By David F. Rooney
Home Hardware Building Centre-Revelstoke — the locally owned business with a well-deserved reputation for customer service — will, on January 31, be part of someone else’s corporate empire. That’s the day that Gerry and Barry Ozero conclude the sale of their family-owned business.
“It’s time to retire,” Gerry said in an interview on Monday morning. “I’m going to spend time on the mountain and Barry’s got his eye on a couple of Percherons.”
With over 20 employees and sales of $2.5 million, the company, started by the brothers’ dad, Pete Ozero, has always been a prominent one in town.
Gerry would not say who they have been negotiating with. “That’s confidential,” he said.
However, speculation around town is that it is being purchased by a woman from Calgary who already owns a number of Home Hardware franchises on Vancouver Island.
What will this mean for store’s employees and, by extension, the rest of the community? It is unlikely that there will be any immediate wholesale changes. One thing unlikely to change is the businesses’ dedication to customer service. That has always been a hallmark of the business — so much so it was praised for it in Kootenay Business magazine. There was always someone on the floor who could help you find what you needed and their product knowledge was really pretty good. If you needed something and they didn’t have it they and their staff would tell you “we can have it for you next Tuesday.”
But, as Gerry puts it: “change is change.”
