Home Hardware is a privately held Canadian home improvement

Home improvement

Home improvement, home renovation or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home.-Types of home improvement:...

, construction materials, and furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 retailer. Co-founded in 1964 by Walter Hachborn

Walter Hachborn

Walter Hachborn, is a Canadian businessman who is the co-founder of Home Hardware, a Canadian home improvement and construction retailer which supplies to contractors and individual consumers....

 and headquartered in St. Jacobs, Ontario

St. Jacobs, Ontario

The community of St. Jacobs is located in southwest Ontario, just north of Waterloo in Woolwich Township, Waterloo Region. It is a popular location for tourism, due to its Mennonite heritage and retail focus. The Conestogo River, which powered the village's original gristmill, runs through the...

, the chain is cooperative

Cooperative

A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...

ly owned by over 1000 independently owned member stores.
Home Hardware consists of four separate banners, offering goods such as the following:

• Home Hardware – housewares, tools, paint, garden supplies
• Home Building Centre – lumber, plumbing and electrical supplies, building materials
• Home Hardware Building Centre – full range of Home Hardware and Home Building Centre items
• Home Furniture – furniture and major appliances

Home Hardware store brand

Store brand

Store brands are a line of products sold by a retailer under a single marketing identity. They bear a similarity to the concept of House brands, Private label brands in the United States, own brands in the UK, and home brands in Australia and generic brands...

s are well known in Canada and include:

• Beauti-Tone (paint)
• Benchmark (tools)
• Home Plumber
• Home Handyman
• Home Gardener
• Home-Bond (glues)
• Vincette (bicycles)
• River Trail (camping supplies)
• Natura (green products)
• Classic (lighting and plumbing fixtures)
• Unival (automotive)
• Wood-Shield (stain purposes)

In 1981 the Eastern-based Home Hardware merged with Western-based Link Hardware to create a national chain.

Home Hardware has survived the expansion of The Home Depot into Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, beginning in 1994, as well as the expansion of a domestic competitor, Rona

Rona (company)

Rona Inc. is a Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, home improvement and gardening products. Rona was founded in 1939. Rona operates a network of some 700 stores and is the leading distributor and retailer in its market with approximately 51,594 employees. The Rona network represents...

, into the big-box arena.

Home Hardware locations tend to be smaller stores.

In 2000, the chain expanded through the purchase of the Beaver Lumber

Beaver Lumber

Beaver Lumber was a Canadian building supply chain owned by Molson. It was once Canada's fourth largest building supply chain with 138 stores. In 2000 it was purchased by Home Hardware, a cooperative of over 1000 independent Canadian hardware stores...

 chain from Molson

Molson

Molson-Coors Canada Inc. is the Canadian division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Molson Coors Brewing Company. It is the second oldest company in Canada after the Hudson's Bay Company. Molson's first brewery was located on the St...

.

On January 11, 2003, Home Hardware received unexpected worldwide exposure, when a T-shirt

T-shirt

A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....

 worn by Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne

Avril Ramona Lavigne is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, but spent most of her youth in the small town of Napanee. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain; by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more...

 during a performance on Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

featured her hometown of Napanee, Ontario and the local hardware store there.