. rona inc. type public traded as tsx ron industry home improvement founded 1939 headquarters boucherville quebec canada number of locations over 500 key people robert sawyer acting ceo robert cheerier chairman revenue 4.2 billion cad 2013 1 operating income 332.9 million cad 2009 2 net income 43.2 million cad 2010 2 number of employees approx . 51 584 2010 website rona.ca rona inc. is a canadian retailer of home improvement and construction products and services . founded in 1939 the company operates a mixture of company owned and franchised retailers under multiple banners including rona its big box formats rona home & garden rona l entrep t in quebec and r no d p t as well as smaller brands such as rona cashway marcil centre de r novation and dick s lumber . on february 3 2016 u.s. retailer lowe s announced that it would acquire rona for 3.2 billion pending government approval . lowe s plans to maintain rona s retail brands post merger . contents 1 history 2 rona big box stores 3 references 4 external links history edit this section contains embedded lists that may be better presented using prose . you can help by converting the list or lists to prose if appropriate . editing help is available . november 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message 1939 rona is founded in september as les marchands en quincaillerie the merchants of hardware an alliance of independent montreal area hardware retailers who sought the buying power to bypass wholesalers and deal directly with manufacturers . 1960 july 20 1960 4 ro na name adopted after rolland dansereau and napoleon piotte two of the founders of les marchands en quincaillerie . ro na member stores begin adding the ro na logo to identify themselves as members of the buying co operative . 1982 rona purchased the assets of botanix . 1984 rona created a purchasing alliance with ontario based home hardware stores ltd. through alliance rona home inc. 1988 rona merged with dismat another building materials company to create rona dismat group inc. 1990 rona formed an alliance with hardware wholesalers inc. of fort wayne indiana . 1997 itm entreprises s.a. a france based group invests 30 million in the rona dismat group inc. itm becomes a shareholder and forms a purchasing alliance with rona . 1998 rona eliminates the le quincailleur and dismat names and introduces rona l express rona l express mat riaux and rona le r novateur r gional . it also changes its name from rona dismat group inc. to rona inc. 1999 rona opens a new warehouse adjacent to its headquarters measuring 654 000 square feet 61 000 m doubling its warehousing capacity and achieving considerable cost savings . 2000 rona acquires ontario based cashway building centres with 66 stores . it permanently opens its online store on the rona.ca website . 2001 rona acquires 51 revy home and garden revelstoke home centres located in western canada and lansing ontario stores thus owning many more stores in the greater toronto area . revy was a bc based company . 2002 rona closes a public offering consisting of a total offering of 150.1 million of common shares . rona s common shares are then traded on the toronto stock exchange under the symbol ron . 2003 rona acquires r no d p t inc. from british kingfisher plc including the building box stores . rona also opens its third large distribution centre in calgary alberta . 2004 rona acquires totem building supplies limited an alberta company . rona dream home airs on global . rona also joins the air miles reward program . rona in quebec city 2005 rona dream home 2 airs on global . 2006 rona acquires stephens home centre castle inc. sydney n.s 2006 rona acquires a majority 51 % stake in mat riaux coupal inc. 2006 rona acquires curtis lumber building supplies 2006 rona acquires st. john s nl based chester dawe limited 2007 rona acquires burnaby bc based dick s lumber 2007 rona acquires concord ontario based noble trade 2010 rona acquires pierceys based in nova scotia and through noble trade plomberie payette & perreault based at boucherville qc as well as don park canada and truserv in 2012 the u.s. hardware store chain lowe s attempted to buy rona ; however the deal was met with objections from rona shareholders particularly the caisse and franchisees and was eventually called off . on february 3 2016 rona announced that it had accepted an offer to be acquired by lowe s for cdn 3.2 billion pending regulatory and shareholder approval . 5 post merger lowe s plans to maintain rona s retail banners and continue to employ the vast majority of its current employees and maintain key executives from rona s strong leadership team . lowe s canada will be operated from rona s headquarters in boucherville but remain under the leadership of its current ceo sylvain prud homme . 6 rona big box stores edit in the 1990s under competitive pressure from the home depot and other big box retailers rona established the rona home & garden stores . rona home & garden stores are large ranging from 85 000 to 150 000 square feet 14 000 m2 with a warehouse style similar to the home depot and lowe s. faced with chronic under performance in some markets outside of quebec rona closed six big boxes in 2012 five in ontario and one in british columbia . 7 while the home depot and lowe s stores are all company owned rona home & garden stores are a combination of corporately owned and franchised despite the massive investment required to build such a store . as big box home improvement stores entered the market rona countered by bringing together successful owners of small rona affiliate stores in quebec to invest in one or more big box format stores . many rona home & garden locations in that province thus have local ownership a tradition of the family hardware store and a great deal of flexibility to adapt to the market at store level . most of rona s big box format stores in the rest of canada are entirely corporate owned . r no d p t in sainte foy quebec cashway in milton ontario references edit https www.rona.ca corporate rona announces its fiscal and fourth quarter 2013 results a b rona 2009 annual report pdf . retrieved 2010 05 17 . company profile for rona inc ca ; ron . retrieved 2008 10 09 . rona from 1939 to today isbn 978 2 922068 17 7 saint pierre dr. jacques 2016 02 06 . to rona s shareholders take the money and run . seeking alpha . retrieved 2016 02 08 . lowe s offers 3.2 b to take over canadian rival rona . cbc news . retrieved 3 february 2016 . http www.hardlines.ca newsletter for the retail home improvement industry rona announces latest round of closures external links edit official website corporate site rona s online annual report inspiration magazine for renovation and decor official site for r no d p t wikimedia commons has media related to rona company . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title rona inc. & oldid 743698610 categories companies listed on the toronto stock exchangehardware stores of canadacompanies established in 1939companies based in bouchervilles & p tsx composite index1939 establishments in quebechidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles needing cleanup from november 2012all pages needing cleanuparticles with sections that need to be turned into prose from november 2012commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 19 39 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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