Changes announced for three Sault and area stores
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 by: SooToday.com Staff
NEWS RELEASE
HERITAGE HOME HARDWARE BUILDING CENTRE
Staff and management of Echo Bay, Bruce Station, and Sault Ste. Marie Home Hardware Building Centre have announced that they have joined forces and will now collectively be known as Heritage Home Hardware Building Centre.
Heritage Home Hardware Building Centre is the culmination of a lifelong dream for owners Chris and Tammy Beilhartz of Echo Bay, ON who have owned the Bruce Mines and Echo Bay locations for a number of years.
“We are happy to welcome the Sault Ste. Marie location, its customers and staff to our ‘Home Hardware’ family,” said Chris Beilhartz. “We are excited about the advantages that come with a third location. Increased buying power resulting in more competitive pricing and more efficient delivery times are just an example of some of the benefits that our customers will be able to realize as a result.”
Chris Beilhartz is a fourth generation hardware dealer.
“The Bruce Station store started it all when my great-grandfather, Walter Beilhartz operated, it as a sawmill in the ‘50s.”
It eventually became more of a retail store upon joining Home Hardware in 1971, under his grandfather Chester’s leadership.
Upon his death in ’84, the business was operated by Chris’ father, Wendell, and his aunts Virginia and Debbie.
“I worked at the store since I was 13, working after school and weekends. Throughout high school and university, I wasn’t thinking that the family business was the route for me, but I guess it must be in my blood.”
It wasn’t long after graduating university with a bachelor's degree in business administration that Chris decided to grow the business by taking over what was then the Do-It Centre in Echo Bay in 1999.
In 2009, he purchased the original Bruce Station store and effective July 6, 2012, added the Sault store to the mix.
“In rebranding the stores under the Heritage name, I wanted to make it clear to my customers that we are separate locations of one larger entity. With my family’s history in the business, the name 'Heritage' just made a lot of sense, because I see the business as just that - my heritage.”
About Home hardware Stores Limited
100 percent Canadian owned and operated, Home Hardware Stores Limited has a presence in every Canadian province and territory and is the country's largest independent,
Dealer-owned hardware, lumber, building materials and furniture cooperative.
Founded on January 1, 1964, by 122 independent hardware dealers, the cooperative now includes more than 1,080 stores, under the Home Hardware, Home Building Centre, Home Hardware Building Centre and Home Furniture banners, with annual collective retail sales of more than $5 billion.
Home Hardware's independent dealer-owners, [have been]recognized by the North American Retail Hardware Association as Canada's best-trained dealer.
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