Geoff McLarney, Steve Payne, and Richard Darveau, President of AQMAT

Hardlines Assistant Editor and podcast host Geoff McLarney, and Hardlines Editor Steve Payne, interview Richard Darveau, President of the Association québécoise de la quincaillerie et des matériaux de construction (AQMAT). Richard recounts the history of AQMAT and the trends of both AQMAT in the Province of Quebec and Well Made Here — Bien Fait Ici in all the provinces.

 

Key Takeaways:

 

[:28] Geoff introduces Richard Darveau. Richard is the President of AQMAT, which reunites the hardware and building materials industry in Quebec. The topic is the story of AQMAT.

 

[:49] Richard tells the history of AQMAT, created in 1940. At first, it was almost all males and only for retailers. With time, it included suppliers and vendors. Today AQMAT represents equally the interests of independent dealers, corporate stores, buying groups, and suppliers.

 

[1:32] AQMAT is active on five levels: the Community, with galas and golf tournaments; AQMAT College, training thousands of employees; Information, being oriented toward journalism with the AQMAT Magazine and a newsletter; and Real Estate, buying and selling stores. AQMAT owns its building.

 

[6:36] About Bien Fait Ici — Well Made Here. The idea started as Quebec Frontiers. AQMAT didn’t want to be out of bounds with the other provinces. But manufacturers refused to change their packaging for a provincial market and insisted on the full Canadian market. So AQMAT chartered a nonprofit organization at the federal level, Well Made Here — Bien Fait Ici.

 

[8:06] Well Made Here — Bien Fait Ici, started on October 21st, 2018. Because of COVID-19, Richard feels it is still in the startup phase. So far, it’s going very well. The idea is to have customers and contractors consider Candian-made products that satisfy the various codes of construction, health, and security standards for the workers who install those materials.

 

[8:49] Well Made Here — Bien Fait Ici products need to come from a plant on Canadian territory, and be in phase with Canadian construction codes and any other Canadian quality standards. So far, they have 7,000 products in the program, coming from about 120 suppliers. The suppliers don’t have to be Canadian-owned but operate on Canadian territory.

 

[9:47] The sandy brown color of the Well Made Here — Bien Fait Ici logo does not relate to the color of any buying group and it is a color found in many homes and materials. The logo rapidly conveys that it is about homes and Canada but it’s not the Canadian flag.

 

[11:27] The structure of the industry has changed over the last 15‒20 years. One merchant used to operate one store. There are about 900 stores in Quebec, but they are now owned by about 350 different companies. The consolidation will continue. Some regional players are expanding, for example, Patrick Morin and Canac. At least 10 merchants have five stores or more.

 

[13:24] There has been more consolidation of stores in Quebec than in some other provinces. Richard mentions other acquisitions and consolidations. People are moving between brands or banners.

 

[14:34] Geoff thanks Richard Darveau for joining What’s In Store and sharing what’s going on with AQMAT in the Province of Quebec.

 

About Us:

What’s in Store is a podcast series of the Hardlines Information Network. Today’s episode is brought to you by Jeld-Wen.

Resources:

Hardlines.ca

Geoff McLarney

Steve Payne
Guest: Richard Darveau

AQMAT

Sponsor: Jeld-Wen

 

Quotes:

AQMAT has changed over the decades. We were created in 1940. It was almost all males that were members and it was only for retailers. With time, we understood that the presence and participation of the suppliers were as important. — Richard Darveau

 

Well Made Here - Bien Fait Ici products have to come from a plant on Canadian territory and be in phase with Canadian standard construction codes and any other Canadian quality standards. So far, they have 7,000 products in the program from about 120 suppliers. — Richard Darveau

 

The sandy brown color of the Well Made Here - Bien Fait Ici logo does not relate to the color of any buying group and it is a color found in many homes and materials. The logo rapidly conveys that it is about homes and Canada but it’s not the Canadian flag. — Richard Darveau