Rona goes into building materials

The Canadian home improvement retailer, Rona, has acquired a 51 per cent interest in Matériaux Coupal, which is one of the leading builders' merchants in the greater Montréal area. It is planned to complete the acquisition during the first half of 2006. Coupal operates six outlets with a combined sales area of 50 000 m² (plus 150 000 m² outdoors). The company achieved sales of CDN $ 125 mio (€ 90.5 mio) in 2005 with a workforce of 540.