Rapid success in Canada's highly competitive home improvement retail market is a result of "thinking outside the big box," according to the division president of Home Depot's Canadian operations.

And it doesn't hurt to focus on some of the hottest commodities in the consumer marketplace, says Annette Verschuren.

"We are in a sweet spot," Verschuren told the Vancouver Board of Trade last week. "Every time someone moves into a new home they invariably find some way to improve it. Sixty-seven per cent of Canadians who own houses will be renovating this year."

Home Depot Canada, she added, has ridden the home improvement wave for the past decade.

Annette Verschuren

"Every newspaper in the country today features stories on home improvement," Verschuren told the board audience, while specialty television channels are heavily devoted to home improvement and gardening content.

And while she admits Home Depot Canada cannot take credit for the renovation boom, the company can make it easier for customers to indulge their fancies, she said.

The popularity of the do-it-yourself (DIY) trend is such that other sectors of the economy are riding on its drop-cloth, she added. "If you watch your commercials on TV, you'll see many other industries are using DIY home-improvement phenomena as a hook to sell their own products - equity bonds, computers, food delivery."

National department stores have also taken up the torch, and Verschuren noted that it is hard to find a chain store today without home improvement departments.

She also contrasted the U.S. and Canadian arms of the company by saying that Home Depot was responsive to change in the U.S. experience, "but has been a catalyst for change in Canada.”

She added she is proud of the number of Canadian vendors that have been introduced to the U.S. market by the company.

In its past decade in Canada, Home Depot has led the growing industry in the face of a variety of challenges, she said. From store design and product assortment to staffing and environmental issues, Verschuren said Home Depot Canada has achieved success by showing the flexibility in all aspects of business to better reflect the needs of the local community. "Bylaws have become more specific, real estate zoning is more stringent and city planning has become much more integral to the process."

She pointed to the company's prototype store for an urban environment, located at Park Royal in West Vancouver. "This is not an easy place to build a store," she told a chuckling audience, clearly mindful of the loud protests big-box format stores have faced on Vancouver's North Shore. "But it's taught us that we have to get much closer to the communities we're in."

Nevertheless, the success of the Vancouver store has been an eye-opener, even for Americans, she added. "We have two stores in Manhattan now that would not have been built without the Park Royal store leading the way," she said. "It's meant a new way to do business for us."

This has meant adapting to the requests of urban customers to reflect a change in size, external architecture and product assortment in smaller 60,000-sq.-ft. stores. "The design needs to be right to meet the needs of the community."

Consistency of service, products and advice is the key to making the smaller, urban format stores work, said Verschuren. Sales associates are subject to the most rigorous training program in the country and are well compensated, she added. She cited the extensive volunteer programs that associates help direct for making them feel more a part of the company and the community. The company plans technical innovation as well, she added, with self check-outs on the horizon.

Another element of Home Depot's company strategy involves tapping a segment of the population not often utilized as an employment source - seniors, who now make up more than 20 per cent of the company's workforce in Canada. The company has a relationship with the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) and "at Home Depot we've found associates of 50 years and older are often the model employee," Verschuren said.

"They are adept at serving the customer, have a great propensity for DIY knowledge, tremendous leadership skills and can make the 50-plus customer much more comfortable."

Verschuren has been with the company since 1996 and has drawn from her experience as president (and co-owner) of Michael's of Canada in the early 1990s.

As the child of Dutch immigrants to the Maritimes, she said her background has stood her in good stead - and insisted that the leadership skills she gained as a cow-milking champion in Cape Breton have been put to good use in her current position.

Future plans for Home Depot anticipate adding 17 new stores to the 121 already in Canada this year, including a location in Squamish.

Verschuren said she sees the biggest challenge for Home Depot as keeping up with the tremendous growth in the marketplace.

(Karen Dyer can be reached at karen@businessedge.ca)