Masters Home Improvement

Masters Home Improvement
Subsidiary
Industry Retail, Home Improvement
Founded 2011
Number of locations
 58
Area served
 Australia
Key people
 Grant O'Brien (Woolworths Limited CEO), Matt Tyson (Managing Director, Home Improvement), Melinda Smith (Director, Masters)
Revenue IncreaseA$930 million (2015)[1]
DecreaseA$-245.6 million (2015)[1]
Parent Woolworths Limited
Lowe's
Website masters.com.au

Masters Home Improvement is the trading name of an Australian home improvement chain, operated by a joint venture between Australian retailer Woolworths Limited and Mooresville, North Carolina (United States) based hardware chain, Lowe's.[2] Masters was created as a way for Woolworths Limited to crack into the hardware retail space, which has been historically dominated by Bunnings Warehouse, which is owned by rival Wesfarmers. The two companies already compete with each other with groceries, liquor, fuel and general merchandise.

The brand name was announced on 2 May 2011,[3] coinciding with the launch of a website at masters.com.au.[4] Hans Hulsbosch, who has designed brand identities for Woolworths and Qantas designed the Masters brand and logo.[5]

The first outlet, located in Braybrook, Victoria, opened to tradesmen on 31 August 2011, and the general public on 1 September 2011.[3] In the Sydney Morning Herald, CEO Don Stallings is attributed as saying that staff will be trained for at least 100 hours, and the stores will offer over 35,000 products.[6] Ways in which Masters will differentiate from its competitors include stores which are more brightly lit, more colourful with polished concrete, large colour signage and store displays, it aims to place more emphasis on attracting female shoppers. Buzzers scattered around the store, which, when pressed, will send a nearby staff member to that location to help out a customer, pagers handed to customers which enables them to continue shopping while their paint is tinted, selling more 'non hardware' lines such as whitegoods as well as having McDonald's restaurants and McCafés in selected stores. In June 2012 Masters launched their transactional website that offers more than 30,000 products nationwide. This give Masters Home Improvement the title of Australia's first online hardware and home improvement retailer.

The first Masters store in South Australia opened in Mount Gambier in August 2012.[7] This is the 20th Masters store in Australia, with another 17 under construction and a further 50 in the pipeline.

Financial issues

In 2015 Masters lost A$227.4 million.[8]

On 18 January 2016 Woolworths announced that it intended to "either sell or wind up" all its home improvement area, such as Masters hardware. Chairman Gordon Cairns said that it would take years to become profitable and that the ongoing losses could not be sustained.[9]

Big box international retailers are now assessing whether Masters stores are adequate for their use, with rumours are rising around Walmart taking this massive opportunity to enter the Australian market[10]

References

  1. 1 2 Sales report. "Full Year Results - Financial Year 2015, Page 21" (PDF). Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  2. ↑ "Masters Plan For DIY Market". Melbourne: theage.com.au. 3 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  3. 1 2 Speedy, Blair (3 May 2011). "Woolworths reveals plans for hardware venture". theaustralian.com.au. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  4. ↑ "Masters Website". Masters Home Improvement. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Billion dollar battle for DIY". australiancreative.com.au. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  6. ↑ "Woolies aims to master hardware". smh.com.au. 3 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  7. ↑ "$80m shopping complex opens". borderwatch.com.au. 10 Aug 2012.
  8. ↑ Knight, Elizabeth Knight (11 September 2015). "Masters is a home improvement haemorrhage". The Sydney Morning Herald (Faifax Media). Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  9. ↑ "Woolies winds up Masters". Courier Mail (News Corp). 17 January 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  10. ↑ http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/woolworths-could-unlock-treasure-chest-by-dumping-masters-20151008-gk4ddz.html Walmart to takeover Masters sites?

External links

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