A unique and innovative partnership with retail giant The Home Depot has presented Avenue Living Communities with an opportunity to more efficiently maintain and update its rental units, and in a more timely manner.
Instead of Avenue Living going to the store, the store comes to Avenue Living.
Neal Shannon, Senior Vice President of Capital Projects for Avenue Living Asset Management, says the company partnered with The Home Depot around seven years ago to become a key supplier for the company and its residential properties’ renovation projects.
“Until now, the relationship has been straightforward and based on what most of us know about The Home Depot. As you would expect, they have materials in their stores that we would purchase to use in updating and renovating our residential properties. They were our material supplier,” he says. “The Home Depot then approached us with a valuable proposal, offering us solutions to existing problems and continued support and assistance.”
Avenue Living strategically reviewed the offer and found The Home Depot was able to provide solutions to problems they didn’t know even existed and could support them in the residential rental industry. Ultimately, The Home Depot could help Avenue Living complete projects faster, more cost-effectively, and with increased quality.
“There’s no need to buy our own warehousing space or have our own transport trucks for logistics. One of the key benefits of working with a partner such as The Home Depot is they’re one of the largest supply chain managers in North America and are knowledgeable in that field,” explained Shannon.
“We’re able to leverage their expertise in managing inventory, moving inventory around the country, and delivering it to the centres where we need it. There’s value in that. There’s value in allowing them to be good at what they’re good at,” says Shannon.
“A specific improvement to our process that we made from the partnership was the ability to introduce ‘stock shops’ in our regional offices. We looked at our top 100 components, the parts used daily to either renovate our units or address service issues with our residents, and we created shelving space to house them within our offices. The Home Depot then comes once a week and will stock all those components for us. They additionally check our inventory levels and can prepare an order for any needed supplies.” added Shannon.
From an efficiency perspective, it means Avenue Living maintenance associates can spend less time driving to the physical stores and shopping for products needed to conduct their work. Instead, they can productively spend their time in the company’s buildings and residential rental units taking care of business and completing work orders.
Shannon says The Home Depot also offers its own contractor network for installations for anything involved in renovating a house or an apartment.
“Every month, we see a peak in demand. We are able to address and conquer that increase by using the contracting network that The Home Depot offers us,” says Shannon.
The Home Depot remains a key supplier to Avenue Living for larger items such as appliances, flooring, paint, as well as a host of household items such as electrical fixtures, plumbing fixtures, and kitchen cabinets.
Avenue Living has a team of maintenance associates that work through the renovations on their suites and units making them ready for new residents. They are an integral part of the process that helps to ensure the company can deliver quality spaces that everyone deserves.
