RONA REPLACES TOP EXEC IN CANADA SHORTLY AFTER SALE TO SYCAMORE CLOSES

On Feb. 3, the sale of the Lowe’s Canada businesses to Sycamore Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm, closed. Just 34 days later, RONA inc. (as the company will now be known), announced that Tony Cioffi, president since January 2022, had left the company. His replacement—on an “interim CEO” basis—is Garry Senecal, a longstanding Loblaw senior executive.

All of Lowe’s Canada’s former retail locations, including some 450 stores under RONA, Lowe’s, Réno-Dépôt, and Dick’s Lumber brands, are now owned by Sycamore and will be run out of RONA’s headquarters in Boucherville, Que. The price was $400 million in cash (USD) plus an undisclosed performance incentive.

The deal returns RONA to its roots as a private company for the first time since it went public in 2002. Sycamore, which owns other major retail brands such as Loft/Ann Taylor, Nine West, Talbots, Aeropostale, and Staples, has the means to make significant investments in its newest

Canadian home improvement brands.

Cioffi joined RONA in 2016 as senior vice president, finance, and group financial officer. His interim replacement, Senecal, filled senior executive roles at Loblaw for almost 13 years. He was at various times: chief customer officer, former president of the market division, and executive vice president, conventional division. He was a past memer of the Loblaw management board.

Founded in Quebec in 1939 as a co-operative, RONA is once again a privately-owned company—for the first time since it went public in 2002. Meanwhile, the 61 Lowe’sbannered big boxes within the RONA organization will remain open, but eventually all of those Lowe’s stores in Canada will be converted to the RONA banner. For now, RONA banners will still offer Lowe’s private brands, provide customer financing, and honour warranties and gift cards issued by Lowe’s stores in Canada.

In addition, the company says it will maintain “a strong commitment to its RONA affiliated dealer network and to its Canadian- and Quebec-based vendors, including through its ongoing involvement with the ‘Well Made Here’ initiative, intended to encourage the purchase of domestically manufactured quality products.”

Depot Canada at the beginning of 2016. Along the way, Kinnaird earned an MBA at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ont.

Jeff Kinnaird, the Canadian who was the top merchant at The Home Depot in Atlanta, has left the company. He has been replaced by William “Billy” Bastek, who was promoted to the EVP merchandising position, effective immediately.

Formerly the president of The Home Depot Canada, Kinnaird moved to Atlanta in October 2020 to head up merchandising at the retailer’s head office. Before that, he spent almost five years running the Canadian division of the company. Kinnaird is well known for his modest beginnings at the company: he got his start working in the yard at the Home Depot store in Richmond, B.C. From there, he worked his way up to the VP merchandising role in 2011, before taking the top job at Home

“Jeff has made significant contributions to The Home Depot since starting in the lumber aisle nearly 27 years ago and progressing through every role in our stores,” said Ted Decker, chair, president, and CEO of The Home Depot, in a release. “His leadership of our Canadian division, and more recently of our merchandising, marketing, and online