Princess Auto expanding into Quebec

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This article was published 23/01/2019 (2451 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six years ago, Princess Auto hired a senior retail executive from Quebec in anticipation of its careful expansion into that province.

This week, the Winnipeg-based family-owned retailer announced plans for its second Montreal-area store — both which will open this fall.

When the company hired Marc-André Fournier as its vice-president of operations for Quebec, he worked out of its Panet Road head office for some time, learning the corporate culture. Subsequently, four Quebec store managers were hired more than a year ago to give them the same chance to learn about the company, which is now in its 86th year.

Ken Larson, Princess Auto’s senior vice-president of retail and marketing, said the Quebec market has been on the company’s radar for a long time. He also said it’s a little embarrassing that it’s taken the company so long to get there.

When it opened its second Ottawa-area store in Kanata, Ont., 18 months ago and business was booming, it became clear there was pent-up demand in Quebec.

“We were seeing all these Quebec customers coming across the border to the Kanata store, and we have all kinds of e-commerce orders coming out of Quebec,” Larson said. “It just seemed to be a natural fit.”

Princess Auto has been producing francophone flyers, catalogues and a website for some time. Larson said while there was a language issue behind the cautious effort in entering Quebec, that was not the only reason for the delay in launching stores in the second-most-populous province in the country.

“Obviously, there is a cultural element. You can’t hide from that,” Larson said.

But, he said it also took time to find the retail deals that fit Princess Auto’s model.

As well, he said the slow and careful expansion into Quebec was about Princess Auto learning about the Quebec market.

“It was so important to have Marc-André and his team… understand our business and culture and vice versa,” he said. “We needed to take the time to understand… what kind of market we are going to be in.”

The Laval store will be the 48th store in the chain that has defied the odds in the hyper-competitive hardware category. Princess Auto definitely has a number of products that, for instance, Canadian Tire might also have in its 1,700 locations. But, Princess Auto has retained a clear emphasis on niche items and those hard-to-find items like specialized metal-working tools.

“We look at a lot of the other retailers as places for the do-it-yourselfers,” Larson said. “We cater to the figure-it-outers. We have a neat niche market.”

Princess Auto’s stores are around 40,000 square feet, less than half the size of the stores that Lowe’s, for instance, is opening in Canada.

(Lowe’s is holding the grand opening of its second Winnipeg store today.)

Over the past year, Princess Auto changed its e-commerce model to ship from every one of its locations, rather than from a central distribution hub. Larson said it has really opened up the e-commerce channel for the chain.

“Products and our people are the most important parts of our business, so now our customers can source something from any of our stores online,” he said. “We have a crazy surplus section in all our stores. We pride ourselves in having unique items. People from across the country can see the inventory anywhere, and that is really bolstering sales.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca