Essex Home Hardware wins national store of the year award

by Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative

Photo submitted by Home Hardware Stores Limited

  It’s been a long hall, but thanks to a lot of dedication and loyalty from staff, the Seguin family’s Essex Home Hardware Building Centre earned the Walter J. Hachborn Store of the Year Award. 

  Home Hardware Stores Limited presented the Proud of My Home Achievement Awards at the 2025 Homecoming hosted in Toronto last week. Its top honour – the Store of the Year Award – recognizes the store that best upholds the values on which Home Hardware was co-founded by Walter J. Hachborn 60-years ago: value, service, and dependability.

  To win this award has been on Dealer-Owner Kimberly Seguin-Gauthier’s wish list for quite some time. So, to win the award was a surreal experience.

  This is the first time either of the Sequin’s stores – Tecumseh and Essex – have earned this prestigious award, though Tecumseh had been nominated in the past.  

  Information from Home Hardware notes the Seguin family’s roots in retail stretch back four generations. Larry’s grandmother first ran a feed store in the region, providing the foundation for his father, Arthur, to partner with Home Hardware’s Walter J. Hachborn in 1965. Larry expanded the business in the 1980s, later welcoming son, Brent, and daughter, Kimberly, into the fold, who now proudly carry on the family tradition.

  The local store was nominated with other candidates leading up to the 2025 Homecoming event. This was the first time since the Seguin family bought the Essex store in 2013 it has been nominated, first qualifying as the winner of the region. It competed against nine stores to win the regional award for the central area. 

  Several factors were taken into consideration when the nominees were assessed for the award, such as community involvement, the store being aesthetically appealing – both internally and externally, and having something that sets it apart from the others.

  “It is just doing the extras,” Seguin-Gauthier said, including the comradery of the team and morale inside the store.

  “When they announced our name, it was kind of a blur to me,” Seguin-Gauthier admitted, still riding an excitement from the big night. “It just happened so fast. It is the last award [of the night] announced.”  

Seguin-Gauthier had to write a speech heading to the banquet, just in case Essex was selected as the winner. “It was kind of a whirlwind…It is still kind of unreal to me.”

  Most importantly, Seguin-Gauthier really wanted her Dad to win the award.

  He has been in the industry for 65-years, 60 of which has been with Home Hardware.

  “So, I really wanted my dad to have that honour,” she said. “My dad has worked so, so hard in his career.

  “He was happy, he was nervous,” Seguin-Gauthier said of her dad’s reaction to winning the award. “He definitely is very happy and got a lot of compliments after the fact about his legacy, his family, and how hard we worked.”

  A big part of Seguin-Gauthier’s presentation in regards to earning the top award was telling the story about the Essex store.

  “This was once a struggling store that nearly closed. To have come this far, it’s an unbelievable achievement,” she said.

  Two-years ago last month, Essex Home Hardware moved from its former Wilson Avenue location to its new 29k square-foot facility with a lumber warehouse attached, on Maidstone Avenue West.

  “The real reason we are here is because of our parents,” she noted when they hosted the grand-opening for the new Essex facility in 2023. Her father and mother, Elain, began the family’s legacy with Home Hardware. She called them “pioneers in the industry.”

  In terms of its ongoing efforts to be involved with the community, Seguin-Gauthier said they are passionate about giving back. For some of the staff, it is full circle to support organizations that have touched their lives in one way or another – like the Essex Area Food Bank or the Breast Cancer Society – by hosting fundraisers.

  “It is important for them to give back, whenever they have the opportunity,” she said, adding her staff really take the reins on those events and are empowered to host those fundraisers. “It’s our staff, 100% our staff, that get that acknowledgement.”

  She video-chatted with them when they received the award.

  Seguin-Gauthier spoke of how there are individuals who work at the Essex location who have been involved longer with the store than her family, and their dedication, support, and loyalty does not go unnoticed and is second to none.

  They stuck around during those tough years and through the transition of the store to the Seguin family.

  Winning the national award goes to show “how hard work pays off,” she said.