Home Depot Canada’s acquisition of Montreal-based Litemor Distributors Ltd., Canada’s largest commercial lighting company, will mark its first step toward building a supplier base in Canada, Nick Cowling, spokesperson for the Canadian company, told GlobalAtlanta. The acquisition, which was announced last week, is to be completed within 30 days.
According to Mr. Cowling, Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc., the parent company, followed a similar approach in the United States by acquiring suppliers in the flooring, lighting, specialty hardware, roof installing and maintenance.
Litemor founded in 1969 operates 13 branches including 11 locations in Canada and two in the U.S. and employs 250 people.
“We were attracted to Litemor because the founders built a great customer base that is hard to grow organically and developed a dedicated workforce,” Mr. Cowling said. “There is also a tremendous opportunity for our company to sell thousands of products to Limor’s existing accounts.”
The Montreal company will become part of Home Depot’s Canadian Supply division, which supplies materials that range from lighting and tools to contractors.
The acquisition fits Home Depot Canada’s strategy of being the largest retailer in the country and taking on other retailers including Montreal-based Rona Inc., the No. 2 player in Canada with sales of $4 billion, and others, he said.
According to Mr. Cowling, the company plans to open 25 more outlets over the next 14 months including three smaller stores with 60,000 square feet in 2005 and 22 superstores with between 85-95,000 square feet in urban areas including Toronto and downtown Calgary.
Besides the 115 stores in Canada, Home Depot operates 1,853 stores in the U.S. and 40 in Mexico.
For more information, contact Mr. Cowling by email at nick_cowling@homedepot.com.