Meet Steve and Olly, the new owners of Mayne Island’s Home Hardware store.
They purchased the store from Colleen and Brian Dearden five months ago. Brian and Colleen ran the store for about 15 years, and now, Steve and Olly are taking the baton to continue helping Islanders build or maintain their home and garden, undertake renovations, or build a brand new house.
It's not the first time Steve follows in Brian’s footsteps. When Brian and Colleen took over the hardware store from John and Kathy Moore, Steve took over from Brian building kit homes. Steve has a lot of building and renovation expertise, while Olly has lots of retail experience, having worked in the store for many years.
I interviewed Olly and Steve to get to know them personally, and to learn about the purchase transaction.
Hello Steve, Olly.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with me about you taking over the Home Hardware store.
We’ve been talking about doing this interview since before you took over the store in April, but reality hit and you were both incredibly busy, working seven days a week. I think you still work seven days a week putting your own stamp on the store, so I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today.
Steve: Yep, we’re still really busy, but we’re happy to take a few minutes to chat.
That’s great, thank you.
We’ll get to questions about the store in a few minutes, but first, tell us a bit more about who you are – how you both came to Mayne Island.
Olly: Sure, so I'm from the UK, as you can hear from my accent. I'm an army brat, so I moved around, and having a September birthday, it got complicated, so I went to boarding school in Kent.
And when did you come to Canada?
Olly: 1999.
Did you come by yourself or with someone?
Olly: No, I met a chap.
And you came to Vancouver?
Olly: Yes. And then I left the chap and went back to England for two years and then came back and moved to Mayne Island.
You arrived on Mayne in what year?
Olly: In 2005.
What about you, Steve, where are you from?
Steve: I was born in Surrey and raised in Delta. I came to Mayne in April 2002, and I've been here ever since.
What made you decide Mayne might be a good place to live and work?
Steve: I just had gone through a divorce and my employer decided to reengineer my job after 18 years. It was in manufacturing. I started out as a labourer and worked my way to management and became a production manager.
As the company grew, they started getting too many managers and they decided to let me go.
My parents had retired on Mayne Island. They suggested I come here if I wanted a new lifestyle, so I came here and haven’t looked back.
What about you, Olly, how did you end up on Mayne Island.
Olly: I discovered Mayne Island through the Cob building projects. My ex-husband did a cob course. And I came over here and met Kit Maloney and Pat Hennebery.
At about the same time, I also went through a divorce. Kit and Pat were pretty much only other people I knew in Canada. And there was a nice body of water between me and my ex-husband – a little buffer. Not too far, but far enough.
So yes, I moved here with a 3-year-old and 5-year-old.
Did you build cob houses?
Olly: I didn't. I just came here and enjoyed spending time with that crowd. It was a lot of fun – Cob builders are a friendly bunch!
And then by fluke, you met Steve?
Olly: Well, I actually met Steve at the hardware store. I was already working here, and he was a customer.
He was a nice enough customer, but we were both in relationships, so our conversations were something like “here are your 2x4s, have a nice day!”
Steve: Our relationships ended and then we started talking outside the store, at the Spring Water, in fact. And then, soon after that, at the store, you said something to me that was a bit insulting…
Olly: Ohh yes, but then I but then I called you to apologize.
When I hung up, you called me back and we talked about non-work stuff and I thought 'Ohh, he's actually quite smart. And surprisingly funny…'
That's interesting. So, you've been involved with the store since that time, Olly?
Olly: Well, no, I so I started work here in about 2009. And then I hurt my back, so I went to work at the insurance office for a decade. After a while, I didn’t see the insurance industry really responding to climate change in the way I thought it should. I wasn't comfortable in that line of work anymore, so I decided to do something else, and I knew I could probably come back to Home Hardware.
You said you have two children. How old are they now and where do they live?
Olly: Both my kids grew up on Mayne. Xavier is 24 and he’s finishing his welding course, and my daughter Unity, 22, manages Soupa Café, in Victoria.
And Steve, you have children too, right?
Steve: I have two, yes, in Delta. Jessica's 37 and my son, Jeremy is 30, plus two grandkids now.
Continuing with your family, Steve, your mom lives on the island, right?
Steve: She and my dad moved here in the early 80s. They originally bought a recreational property and then they sold that. And then they bought a place over in Sandy Hook.
My dad passed away quite a few years ago, so my mom's been on her own ever since. But she keeps herself quite busy…
Olly: She's in every club!
I know you don’t have much free time these days, but when you’re relaxing or not working, and not doing construction, what do you like to do?
Steve: I love fishing, boating and smoking food. I enjoyed putting a smoker together, so it's kind of a hobby of mine. I want to build another one, but this one will be on a trailer…
And what about your hobbies, Olly?
Olly: I love reading sci-fi. I'm voracious reader! And I love gardening and tooling around with arts and crafts, but mostly reading and gardening.
Steve: She reads a book every 2 days!
Wow. That’s some fast reading! Back to Mayne Island, what is Mayne Island's best hidden gem, or gems?
Steve: I’d have to say the people, the community.
How people tend to rally around each other in times of need and stuff like that. I think that's a real big attribute of the Island. People are always willing to help others in trouble, or in times of difficulty – that’s solid trait of the Island.
Olly: yes, the Meredyth James Fund is a good example. Plus, there are so many people volunteering for all kinds of causes.
Steve: You have the Lions, the Japanese Memorial Gardens, the community garden, MIALS, the Housing Society, the Food Bank, the list is endless. And it's all volunteer-run.
The composition of the Island is changing with a lot of new people buying property in the last few years. In your opinion, are the new residents, full-time or part-time, blending-in in the same way and have the same community spirit, or are you feeling the Island is changing?
Steve: I think there's a new guard, so to speak, right? Because we've had all these people that are long-term Islanders, but a lot of the new people are jumping in and helping too. And so, there is a bit of a change.
Olly: I've seen lots of the new people jumping in to help and really be part of the community. It's fresh energy and that’s good.
Steve: It is, and we're seeing more young families come to the island. During COVID, people discovered that they could work from home, so if they can work remotely, then they're coming to the Island. We're seeing more kids in the school and people getting more active in community causes.
I'd like to go back to construction, Steve. You've been doing work here in the construction industry for about 20 years. Do you have a sense of how many projects you worked on?
Steve: When I worked for Aaron Somerville, it was a house about every two years or so – mostly custom projects.
Then Brian and Colleen took over the lumberyard in 2008. It’s at that time that I took over from Brian, building house kits from Pacific Homes. I was probably doing three houses every two years, so, I've built quite a few homes on Mayne Island over that time.
In about 2012, I went back to work for Aaron for about three or four years, did a couple of homes with him there and then back over to my own.
I ended up finding a niche doing renovations, so that was pretty much where I ended up.
Olly: Well, you say renovations, but it was mostly total gut jobs...
Steve: Right, pretty much.
OK. So, walk me through that process of when you heard they were going to sell the store and when did you start thinking “hey, maybe we could buy it”?
Steve: Olly came back to work at the store in January 2023 with the idea that we could possibly buy it.
We’d heard prior to that Brian and Colleen were interested in selling and we weren't really thinking about it seriously at that time, but then one night we got into this conversation about how we could do it.
So then, we met with Brian and Colleen over dinner and came to an agreement in principle.
Not long after that the transaction process started, but it took longer than we had anticipated with so many people getting their fingers in the pie from both sides, including bankers and lawyers.
We were ready to go in October-November of 2023, but there is a process with Home Hardware. They want to make sure you’re a good fit as an owner, and there there’s a fair amount of training that buyers must go through.
We were hoping to take over January of 2024, but in the end, it wasn’t until April 1st that the transaction was completed.
Olly: In the end, April Fool’s Day was the perfect day to take over – haha!
And the store came with cats?
Olly: Haha! Yes, Juno and Luna. Customers love them. They tend to sleep all day next to the cash register, and they're on pest-control duty at night...
Steve: They're our guard cats!
Tell me about the training you received from Home Hardware.
Steve: The training program is called Solid Base and it’s available online. We completed that and we both got certificates. Home Hardware has a lot of good training videos and courses online for all our employees.
Prices at Home Hardware are competitive. I once checked prices of lumber and it was cheaper here, but sometimes, things are a bit cheaper in Victoria or Vancouver. Tell me how prices are set at the store.
Steve: Our main warehouse for Home Hardware products is in Wetaskiwin, Alberta.
Here on Mayne, we’re considered “a remote location”, so we pay additional costs for freight. Products are shipped to Sidney and we send a truck and driver to pick up the Home Hardware items. Because of that, some of our products may be priced slightly higher, or priced about the same.
We also buy some products direct from some suppliers. Home Hardware has preferred suppliers and we're pretty competitive in that market for the most part.
Olly: I had a customer from the mainland tell me that he's bidding for a job, and he was asking me the price of lumber. He's like “what?!, that’s cheaper than here in Vancouver!”
Steve: We’re competitive in most areas, but here’s an example of where we can't be as competitive: the self-levelling floor product we sell. Our cost on it is about the same as what some stores sell it for, so because of freight, we can’t sell it for the same price as what they sell it for, but we carry it here and we offer convenience, so clients don’t have to make a special trip to town to pick it up.
Olly: Home Hardware stores are all independently owned. We operate under the same banner, but we're independent. Comparing Mayne Island’s Home Hardware with Rona or Home Depot is like comparing Farm Gate or Tru Value with Walmart.
Steve: But we try to keep prices as low as possible. For instance, I just did a special deal for Milwaukee tools. I bought from Milwaukee direct, but through Home Hardware, so we got very competitive pricing for great tools.
So, some items are cheaper, some are about the same price, and some are going to cost a bit more here. But shopping here supports the local economy. You employ many islanders, and you give back to the community, like the recent chainsaw give-away, where you raised about $500 for MIALS (Mayne Island Assisted Living).
Olly: That's our favorite thing.
Steve: Our employees have been fantastic with the with the transfer of ownership. They've all got years of experience here and they're very familiar with products we sell.
I mean, all the way from our manager, Travis to young Andrew, who’s a teenager. They've been fantastic – every single one of them has been incredible with the transition. We couldn't be happier with that aspect of it and the knowledge that employees have is very helpful to local clients, for sure.
What's been the biggest challenge as you took over the store on April 1?
Olly: Getting time off!
Steve: Yes, lack of time off, but you know, I expected it. For me, it's all about learning and understanding the business. Because I still have lots to learn, I come in at 7:00 in the morning and work till after 5, seven days a week. I expect I’ll do that until I’m totally comfortable with the store and the business.
So, in other words, work life – balance has been challenging…
Olly: Yep, right out the window – haha!
Any business challenges?
Olly: Yes, I have one. I've been trying hard to find a feed supplier for chicken and big animal feed. We want to find a supplier that’ll allow us to bring down prices because we’re higher than competitors in town.
Why are we more expensive? Because we’re limited in our storage capacity, so we're not buying big enough volume to get lower prices. So that’s a challenge that has me beaten. For now. But I’m not giving up!
Steve: No, we're not giving up on that… Another challenge is the lack of retail space. We’re a small store and Home Hardware has thousands and thousands of products we don't carry because we don't have the space. So that's a challenge. Home Hardware helps us by making “planograms” available to us.
Planograms help us organize and present products professionally. Our goal is to adopt more planograms to better display the items we sell.
Olly: Right now, I dream in planograms!
Steve: The Milwaukee products are set up as a planogram. Same with the Swiffer area, and we're working on the lighting section.
We're slowly moving our way through the store, but the challenge is proper storage and especially for some of our outdoor product, because it's always exposed to the elements and potential theft.
Are there other things you've improved, or that you would like to change to improve the customer experience?
Olly: Steve handles the lumber, building materials and the tools side of the business and I'm interested in bringing-in more sustainable products. Introducing alternatives to Ziplock bags, for example. We’ll continue to supply Ziplocks, but I think that there’s a large segment of our customer base that is environmentally conscious and we can help the planet a little bit – one step at a time.
Steve: We could also access to the yard through Whalen Road more. We’d like to expand the Garden Center and make that area bigger and more pleasant for people to walk through – would be a perfect place for more seasonal products.
Are there any things that you'd like to add that you want the community to know about you, as community members and business owners?
Steve: I’d like to thank Brian and Colleen for working with us as we worked through a pretty complicated process for this transaction. We appreciate their patience, and most of all, we appreciate how the community has been supportive and encouraging.
I’m also very grateful to have Travis, our store manager. He’s been here for seven years, so he has a wealth of knowledge and he's a fantastic manager.
Olly: I have a “Colleen list” going all the time, so every time I see her, I ask her questions and pick her brain I’m so grateful for her help and knowledgeable advice.
Anything else you’d like to share, in closing?
Steve: Again, we really appreciate all the support we’ve received from Mayne Islanders and from our employees. We’ll continue to provide the best possible product knowledge and expertise to our loyal customers.
Olly: And we’ll continue to provide great customer service and a nice array of products at competitive prices. For us and all Islanders, the phrase “shop local” has a true and very meaningful impact the families of employees, on residents at large, and because we try to support many of the Island’s charities, it benefits nearly everyone.
Thank you so much for your time and all you do, Steve and Olly, and I wish you years of continued happiness and success running the store.
Thank you, Marc, for shopping at Home!!
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