Rocky Mountain House Co-op Home Centre has been named one of Canada’s top hardware and home-improvement stores.
The retailer was honoured at Hardlines’ 2014 Outstanding Retailer Awards last week in Toronto, receiving the award for Best Building Supply/Home Centre under 25,000 square feet.
Shane Buss, the store’s general manager, said it was a team effort to change the culture of the store.
“Our retail, and the home centre in particular, have been on a five-year journey,” said Buss. “Looking back, there wasn’t one thing that we had to change to get here — we had to change everything.”
Rocky Mountain House Co-op built the home centre 10 years ago, and renovated it three years ago.
“This is the first time a Co-op Home Centre has been entered into a competition,” said Ron Healy, Federated Co-operatives Ltd.’s associate vice-president of ag and home.
The Outstanding Retailer Awards are presented by Hardlines, a newsletter and magazine on home improvement retailing in Canada.
The other award categories were Best Hardware Store, Best Building Centre over 25,000 square feet, Best Contractor Specialist Retailer, Best Large Surface Retailer, Young Retailer of the Year and Marc Robichaud Memorial Community Leader Award.
Judging was based on customer service, store appearance, merchandising, marketing, employee management, community involvement and sales growth.
The 2014 winners will be featured in Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly Magazine.