Geoff McLarney

BMR Group is holding its annual buying show at Quebec City’s Centre des congrès, where dealers and vendors have been gathered since yesterday. BMR CEO Alexandre Lefebvre told Hardlines that this year’s offering includes 600 new private label products.

Canac has begun its largest construction project ever, a 625,000-square-foot building at its Drummondville, Que., distribution facility. The company, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary next year, will invest more than $100 million in the project, expanding the campus’s footprint to about 1.2 million square feet.

Drivers for Walmart’s Surrey, B.C., store have won interim certification from the Canada Industrial Relations Board. The move allows them to form a bargaining committee and work with representatives of Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, to negotiate their first collective agreement with Walmart.

Taiga Building Products has reported that its Q3 sales amounted to $423.9 million, down from $456.6 million in the comparable period of last year. Sales fell by $32.7 million or 7.0 percent, a decline attributed to a reduction in commodity products sold. Net earnings decreased to $14.3 million from $21.4 million.

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The total value of building permits in Canada increased by $1.3 billion or 11.5 percent to $13.0 billion in September, according to StatCan. Gains were led by Ontario, where construction intentions grew by $1.2 billion or 25.0 percent to $5.9 billion. Construction intentions for the residential sector rose by $540.7 million (7.5 percent) to $7.7 billion, with the single-family component up by $35.1 million.

The Montreal Port Authority (MPA) is sounding the alarm on the severe economic consequences of a prolonged labour disruption at the port. On Sunday night, the Port of Montreal locked out 1,200 longshoremen, amplifying already strained relations between the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) and the Port of Montreal longshore workers’ union CUPE Local 375. Shipping lines are already diverting their vessels to other East Coast ports.

Home Depot reported Q3 earnings of US$3.65 billion, or $3.67 per share, down from $3.81 billion ($3.81) a year earlier. Sales rose by 6.6 percent to $40.22 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $39.31 billion. Same-store sales fell by 1.3 percent, including a 1.2 percent drop in the U.S.

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Loblaw Cos. Ltd. has posted Q3 earnings of $777 million, or $2.53 per share, up from $621 million ($1.95) a year earlier. Revenues rose to $18.54 billion from $18.27 billion in the comparable period last year, falling short of analyst estimates of $18.65 billion. Same-store sales at the company’s grocery banners grew by 0.5 percent.