Building Real Relationships

As Seen in The Construction Source Magazine – May 2026

www.theconstructionsource.ca/digital_magazine/2026/may/

Hewson Brothers Building Supply is a family-run business that has long been at the forefront of delivering high-quality building materials and expert service to construction projects across Southern Ontario, Niagara, and the Greater Toronto Area. For over four generations and 100 years, they have taken immense pride in understanding and meeting the unique needs of their customers and community.

Today, from their primary locations in Brantford and Cambridge – and from their specialized acoustic solutions division in Concord – Hewson Brothers provides customers a comprehensive range of interior and exterior construction materials, along with award-winning service supported by an extensive fleet of delivery trucks. They have grown and expanded over the years, but they haven’t left their founding values behind. Their goal now is to offer the product depth and competitive prices of a large multinational company combined with the personal service of a local business.

“We build personal relationships with our clients at the ownership level,” explains Jeff Stoner, the company’s vice president. “Our ownership group is very active and hands-on. We deal with clients one-on-one, face-to-face. When there’s a problem, clients can reach out and get an answer from the owners right away. With many of our larger competitors, that’s not possible – in a lot of cases, their senior management team isn’t even in Canada.”

“We treat our customers like people,” adds Beth Marchant, marketing specialist. “We treat them the way we would expect to be treated if we were purchasing something. We answer our phones. We make sure they’re getting exactly what they need and asked for. And we take a level of pride in our work. For us, it’s not just about the sale, it’s about the relationship. I would say that’s a very large part of why we are as successful as we are.”

The company now known as Hewson Brothers was originally formed over 100 years ago as a local contractor in Southern Ontario, working on homes and commercial projects. After decades on the tools, the family saw an opportunity to use their jobsite knowledge and experience to support other builders. In 1983, they made the transition from construction to building supply, opening their first location in Brantford to provide contractors with the products they need to be successful.

Since that pivotal transition, Hewson Brothers has grown steadily, expanding to a second full-service location in Cambridge and later opening their specialty ceilings and acoustic solutions division in the Concord area. Today, with a full team spanning sales, operations, warehouse, and delivery, the company serves a robust and loyal customer base across Southern Ontario, the Niagara region, and the GTA.

That growth has been built on the foundation of long-standing relationships — with customers, with industry associations, and with the manufacturers whose products lines Hewson Brothers’ suppliers. Many of those supplier partnerships stretch back decades, some to the very early days of the building supply operation.

To compete at the scale required in today’s market while maintaining independence, Hewson Brothers is a member of the AD Buying Group, one of the largest buying cooperatives in the industry. The membership allows the company to pool its purchasing power with other independent suppliers across Canada, enabling Hewson Brothers to offer the pricing depth of a large-format retailer without sacrificing the character of a locally owned business.

“There aren’t a lot of independents left,” Beth notes. “Being able to pool our buying power to compete on a large-scale format is fantastic – and a lot of that is because of the relationships we’ve built over the last 40 years with the same manufacturers we were selling to in the ’80s.”

One example of a longstanding partner would be CertainTeed, which is one of North America’s leading manufacturers of sustainable interior and exterior building products, including roofing, siding, insulation, gypsum, and ceilings. Hewson Brothers is a strong advocate for CertainTeed’s installation and drywall materials, which are renowned for their exceptional thermal performance, as well as their ability to reduce noise, manage moisture, enhance comfort, and generally stand the test of time. Hewson Brothers has valued their products and their relationship for many years now.

On the customer side, meanwhile, Hewson Brothers has also formed and maintained long-lasting relationships. Beth credits that loyalty to a combination of old-fashioned relationship-building and modern technology. An outside sales team and dedicated account managers maintain the direct, face-to-face contact that has always defined the company’s approach, while a robust CRM system ensures that customer information stays current and orders move smoothly from placement to delivery.

“With our CRM system, we can make sure that customer information is all up to date and easily accessible, and that our systems run really smoothly to provide top-notch support,” Beth explains. “That’s helped a lot in recent years, but a lot of our customers we’ve actually had since we started. We have very long-standing relationships in the community, and reputation is a huge part of that.”

Community investment is also central to how Hewson Brothers defines itself. The company is actively involved in local construction associations and chambers of commerce at each of its locations, and it consistently directs resources toward the charities and causes that matter to its customers.

“We are very invested in the communities we’re in,” Beth says. “We’re part of the local construction associations, the local chambers of commerce, and we give back through those organizations. We’re still very heavily involved in the places our customers are and in the different charities they believe in.”

Controlled, smart, strategic

In recent years, Hewson Brothers’ emphasis on building “real relationships” – combined with their unrivalled product expertise and reliable service – has not gone unnoticed by their peers in the industry.

At the 2024 AD Canada Annual Meeting, for example, Hewson Brothers received the coveted AD Canada ‘Member of the Year Award’ for the Building Supply division. That accolade recognized the company’s exceptional contributions, proactive engagement, and unwavering commitment to excellence within the AD Canada community

The following year, at the 2025 AD Canada Annual Meeting, Hewson Brothers was awarded the ‘AD Canada All-In Award,’ which is a distinction given to member companies that “embody the spirit of the AD network by fully embracing its programs, partnerships, and collaborative ethos.” For Hewson Brothers, that means fostering deep relationships with suppliers, investing in staff development, and consistently advocating for the strength of Canadian-made products in a competitive global market. Jeff says that award was “especially meaningful to our entire team, as it reflects our dedication to the values that guide us as a family-owned, independent building supplier.”

Furthermore, at the 2025 Grand Valley Construction Association (GVCA) Building Excellence Awards, 15 projects won awards – and Hewson Brothers was involved in 12 of them.

Recently, Hewson Brothers has also supplied material to some construction projects that are pushing the boundaries of innovation. A prime example is a brand new six-storey apartment complex at 150 Eight Street, Etobicoke, which was construction by ANC Modular. The building owner was the Canadian Helen Keller Centre (CKHC), a non-profit that provides of affordable housing, intervener services, and training to Canadians who are deafblind.

The new 56-unit building on 150 Eight Street includes one, two and three-bedroom homes along with shared amenities such as a rooftop garden. The project also introduced a 6,500-square-foot training facility where residents can build independent living skills in a supportive environment. The whole thing was made possible by modular building – ANC Modular manufactured the building components in a controlled environment offsite before transporting them to site for rapid assembly.

“They built the entire thing in a modular format,” Beth explains. “We delivered all of the materials mod by mod to their factory. They would build all of Unit 1, plastic wrap it, then move to the next one. And then they assembled all of them on site — so the whole building went up significantly faster than traditional building methods, while still meeting the same high-quality we would expect from a high-performance building.”

What made the project exceptional wasn’t just the logistics, but the degree to which Hewson Brothers adapted their processes to fit the job. Custom-cut steel was packaged by the manufacturer according to each individual module, labeled and sequenced so that materials arrived ready to use rather than requiring sorting on the factory floor.

“We supplied the whole wall assembly – everything from the vapour barrier to the exterior sheathing, the steel studs, and the drywall. It was all finished before it even got to site,” Beth says. “They had kitchens installed before they even brought the mods to the building site. It really showed a different way that the supply side can support some of the newer methods of construction.”

In the commercial and institutional sectors, Hewson Brothers has also been involved in some recent large-scale projects, including several for prominent post-secondary institutions across Southern Ontario, including the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Guelph.

Moving forward, Jeff says they want to continue servicing the builders working in those sectors while expanding in ways that strengthen their ability to support customers on the ground. A key step in that direction is the upcoming opening of Hewson Brothers’ Niagara location in Summer 2026 — a move that builds on years of supplying the region from their Brantford yard and reflects their commitment to being closer to the contractors and communities they serve. Alongside this geographic growth, they are also continuing to broaden their product offering, with a current focus on expanding their selection of exterior materials.

Ultimately, however, Hewson Brothers is cautious about growing too large or too fast. Jeff emphasises that they never want to compromise what has made the company successful, which is their personal service.

“Our philosophy has always been slow and steady,” he concludes. “What we don’t want to do is get too big too quick, where we can’t continue to offer the service that we pride ourselves on. Controlled growth, smart growth, strategic growth — that’s what we’re after.”