he noted, but this should not have a significant effect on either The Brick or Leon's. Best Buy and Future Shop, with 79 and 149 stores respectively, will remain the biggest players in CE. Although The Brick does somewhat more in CE than Leon's, he mused, CE is a low margin field. Increased buying power for branded appliances and mattresses, and branded furniture made in Canada and the USA, are more important to the two companies. This will become even more the case for furniture made in Asia. While this deal may make for the biggest single furniture retailer in Canada, Gregson was careful to point out that due to fragmentation, the market share attained by combining Leon's and The Brick's will still only be "in the teens." Ikea he cited as a major player in furniture, Sears Canada in appliances, and bedding specialists akin to Sleep Country in mattresses. Another major advantage for the two now intertwined companies will be improved use of advertising budgets. Between the two companies, according to Gregson, $100 million is spent annually on advertising. Neither company was in trouble, Terry Leon emphasized. "It was just the right time to grow." Although Leon's is well known for its purchase of Appliance Canada almost five years ago, it has grown to its current store count of 76 in part through other acquisitions. Likewise, after becoming the dominant player in western Canada in the 1970s, The Brick moved into Ontario in the 1980s with the purchase of