Maglio Building Centre may have changed hands, but it will be business as usual under new ownership.
“Virtually nothing has changed here for our employees,” says Pat Beauchamp, son of former owners Russ and Rose Beauchamp. “It’s a very family-based group of guys who have taken over the store, and they don’t want to change anything. They love what we do here, and nobody is in jeopardy of losing their job,” he added.
“The only thing that has really changed is that I don’t work for my family anymore.”
Another B.C. company, called Fraser Valley Building Supplies, announced last week that it had bought the Maglio stores in Trail and Nelson. As an affiliated dealer of RONA, the new owners will run both sites under the RONA banner.
“They have been looking at our business for the last three or four years, keeping any eye on us,” Pat told the Trail Times.
“They know our numbers and that we run a great business, so they saw an opportunity to expand and grow their stores.”
The staff will remain the same, with the exception of one familiar face.
“Russ will remain as a trusted advisor for the next six to eight weeks just to help with the transition period” explained Pat. “Once that time period ends, then he is going to enjoy his retirement, absolutely.”
Over the coming months, the Nelson and Trail stores will be converted to the RONA banner and undergo renovations to enhance customers’ shopping experience, according to the company’s Feb. 21 statement.
In addition to the services and products already available, customers can expect to see new product categories, such as appliances, as well as the introduction of new brands.
Plans also include the launch of online shopping through the rona.ca website with Click-and-Collect and parcel delivery services, making it even easier for customers to to carry out their projects from home.
“There’s going to be a lot of positive things that will happen, but there will be some growing pains in the beginning,” Pat said. “It’s not the first time they’ve bought a store and transitioned it, so they’ve got some very good people here who are going to make that transition as painless as possible.”
Although the store will run under the RONA banner, behind-the-scene operations will remain pretty much as-is.
“They certainly didn’t want to come in here and change everything,” Pat said. “We will use all our same suppliers we have had for years and years, all the buying we do is Canadian and local,” he added.
“And everything on the back end, like our deliveries, our warehousing, our lumber yard and all our trucks are still going to have the Maglio name.”
Since 1997, the Maglio Building Centre has been running from the Waneta Road locale. Collectively, the Trail and Nelson stores feature approximately 50,000-square feet of sales area as well as five acres of lumberyard.
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