RONA started as a Quebec cooperative in 1939 but is now owned by U.S. private-equity firm Sycamore Partners. An advertising watchdog ruled its "Truly Canadian" claims misleading in 2019. Tod Maffin recommends Home Hardware and Castle Building Centres as genuinely Canadian alternatives.
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Welcome back to Is It Canadian? The series where I tell you if the stores you're shopping at are actually Canadian. Today they claim that they are. The Canadian how-to people, we are looking at Rona. So Rona started in Quebec in 1939 as a kind of like a loose-knit cooperative of independent hardware stores. The whole idea was they were going to band together so they could get cheaper prices from wholesalers. Two guys were behind it, a guy named Roland, a guy named Napoleon. That's where Rona comes from, Roland and Napoleon. And the chain did really well for about 60 years. In 2002, it went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and they used the money to expand even more, competing against American chains like Home Depot and Lowe's. And along the way, they bought up some smaller competitors like Revelstoke Home Centres, Dick's Lumber, and Cashway Building Centres in Ontario. Then in 2012, Lowe's, which was American-owned, tried a very American thing— unwelcome incursion into another territory— Specifically, Lowe's tried a hostile takeover of RONA, but it was blocked by the Canadian government and by RONA's board. For a while. In 2016, Lowe's did end up buying RONA. That made RONA a US-owned subsidiary. And right away, the Americans started doing shady things. 3 years after it bought the company, an advertising industry watchdog said RONA's continued display of signage like "Truly Canadian" and "Proudly Canadian" on storefronts was misleading. Rona removed the signs. In the 2020s, the company renamed some Rona stores to the Lowe's name, but kept the Rona brand in Quebec and elsewhere. Then about 2 years ago, Lowe's sold the Rona chain to Sycamore Partners. Now that is an American private equity firm that also owns Staples, Dollar Express, Jones New York, and a bunch of other brands. Oh, and remember those misleading signs? Even today, some Rona stores, like the one where I live, on Vancouver Island, they have signs reading, "The Canadian How-To People." Today, the headquarters and management remain in Canada, but profits ultimately go to Sycamore Partners in the US. So despite the literal Canadian flags outside their stores, neither RONA nor Lowe's are Canadian. 1 out of 10 Banics. So where should you buy your home improvement stuff? Canadian-owned alternatives include Home Hardware, Castle Building Centers, Timber Mart, and Lee Valley. Follow me because next up are Boston Pizza, Lululemon, McCain Foods, and Canadian Tire. Are any of them actually Canadian-owned? Tell me in the comments what other store you think I should do next. Follow me on Bluesky and Twitch, and here's your daily otis.
