Opening of New Kitchener Lowe's Store

First new model Lowe’s in Ontario opens today


Boucherville, QC – December 14, 2017 – Lowe’s Canada celebrated today the official grand opening of its first store under the new model of Lowe’s stores in Ontario which offers an enhanced shopping experience. The store, located at 730 Ottawa Street South in Kitchener, was converted from the former RONA Home and Garden. It was designed by taking the best of Lowe’s and RONA’s offering to create the new model of Lowe’s stores. This is the fourth new model Lowe’s store to open in Canada.

“We are thrilled to open this new model Lowe’s store today and to bring our brand new offering to the Kitchener community,” says Guy Beaumier, Interim Executive Vice-President, Lowe’s Canada Big Box Retail. “We combined the best of RONA’s and Lowe’s product and service offerings to create an enhanced shopping experience for retail consumers and contractors alike. More products, increased services and financing options, this new store model truly marks the evolution of the Lowe’s Big Box in Canada.”

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 Kitchener Lowe’s will offer an enhanced retail experience, including:

  • A wider assortment of seasonal products such as patio, Halloween and items for the Holiday season in line with the latest fashion trends.
  • The introduction of entirely new product categories such as appliances, 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 Kitchener location marks 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 Kitchener store is the fourth Lowe’s store in Canada to introduce charge accounts that will 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 Kitchener store marks the company’s 60th Lowe’s location in Canada and 2nd one in the Kitchener-Waterloo market. The store represents a local investment in excess of $4.3 million and created 45 new jobs – in total the store has 160 permanent positions and approximately 40 seasonal roles.

The store offers about 40,000 products in-stock to meet all our customers’ home improvement needs, and features retail offering space totaling more than 146,000 square feet, including 93,064 square feet of retail sales space, an adjacent garden centre of 28,881 square feet, a covered lumberyard of 3,895 square feet, and an additional outdoor drive-through lumberyard of 20,381 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 Food Bank of Waterloo Region to support the update of their outdoor area as well as the community sorting room.

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, December 16 at 10 a.m.
  • Giveaways including Bona new floor cleaning kit (first 100 customers, Thursday only); a Sylvania A19 LED 60-watt light bulb (first 1,000 customers, Friday only); $25 Lowe’s gift card (first 200 customers, Saturday only) and a DeWalt 13-pc screwdriver set (first 75 customers, Sunday only).
  • Customers can also enter to win 1 of 4 grand prizes.
  • Contractor exclusive VIP event on Monday, December 18 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 519.584.0996 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 17 million customers a week in the United States, Canada and Mexico. With fiscal year 2016 sales of $65.0 billion, Lowe's and its related businesses operate or service more than 2,370 home improvement and hardware stores and employ over 290,000 people. Based in Boucherville, Quebec, Lowe's Canadian business, together with its wholly owned subsidiary, RONA inc., operates or services more than 600 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores in a number of complementary formats under different banners. These include Lowe's, RONA, Réno-Dépôt, Marcil, Dick's Lumber and Ace. In Canada, the companies have more than 25,000 employees, in addition to nearly 5,000 employees in the stores of RONA's independent affiliate dealers.