The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Home Hardware Stores chief executive officer Terry Davis says a do-it-yourself approach has served him well in the brutal home-improvement retail wars. The Globe's Marina Strauss writes that Mr. Davis has built Home Hardware into an unlikely contender against United States powerhouses Home Depot and Lowe's, as well as Rona ($14.29). Privately held Home Hardware, a co-operative of owners of 1,060 stores with more than $5.4-billion in annual sales, has managed to gain market share in the $40.7-billion Canadian sector over past years and remain a significant player. Home Hardware ranks a close third in sales to Rona and Home Depot. Mr. Davis fights the big-box stores partly by borrowing from the DIY model of the Mennonite community in St. Jacobs (Home Hardware's headquarters), picking up on its "culture of self-sufficiency." Mr. Davis says, "That strong culture in our area has seeped into the psyche of Home Hardware over the years." He says Home Hardware benefited from Rona's troubles, strategic shifts and opposition from its own independent dealers to an unfriendly takeover proposal from Lowe's in 2012.