Mitre 10

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Mitre 10 Hardware Group
Type	Public company
Founded	Victoria, Australia in 1959
Founder	Tom Molomby, Tom Danaher, Reg Buchanan, Jack Womersley and Ian Nisbet.
Headquarters
Industry	Retail/Trade Hardware
Website	http://www.mitre10.com.au (Australia) http://www.mitre10.co.nz (New Zealand)

Mitre 10 is a hardware store chain operating in the Pacific region, with 900 locations in all states of Australia as well as 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. ^[1]

1 History
2 Mitre 10 Store Types
- 2.1 Mitre 10 Mega
- 2.2 Other Types
3 References
4 External links

[edit] 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. This move occurred specifically to maximize funds and energy with regards to advertising and promotions and to demonstrate that independent operators offered service, advice and competitive prices. The group quickly grew in membership to the point where it required a full time management team.

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. After initial early discussions in Auckland, Mitre 10 New Zealand was established on June 20, 1974.