St. Jacobs, ON, August 18, 2010 - Home Hardware Stores Limited truck driver, Shawn Matheson, won the Grand Champion award at the Ontario Truck Driving Championships. Shawn took 1st place in the Tandem Tandem class and received the highest points overall - making him the Grand Champion.

"Safety on the roads is extremely important," says Shawn. "I have been driving for 10 years and I take a lot of pride in my job. As a professional driver, I am on the road every day. I strongly believe we need to do our part to enhance road safety by leading by example."

Shawn Matheson is from Listowel, Ontario. Shawn, along with the other 1st place class winners, will be representing Ontario at the National Professional Truck Driving Championships which will be on September 16th to 19th in Winnipeg.

"I'd like to congratulate Shawn on this significant accomplishment," said Paul Straus, President and CEO, Home Hardware Stores Limited. "His hard work and dedication to safety is commendable. We are very proud of our drivers who consistently perform to the highest of standards."

Home Hardware was well represented at the championships with Ernest Streicher, placing second in the B-Train class and Wayne Ballagh placing third. Joe Kuntz placed second in straight truck and Bryon Winfield placed fourth in single tandem class.

Home Hardware recently received the Safest Large Fleet Award at the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada's (PMTC) annual conference. With more than 75 per cent of the miles it covers considered ‘long-haul', the Home Hardware fleet runs approximately 17 million kilometres a year while serving stores coast-to-coast from the company's four distribution centres. Home Hardware previously won the Safest Large Fleet Award in 2005 and 2008.

About Home Hardware

Home Hardware Stores Limited is Canada's largest independent hardware, lumber and building materials and furniture retailer with 1,070 stores across Canada, under the Home Hardware, Home Building Centre, Home Hardware Building Centre and Home Furniture banners. Dealers have access to 100,000 quality brand name and private label products and the company has annual retail sales of $4.85 billion. The cooperative was founded on January 1, 1964 by 122 independent hardware Dealers.

For further information, contact:

Rob Wallace
Home Hardware Stores Limited
(519) 664-4710
rob.wallace@homehardware.ca