for Treatment of Autism to help renovate spaces within the Residential Treatment Centre and the Early Intervention classrooms and support a landscaping project to create a space for children waiting for their school bus.

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, September 22 at 10 a.m.
  • Live in-store radio remote with Country 105 on Saturday, September 22, with a draw for a
    $250 Lowe’s gift card and a small appliance.
  • Giveaways including: 5 L Pro-Mix potting soil (first 100 customers, Thursday only);
    Bosch 32-piece screwdriver bit set (first 200 customers, Friday only); $25 Lowe’s gift card (first 150 customers, Saturday only) and Lowe’s white water bottle (first 100 customers, Sunday only).
  • Customers can also enter to win 1 of 5 grand prizes.
  • Contractor exclusive VIP event on Monday, September 24 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 403.212.4875 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 18 million customers a week in the United States, Canada and Mexico. With fiscal year 2017 sales of $68.6 billion, Lowe’s and its related businesses operate or service more than 2,390 home improvement and hardware stores and employ over 310,000 people. Based in Boucherville, Quebec, Lowe’s Canadian business, together with its wholly owned subsidiary, RONA inc., operates or services more than 630 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores in a number of complementary formats under different banners. These include Lowe’s, RONA, Réno-Dépôt, Dick’s Lumber, Contractor First, and Ace. In Canada, the companies have more than 28,000 employees, in addition to nearly 5,000 employees in the stores of RONA’s independent affiliate dealers.