The home improvement retailer announced the centre Thursday, saying it will open in the first half of the year in
The facility will target "pro customers" — homebuilders, contractors, remodellers and others who often work on bigger, more complex projects and need large quantities of materials.
Serving these kinds of customers through its retail stores has at times been "not optimal," said
"You may not have all the volume necessary to satisfy their order and so we would cobble together product from other stores or sometimes we just couldn't say yes to that order," he said.
When
"You're having to block off the aisle, so it's not the greatest customer experience," he said.
The centres will reduce much of the scramble to fulfil large orders and even allow the company to stock additional products that were too large to fit into stores.
"Pros need often 20-foot, 24-foot, 28-foot pieces of lumber, we just don't have the space and ability inside of our store to carry that," Rowe said.
Now, it can be ordered specifically for that professional. The company hopes to supply such special orders along with any other materials needed for a job, keeping customers from having to drive around to lumber yards, plumbing suppliers and electrical shops to get all their supplies.
Through the new centre, customers will be able to request their orders be shipped on flatbed trucks directly to job sites, reducing store congestion.
The facility will be about 600,000 square feet, Rowe said, with half dedicated to the flatbed delivery centre and the other half serving as a "big and bulky" distribution centre that can handle large items like lumber, insulation and roofing shingles.
About 20 workers have started at the centre already but the team is expected to hit 30 in the coming weeks.
Rowe considers the centre part of
The third chapter digs further into that professional side of the business, targeting planned purchases that big customers know they will need to make weeks and even months in advance
"Those purchases can be quite significant orders that are
Reaping the rewards of the push toward pro will not come easy, TD Cowen analyst
The company will have to scale its order management system and break through "entrenched" relationships between pros and independents.
"There was healthy skepticism that (
"But reps acknowledged that if anyone could do it, it would be
This report by The Canadian Press was first published
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