Reopening Of RONA Store In Les Cèdres, QC, Following A Major Fire

Boucherville, Quebec, May 31, 2017 – Lowe’s Canada is pleased to announce that its independent affiliate dealer, RONA ROCH GAUTHIER & FILS, is today officially reopening its second store in Les Cèdres, Quebec, which was devastated by a major fire on January 3, 2016. The owners, brothers Bernard, Sylvain and Richard Gauthier, invested more than $3.5 million to rebuild and improve the store, which features a retail area of 32,000 square feet, along with a new 90,000 square-foot lumberyard, and keep all 25 employees. The new store is better designed and more accessible, and also features a new indoor lumberyard.

“We would like to congratulate the entire RONA ROCH GAUTHIER & FILS team, who showed great resilience during the disaster and throughout the reconstruction phase. Without ever giving up, they continued to serve their customers with the same passion and dedication that is their trademark. We are proud to count the Gauthier family among our RONA affiliate dealers, and we wish them all the success they deserve with this new start,” said Alain Brisebois, Executive Vice President, Affiliate Dealers and Operations Central Services at Lowe’s Canada.

There was never any doubt in the minds of brothers Bernard, Sylvain and Richard Gauthier that they would rebuild the store in the same location, and thanks to their determination, they stayed on course. On the day of the fire, they quickly put logistics in place to continue to serve their customers and keep their employees working by transferring them to their store in Saint-Polycarpe. During the construction phase, all the operations of the Les Cèdres store were conducted from this location.

When the first beam of the structure went up, all the legwork that they had done became tangible. Nevertheless, the reconstruction included its share of challenges. “When a fire destroys many years of work and a new structure is not included in the company’s plans, you have to face the music and quickly roll up your sleeves. Everyone put their shoulder to the wheel,” said the owners.

Thanks to the unwavering support of their loyal customers, the brothers overcame these challenges. “We received many messages of encouragement and support from our customers, who continued to visit our other store. The messages they left on our Facebook page, which we created for our customers to follow the project’s progress, also motivated us enormously. The human factor is at the heart of our priorities. Our customers are the reason we exist, and a number of our employees have been with us for many years.”

RONA ROCH GAUTHIER & FILS has flown the RONA banner for more than 35 years and the family has worked in the hardware business for 70 years. It has been a family-run business for three generations and its strength lies in considering its team as one big family. Lowe’s Canada acquired RONA exactly one month after the fire, and its support was decisive for the company. “Lowe's Canada has always encouraged and supported us in this adventure,” the owners emphasized.

The RONA ROCH GAUTHIER & FILS store is located at 1655 Cité-des-Jeunes in Les Cèdres, while the store in Saint-Polycarpe is located at 68 Sainte-Catherine St. Thanks to these two stores 15 km apart, it is easy to ensure an optimal supply of products to respond quickly to demand from customers.

The team at RONA ROCH GAUTHIER & FILS is proud to welcome its customers back to their store in Les Cèdres.

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 2,365 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., operate or service over 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.