Rona

• Project Details

  Client: RONA
  Category: Home Improvement / Retail
  Location: Canada
  Scope: Strategy, Brand, Activation

• Situation

  For 85 years, RONA has been part of the Canadian home improvement landscape, operating 400+ locations across Canada, a mix of corporate stores and independent dealer stores serving communities from major urban centres to smaller markets. In 2023, Sycamore Partners acquired the brand from Lowe’s and folded over 60 Lowe’s Canada locations into the portfolio — returning RONA to independent ownership and its most significant national expansion in decades. As Lowe’s private label products cleared the shelves, valuable space opened across those stores. RONA had the scale, the legacy, and a country to win.

• Discovery

  We employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative consumer research to better understand the attitudes and behaviours of home improvement professionals and DIYers. The research revealed that customers in those converted stores were engaged, loyal to the category, and ready to commit to a banner that gave them a reason to. At the outset, our task appeared to be attracting two different consumer segments at once. The research revealed something sharper:

  If RONA won with Pros, DIYers would follow.

  The most valuable Pro segment, Passionate Pros, purchased across the widest range of categories, engaged actively with staff and fellow customers, and were significantly more likely to recommend retailers who helped them solve problems. When Pros trusted a brand, DIYers followed. In a category where competitors were differentiating on price and convenience, earning the trust of Passionate Pros was the real opportunity.

• Shift

  The data was decisive. Pros were the faster-growing, more profitable, and more reliable customer.

  Shifting to a Pro-first business would tap into the most valuable segment in the category and catch DIYers in the slipstream.

  FROM Home Improvement Warehouse → TO Expert Destination for Pros

  Winning Pros’ trust would require credibility, expertise, and reliability. RONA’s reinvented Pro-first customer proposition, brand identity, CX strategy, and private label portfolio would need to deliver all three.

• Build

  Redefining RONA as Canada’s Pro-first expert destination gave its banners, experience, and offering a clear role to play.

  Over 60 Lowe’s Canada locations transitioned to RONA+, bringing the big box format under a banner built to carry that scale under a name Canadians had trusted for decades, now sharpened with a bold, contemporary identity in citrus yellow and deep blue that Pros could take seriously and DIYers could rally behind. Test-and-learn locations gave us real-time intelligence on what resonated. A portfolio assessment identified where the greatest value-creation opportunities lay. Grounded in that data, we designed the store of the future.

  Dealer stores got their own expression. Independent dealer locations were equipped with adapted experiences built around the specific needs of their communities, giving local dealers the tools and identity to deliver on the Pro-first promise in a way that felt genuinely rooted.

  Inside every store, RONAPRO became the entry point for connecting with Pros directly, a more credible, more seamless in-store experience built around how they work. A reimagined Pro Desk experience brought Pro-loved products and core services front and centre, including a net-new rental business that gave Pros a reason to keep coming back. Shop-in-shop partnerships with brands Pros already trust (Moen, AutoShack, Scott’s Garden Centre, and DeWalt) deepened credibility and reinforced RONA+ as the expert destination.

  The research revealed three distinct customer white spaces, each requiring its own answer. We built a brand for each. VALU+ serves the value-driven buyer who needs reliable everyday essentials. Landon & Co. speaks to the style-influenced purchase: elevated, design-forward décor where emotional resonance drives the decision. The RONA brand is engineered for the Passionate Pro: high-performance supplies built for people who measure a product by whether it lasts. Each brand carries its own distinct identity and positioning, rooted in what customers needed and the market wasn’t delivering. Three launches became one coherent system, built to serve every customer who walked through the door.

3 Big Takeaways