World-Class Speaker Lineup Confirmed for the 2019 Hardlines Conference

Some of Canada’s most progressive hardware and home improvement retailers will take the stage this fall at the 24th annual Hardlines Conference. With the theme, “It’s All About The Experience”, this year’s event will feature some of North America’s top thought leaders in hardware and home improvement retail, who will share their stories and their insights.

The conference will be held November 13 to 14 at the Kingbridge Centre near Toronto. Top retailers and buying group executives from across the country, as well as leading wholesalers and manufacturers, are again expected to gather for an immersive educational and networking experience.

To understand the role of one of Canada’s largest home improvement retailers in the online channel, Tanbir Grover, Vice-President, eCommerce & Omnichannel, will relay how his team has worked to make the Lowe’s, RONA and Reno-Depot banners fully transactional while expanding the customer experience on all these websites.

The growth of BMR Group outside Quebec is causing ripples throughout the industry. Claudie Gervais, Marketing Director, Promotional Strategy and Business Intelligence at BMR Group, will share some of the innovations in store strategy and design that are aimed at providing a meaningful experience for today’s young, urban consumer.

In the conference’s Profiles in Leadership series, we are proud to host Christine Hand, an independent dealer from Conception Bay, Nfld., and Chair of the Board of Directors of Home Hardware Stores Limited. Hand’s store has been honoured twice with the Walter J. Hachborn Store of the Year Award as the top Home Hardware store in Canada.

This year, the Hardlines Conference will welcome True Value Company to the podium—a first in Canada. True Value President and CEO John Hartmann will relate the story of his company’s incredible transformation from a dealer-owned co-op to a major retailer with majority ownership held by a private-equity firm.

Joe Franquinha, owner of Crest Hardware in Brooklyn, N.Y., operates a successful local hardware store in a competitive urban environment. Shopping at Crest Hardware & Urban Garden Center is a true New York experience where customers can find everything from tools and garden equipment to art supplies and housewares.

Other speakers include David Boone, CEO of Staples Canada; Peter Norman, Vice-President and Chief Economist at the Altus Group and Dan Tratensek, Executive Vice-President and Publisher at the North American Retail Hardware Association.

The 24th annual Hardlines Conference will be held November 13 to 14, 2019, at the Kingbridge Centre in King City, Ont., just 30 minutes from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. 

About Hardlines
Hardlines is the leading authority on Canada’s retail home improvement industry. Hardlines’ products and services include its weekly HARDLINES electronic newsletter; Hardlines Dealer News each month, Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly magazine; a comprehensive website; a free Daily News Service; and the Annual Hardlines Conference Series, a two-day symposium that gathers retail executives from all over North America. For more information, contact Michael McLarney, President, at 416-489-3396, mike@hardlines.ca.