Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter
Hardware and Lumber's head office at 697 Spanish Town Road, St. Andrew photographed on March 31, 2005. - ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
RAPID TRUEVALUE will be the new name of the entity formed from the retail arm of the Hardware and Lumber (H&L) group. The rebranding was announced by H&L's chief executive officer, John Mahfood, at the group's annual general meeting which was held at its Spanish Town Road offices last week.
"It captures the heritage of Rapid Sheffield and the strength of True Value," said Mr. Mahfood. The result of testing among several customer focus groups, the rebranding will be effected during the course of this summer.
"It was important to develop a single brand, which would present the retail identity in a compelling, aligned and more efficient manner," Mr Mahfood stated in the company's annual report. He continued, "At the end of the day the name ... satisfies the consumers' need o retain the major elements of the two dominant brands and at the same time achieve brand unity."
The new entity will encompass the four retail brands: - H&L True Value, Rapid and Sheffield Company Limited, Carib Enterprise as well as Colour Choice. These were inherited when Hardware and Lumber Limited and Rapid and Sheffield Company merged in 2004.
Fifteen stores will be rebranded under the Rapid True Value brand. There are an additional five agriculture stores which carry the AgroGrace brand.
Mr. Mahfood said that the group would use some of the capital raised from the rights issue last November, which increased the company's share capital by 12.5 million shares and raised over $350 million, to fund its information technology system upgrade.
The improvement in its information technology system is expected to cost about J$62 million and will provide the stores with an efficient point-of-sale system, improve procurement and provide management with accurate and up to date information.
According to the CEO, H&L was positioning itself to deal with international competition and to be the preferred hardware store in Jamaica. "We're going to see more and more competition from overseas," he said.
Mr. Mahfood also announced that a store encompassing 17,000 square feet was under construction in Ocho Rios to replace two smaller, existing stores. Plans are also in place for two agriculture stores in Mandeville and Montego Bay.
While declaring that 2004 "has been a reasonably success for us ... and the merger delivered what we planned," Mr. Mahfood cautioned that, "We're going to see more and more competition from overseas."
