Home Depot to open new Greater Toronto distribution centre catering to pros

The Home Depot is opening a new distribution centre in the Greater Toronto Area that will help the company cater to its biggest customers.

The Home Depot is opening a new distribution centre in the Greater Toronto Area that will help the company cater to its biggest customers.

The home improvement retailer announced the centre Thursday, saying it will open in the first half of the year in Mississauga, near the Pearson airport.

The facility will target “pro customers” — homebuilders, contractors, remodellers and others who often work on bigger, more complex projects and need large quantities of materials.

Serving these kinds of customers through its retail stores has at times been “not optimal,” said Michael Rowe, president of The Home Depot Canada.

“You may not have all the volume necessary to satisfy their order and so we would cobble together product from other stores or sometimes we just couldn’t say yes to that order,” he said.

When the Home Depot could handle such orders, the merchandise these customers were seeking was often so large or the quantity they needed so high, store staff would often need to fetch products from atop the chain’s mammoth storage units.

“You’re having to block off the aisle, so it’s not the greatest customer experience,” he said.

The Home Depot is betting that its new centre — and three others coming in Detroit, southern Los Angeles and San Antonio — will dramatically change that experience.