Toronto, Ontario, Jun. 8--Home Depot Canada, whose roots are in do-it-yourself home improvement, is boosting its business by chasing the do-it-for-me baby boomer customer who wants more services from the retailer, according to The Globe and Mail.
As a result, Home Depot's services sales in this country alone jumped 31.4% last year as the company hired contractors to do roofing, flooring, kitchen installations and other renovations for customers, Bob Nardelli, chief executive officer at U.S. parent Home Depot Inc., said yesterday.
The Canadian chain of 102 big box stores--117 by the end of the year--will offer other services, and recently started to send painters to homes of customers who bought paint at Home Depot, he told the Retail Council of Canada's annual conference.
"It's a huge market opportunity that's only going to get bigger as the population matures," he said.
The move is part of Home Depot's own renovation project as it races to refashion its stores, add more home decor items, improve service and branch out into new businesses in an extremely competitive market.
Part of the retailer's remodelling has entailed targeting baby boomers who are becoming more affluent and less handy around the house as they develop aches and pains and don't want to redo their own basements.
Merchants such as Home Depot that already sell the goods required for renovations are now capitalizing on the demand for services.
"Baby boomers don't have the time and they do have the money," Wendy Evans of Evans & Co. Consultants Inc. said in an interview.
She said the affluent market is growing, particularly in urban centres such as Toronto where young well-to-do families are looking to upgrade their homes--and have someone else do the work for them.
She credited Home Depot for cashing in on the trend, allowing customers to get everything, both the goods and the installation, done under one roof.
Sears Canada Inc. of Toronto is also stepping up its "home central" services, benefiting from growing demand from do-it-for-me consumers, said spokesman Vincent Power. "People don't want to climb on their roof and change the shingles."
As well, many of the installations have become more complex, requiring an expert rather than an amateur handyperson, he said.
Sears does air conditioning, roofing, fencing and other installations, and considers them a strategic growth area, he said.
And Rona Inc. of Boucherville, Que., added installations to its offerings a couple of years ago, although it is not looking to expand the services at this time. They only represent between 1% and 2% of sales, said spokesman Sylvain Morrissette.
Nardelli of Home Depot said home services are "a huge strategic initiative" for the retailer.
However, Home Depot Canada would not provide a breakdown of its sales.
Other new services in Canada include landscaping, window treatments, ceiling fans and fixture installations, basement and bathroom renovations and closet organizers, he said.
In an interview later, Annette Verschuren, president of Home Depot Canada, said the retailer started about four years ago to install kitchens for customers, and has since kept adding services.
She said the painting service was launched just a few weeks ago in Toronto and will be rolled out across Canada over the next while.
The retailer has seen a surge in paint sales as consumers focus more on their homes, repainting them more often, she said. "Customers are saying, 'I don't want to do our own painting.'"
Last spring, Home Depot started computerized "colour solutions centres" to help customers mix and match paint colours, she said.
On another front, she said Home Depot is set to build urban, smaller and more upscale stores, with the first one opening in Vancouver in September. Two other city stores with a more high-end bent, catering to urban needs, will be located in Toronto and Calgary.
