Rona

In September 1939, Rona was founded as "Les Marchands en Quincaillerie" (The Merchants of Hardware), an alliance of independent Montreal-area hardware retailers who sought the buying power to bypass wholesalers and deal directly with manufacturers to get around a monopoly that threatened their ability to access supplies. Within two years they opened their first warehouse, and in 1946 held their first dealer show.

On July 20, 1960, the Ro-Na name was adopted, named after Roland Dansereau and Napoleon Piotte, co-founders of Les Marchands en Quincaillerie. Ro-Na member stores began adding the Ro-Na logo to identify themselves as members of the buying co-operative. M. Dansereau held controlling interest in the company until 1962, when M. Piotte and ten other dealers bought his shares and formed a true dealer co-operative, which they renamed Le Groupe Rona Inc.

In 1982, Rona purchased the assets of Botanix. In 1984, Rona created a purchasing alliance with Ontario-based Home Hardware Stores Ltd. through Alliance Rona Home Inc. In 1988, Rona merged with Dismat, another building materials company, to create Rona Dismat Group Inc. In 1990, Rona formed an alliance with Hardware Wholesalers, Inc. of Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1992, Robert Dutton was appointed as President and CEO of Rona. In 1997, ITM Entreprises S.A., a France-based group, invested $30 million in the Rona Dismat Group Inc. ITM became a shareholder and created a purchasing alliance with Rona.

In 1998, Rona stopped using the Le Quincailleur and Dismat names and introduced Rona L'express, Rona L'express Matériaux and Rona Le Rénovateur Régional. Rona also changed its name from Rona Dismat Group Inc. to Rona Inc. In 1999, Rona opened a new warehouse adjacent to its headquarters, measuring 654,000 square feet (ca. 6 ha), doubling its warehousing capacity. In the year 2000, Rona acquired Ontario-based Cashway Building Centres, with 66 stores. In the same year, Rona opened its online store on the rona.ca website. In 2001, Rona acquired 51 Revy Home and Garden (based in British Columbia), Revelstoke Home Centres (located in Western Canada) and Lansing Building Supply (based in North York, Ontario since 1951 and merged with Revelstoke in 1998) stores, thus owning many more stores in the Greater Toronto Area.

In 2002, Rona closed a public offering consisting of a total offering of $150.1 million in common shares. Rona's common shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "RON". In 2003, Rona acquired Réno-Dépôt Inc. from British Kingfisher plc, including The Building Box stores. Rona also opened its third large distribution centre in Calgary, Alberta. In 2004, Rona acquired Totem Building Supplies Limited, an Alberta company. Rona also joined the Air Miles Award Program the same year, allowing customers to gain Air Miles points while shopping at the store. Two TV shows sponsored by Rona, Rona Dream Home and Ma Maison Rona, were released in 2004.

In 2006, Rona acquired Stephens Home Centre/Castle Inc, a company based in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Rona also acquired a majority (51%) stake in Matériaux Coupal Inc. as well as Curtis Lumber Building Supplies and Chester Dawe Limited, a company based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2007, Rona acquired Dick's Lumber, a company based in Burnaby, British Columbia. In 2007, Rona acquired Noble Trade, a company based in Concord, Ontario. In 2009, My Rona Home first aired. In 2010, Rona acquired Pierceys, a company based in Nova Scotia, Plomberie Payette & Perreault, a company based in Boucherville, Quebec, Moffatt & Powell, a company based in London, Ontario, Don Park Canada, and TruServ.

In 2012, the U.S. hardware store chain Lowe's attempted to buy Rona; however, the deal was met with objections from Rona shareholders (particularly the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) and franchisees, and was eventually called off. On February 3, 2016, Rona announced that it had accepted an offer to be acquired by Lowe's for CDN$3.2 billion, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. Post-merger, Lowe's planned to maintain Rona's retail banners, and to "continue to employ the vast majority of its current employees and maintain key executives from Rona's strong leadership team". Lowe's Canada was operated from Rona's headquarters in Boucherville, but remained under the leadership of its CEO Sylvain Prud'homme. The purchase was closed in May 2016. In December 2016, Lowe's announced that it planned to convert selected Rona-branded stores to the Lowe's brand.

In 2019, acting upon a public complaint, Advertising Standards Canada ruled that Rona's continued display of signage such as "Truly Canadian" and "Proudly Canadian" on storefronts following the sale to the American-based Lowe's was misleading. Rona subsequently removed the signage.

Rona is a participant in the voluntary Scanner Price Accuracy Code managed by the Retail Council of Canada.

Big box stores

In the 1990s, Rona established the Rona Home & Garden stores. Rona Home & Garden stores are large, ranging from 85,000 to 150,000 square feet (7,900 to 13,900 m2), with a warehouse-style similar to The Home Depot and Lowe's. Faced with chronic under-performance in some markets outside of Quebec, Rona closed six big box stores in 2012, five in Ontario and one in British Columbia.

While stores of Home Depot and Lowe's as well as the defunct Réno-Dépôt chain have always been company owned, Rona Home & Garden locations were until 2015 a combination of corporately owned and franchised. As warehouse home improvement stores entered the market, Rona had brought together successful owners of small Rona affiliate stores in Quebec to invest in one or more big box format stores despite the massive investment required to build such outlets. Thus many Rona Home & Garden locations in that province had local ownership, a tradition of the family hardware store, and a great deal of flexibility to adapt to the market at the store level. Barring a few locations in Ontario, almost all of Rona's big-box format stores in the rest of Canada were entirely corporate-owned. In 2015, Rona acquired all remaining Rona Home & Garden franchise stores across the country to make the big box chain wholly owned by the company.

In December 2016, Lowe's Canada announced that 40 large-format Rona stores outside of Quebec would be rebranded under the Lowe's name, as part of an effort to re-position the Rona brand for mid-size stores.