Mitre 10

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Mitre 10 Hardware Group

Type	Public Unlisted Company
Founded	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Founder(s)	Tom Molomby Tom Danaherv Reg Buchanan Jack Womersley Ian Nisbet
Headquarters	Melbourne, Australia Auckland, New Zealand
Area served	Australia New Zealand
Key people	Australia Mark Burrowes, C.E.O. New Zealand
Industry	Retail/Trade Building supplies
Products	Timber Hardware Housewares Retail/Trade Plumbing Farm fencing products Trade Electrical supplies Hand and Power Tools Kitchen and Bathroom Paint Garden and Outdoor products
Revenue	▲ A$1.06 billion (2009)[1]
Operating income	▲ A$371.6 million (2009)[2]
Owner(s)	50.1% Metcash Ltd 49.9% Mitre 10 shareholders
Employees	64,500[2]
Website	Australia http://www.mitre10.com.au New Zealand http://www.mitre10.co.nz

Mitre 10 Solutions store in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales

Mitre 10 Handy store in Yarram, Victoria

Mitre 10 is a retail and trade hardware store chain, with over 700 locations in all states of Australia as well as under 250 in New Zealand. The operations in Australia and New Zealand are two separate companies, each based on a co-operative system where the store owners are members of the national group and each has voting rights. The chain name references the mitre joint, but was inspired by the Mitre Tavern in Melbourne.^[3]

In 2008 Mitre 10 was named the number 1 most trusted retail brand in New Zealand by the New Zealand edition of Reader's Digest, and 20th overall, Bunnings Warehouse came in at 61st. Mitre 10 came 17th overall in the 2007 survey.^[4][5][6]

History

The move to set up a co-operative group of hardware stores, originated from a meeting held in Victoria, June 1959, with five men who would become Mitre 10's founding fathers — Tom Molomby, Tom Danaher, Reg Buchanan, Jack Womersley and Ian Nisbet. The meeting was held in the Mitre Tavern, and the group eventually hoped to build things up to ten stores, so they decided to call the company Mitre 10.^[7] This move occurred specifically to maximise funds and energy with regards to advertising and promotions and to demonstrate that independent operators offered service, advice and competitive prices.

The new company soon expanded operations, with fifteen New South Wales members joining the group by February 1961. Queensland soon followed with seven retailers, under the chairmanship of Arthur Scurr, joining the cooperative in January 1962, followed by a further sixteen members from Newcastle in October the same year. With the company successfully operational in the three Eastern states by the end of 1962 and South Australia and Western Australia soon running their own state based co-operatives, attentions turned to crossing the Tasman.^[8] After initial early discussions in Auckland, Mitre 10 New Zealand was established on June 20, 1974.^[9]

In 2004 Mitre 10 opened its first "destination hardware, or "Big-box" chain at Hastings, New Zealand in February 2004^[10], the first Australian Mega open June, 2004 at Beenleigh, Queensland.^[11]

In late 2008 Woolworths Limited and Mitre 10 were in talks of to acquire the company. The Australian Financial Review reported Mitre 10 had held talks with other companies since beginning to find a major buyer or investor, although in early 2009 Woolworths decided the company structure was too complex for a takeover. Mitre 10 is believed to be in talks with Metcash Trading, owner of IGA and various liquor stores, analysts say Metcash had been on lookout for a ‘fourth pillar’ for some time to add to its operations, and that Mitre 10 may be perfect.^[12]

In New Zealand Mitre 10 use the Mitre 10 logo from 1986.

Store types

Chelsea Heights Mitre 10 Mega store front

Lilydale Mitre 10 Mega store front

Mitre 10 Mega

Mega is Mitre 10's "destination hardware, or "Big-box" chain designed as a one stop shop for big projects, to compete with Bunnings Warehouse. The main focus of the Mega is customer service, it markets itself as "All the help you need", stores have customer service attendants stationed in different departments of the store ie, plumbing, trade timber, paint, the majority of these have a trade qualification.^[13] The first Mitre 10 Mega was open at Hastings, New Zealand in February 2004, after three years of researching U.S. home improvement retailers Lowes and The Home Depot.^[14] Mitre 10 Australia opened its first Mega in June, 2004 at Beenleigh, Queensland.^[11]

Current situation of Australian Mega stores

In 2007 there were seven Mega stores across Australia, one in Queensland, one in South Australia and five in Victoria, Mitre 10 Australia originally had planned to have opened 50 Mega stores across the country in metropolitan and regional hubs by the end of 2009.^[15] As at August 2009 three stores have closed. The Ringwood, Victoria store closed due to financial difficulty, with the store employing over 130 people^[16], while the Campbellfield, Victoria store was closed in March 2009 due to the building having structural problems, the store employed 54 people, with the closure staff were redeployed to other stores.^[17] The Modbury, South Australia Mega store was bought by Wesfarmer's Bunnings Warehouse in January 2007, the store employed 100 people.^[18][19] Hardy's Mitre 10 Mega in Pakenham, Victoria being the only store redeveloped from a smaller Mitre 10 Home and Trade store, still trading, with plans to expand.^[20] Four Mega stores are still operating in Australia, one in Beenleigh, Queensland, Pakenham, Victoria, Lilydale, Victoria, and Chelsea Heights, Victoria. There are currently plans to expand with the opening of more Mega stores.^[21][22]

Other types

Although Mitre 10 New Zealand and Mitre 10 Australia are two completely different companies, they do share the same store concepts;

• The Mitre 10 Australia Hardware Group has four types of store. Mega, Handy, Solutions, Home & Trade.
• The Mitre 10 New Zealand Group has three types of store; Mega, Home & Trade, Solutions.

References

External links

• Mitre 10 Australia: http://www.mitre10.com.au
• Mitre 10 New Zealand: http://www.mitre10.co.nz