Snow Shovels are Distributed Nationwide

This week I visited Home Hardware stores in Annapolis Royal, Bridgetown, Digby, Pugwash, Springhill, Wallace, West Pubnico, Weymouth & Yarmouth Home Hardware to present our Reverse D-handle Snow Shovels. I delivered & set up our products at Co-op Country stores & Home Hardware in Amherst, Middleton & Wolfville Nova Scotia.

16 years ago, I was building our Take-Down Buck saw in my apartment on Robie Street in Halifax Nova Scotia. Today, Trail Blazer products are sold by 20,000 retailers in 43 countries, including Home Hardware, Lee Valley Tools and Amazon.com. Now we’re adding snow-removal products! We noticed that when Home Hardware stores take down their pruning equipment from the displays, snow shovels went up, and we wanted a part of that. The new product frontier is promising, and I’m pleased to add a product line that will help to even out sales throughout the year. Trail Blazer’s Reverse D-Handle Snow Shovels are distributed nationwide through G. Hjukstrom Limited and participating Home Hardware dealers. Still, I’m concerned & fighting some current realities. With a high Canadian dollar, looming US protectionism, and fierce competition from China, the challenges aren’t over for a business that sells 73% of its products outside of Canada.

G. Hjukstrom Limited is located in Surrey, British Columbia with warehouses across Canada. Offering automotive, industrial, hardware, security & sporting good products to dealers across Canada. You can contact them by phone (604-882-8211) Fax (604-882-9229), Toll Free Fax (1-877-883-8833) or e-mail [email protected] . You can also visit their website http://hjukstrom.com

When I visited Home Hardware Stores to introduce our Reverse D-handle Snow Shovels, not only did they show interest in our shovels, they showed interest in our full pruning assortment. Part of Trail Blazer’s pruning line is branded as Mark’s Choice exclusively to Home Hardware, so for the first time this week we set up our complete 4 foot assortment, combining both the Trail Blazer & Mark’s Choice brand pruning gear at Rafuse Home Hardware located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. This assortment includes signage telling the story of Trail Blazer Products Limited “A Nova Scotia Owned & Operated Company” and their relationship with Mark’s Choice Limited ”Mark Cullen … Canada’s gardening expert!”.

The expansion of Trail Blazer products throughout Co-op Atlantic stores continued this week. With our first display at Scotian Gold in Coldbrook and after our presentation at Co-op Atlantic in Moncton last week, we were please to add a display to the Country Stores in Amherst & Middleton Nova Scotia.

Back at the office, I’m pleased to see improvements continue with productivity exceeding 90% efficiency and continued reductions in our expenses. Once again, Kelli Gouchie is on top of this, as she examined our employee benefits and changed our provider. This change will save the company over $7,000 a year. Now our entire team will increase their focus on improving inventory management to reduce expenses caused by back orders.

It is an absolutely great feeling for me to see the excitement for improving productivity & efficiency spreading among the entire staff at Trail Blazer. I would like to thank everyone at Trail Blazer Products Limited for all their hard work & appreciated dedication towards our promising future and growth.

All the Best, Shawn Levangie