Bunnings Warehouse
 | |
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Retail/Trade Hardware |
| Founded | Western Australia (1952); 64 years ago |
| Headquarters | Hawthorn East, Melbourne, VIC |
Number of locations | 324+ (2015)[1] |
Key people |
John Gillam (CEO/Managing Director) |
| Revenue |
 A$9.5 billion (2015) |
Number of employees | 31,000+ |
| Parent | Wesfarmers |
| Slogan | "Lowest Prices Are Just The Beginning" |
| Website |
www www |
Bunnings Warehouse is Australia's largest household hardware chain,[2] with stores in Australia and New Zealand.[3] Since 1994 the chain has been owned by Wesfarmers Limited. The company's origins were founded in Western Australia, its first (current era) 'warehouse' opened in Melbourne in the 1990's & its head office is in Melbourne, Australia.
Bunnings is "dominant" in the market and is considered the strongest business of parent Wesfarmers.[4] As of January 2016, its main rival, Masters Home Improvement (owned by Woolworths Limited), is suffering major financial issues and has an uncertain future as it struggles to compete.[5][6] Other rivals include smaller Home Timber and Hardware and Mitre 10.
It's believed Bunnings is also Australia's largest sausage sizzle host.
History
Pre 1900s
In 1886 brothers Arthur and Robert Bunnings left London to settle in Perth, Western Australia, and soon gained a government building contract, which led to them founding a group of building companies which later became 'Bunning Bros Pty Ltd'. They purchased their first sawmill the following year in the south west of Western Australia,[7] and over the next few years they concentrated more on sawmilling and timber distribution and less on building.[8]
20th century
The company expanded to include several new mills around Western Australia. In 1952, Bunnings Limited became a public company, expanded into retailing and purchased several hardware stores.[8] In 1970, Bunnings bought the merchandising and sawmilling operations of the Hawker Siddeley Group. In 1983, they bought out Millars (WA) Pty Ltd and, in 1990, the Alco Handyman hardware operations. The Victorian and South Australian hardware stores McEwans, owned by James McEwans Ltd, were acquired by Bunnings in 1993, with many branches subsequently closed, leaving only the best performing sites. Bunnings Limited was then bought out by Wesfarmers Limited in 1994.
Store development post-1994
After the acquisition of Bunnings by Wesfarmers, the first Bunnings Warehouse was opened in the Melbourne suburb of Sunshine by then Victorian premier Jeff Kennett and Joe Boros, the managing director of Bunnings. This was quickly followed by three other Melbourne stores. Subsequently, new warehouses have been opened, on average, every three months across Australia. Development in Sydney and Brisbane proved more difficult than in other areas, as large blocks of land in the metropolitan area were limited. In 1997, the remaining smaller-format McEwans stores were renamed "Bunnings".
In August 2001, Wesfarmers bought the Howard Smith Group, owner of BBC Hardware and their big-box offshoot, Hardwarehouse. This supplemented the Bunnings national network by several dozen stores, many of them large Hardwarehouse stores in Sydney, Brisbane and New Zealand. Hardwarehouse had been dominant in New South Wales and Queensland, but the purchase complemented Bunnings' prior domination in Victoria, where Hardwarehouse had only seven stores to Bunnings' twenty at the time of the buy-out. The market leader at the time of purchase was Mitre 10 with 12% market share but inclusion of the Hardwarehouse and BBC Hardware stores brought Bunnings market share to 13.5%.[9]
Hardwarehouse and BBC Hardware stores retained their branding for a year, while television advertisements were tagged with each of Bunnings Warehouse, Hardwarehouse and BBC Hardware during this transition period. Lower-volume stores were closed and, in 2002, remaining Hardwarehouses were renamed Bunnings Warehouse.
From 2004 to 2008, Bunnings purchased and re-branded Mitre 10 stores in Griffith, New South Wales, Kempsey, New South Wales, Randwick, New South Wales and Wodonga, Victoria, Magnet Mart at Griffith, New South Wales and one of Mitre 10's first MEGA stores in Modbury, South Australia. In 2008 the A.C.C.C. looked into its acquisitions of five Mitre 10 stores, as it deemed the purchases would be anti-competitive. In February 2009, the ACCC allowed the purchases, finding that "the acquisition of the Mitre 10 stores did not significantly alter the level of competition in the relevant market."[10]
Since the development of the Bunnings Warehouse stores, two general operational formats exist: Bunnings and Bunnings Warehouse. The smaller "Bunnings" stores stock a more limited range of hardware, whereas the larger "Bunnings Warehouses" contain a more comprehensive hardware range and, often, garden supplies including plants. Over time, some smaller-format Bunnings stores have gradually been closed. However, 2015 saw a half dozen new ones open in Victoria, mainly in smaller regional markets and inner-suburban areas. The "big box" format comprises 167 stores of the network of 280.[11]
In February 2016, Bunnings' parent company Wesfarmers bought the United Kingdom-based hardware chain Homebase for £340 million. The chain's 265 stores in the UK and 15 in Ireland will be rebranded with the Bunnings name within five years.[12]
Community involvement
On weekends, Bunnings outlets regularly host sausage sizzles and cake stalls for community groups and causes.[13] Having become a ubiquitous part of the Bunnings Warehouse brand, its sausage sizzles have reached iconic status within the Australian public.[14]
Bunnings also provides gardening, craft, and woodwork D.I.Y. workshops for children in store, as well as for other groups in schools, nursing homes, and hospitals. The Bunnings staff is available to community groups for assistance with D.I.Y. projects.
References
- ↑ 2014 Annual Report
- ↑ "Officeworks fits in the Bunnings shed". The Australian. 4 April 2007. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
- ↑ "Second Quarter Retail Sales Results". Wesfarmers Limited. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
- ↑ Mitchell, Sue (14 August 2015). "Former Woolies chair John Dahlsen’s attack on Bunnings is personal: ‘I had to sell 3 stores to them because they were coming anyway’". Business Review Weekly. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
- ↑ Mitchell, Sue (18 January 2016). "Woolworths to pull plug on Masters after Lowe's exercises put option". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
- ↑ Smith, Michael (19 January 2016). "Masters' pain is Bunnings' gain as Woolworths bows out of hardware war". Financial Review. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
- ↑ "Arthur and Robert Bunning migrated from London to Perth in 1886 and in 1887 they purchased their first sawmill in the south west of Western Australia, marking the formation of Bunning Brothers Limited. They purchased several more sawmills throughout Western Australia.": Battye Library, MN 2701, Bunnings Limited records, ACC 7471A
- 1 2 "Bunnings History". Bunnings. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
- ↑ Bunnings BBC marriage could kill off traditional hardware stores
- ↑ Bunnings Group - acquisition of five Mitre 10 stores
- ↑ "Costco and Woolies drive big box format". Australian Food News. 28 December 2010.
- ↑ Neilan, Catherine (29 February 2016). "Homebase to be rebranded Bunnings after Wesfarmers completes £340m acquisition from Home Retail Group - now what's happening with Argos?". City A.M. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
- ↑ "Local Community Support". Bunnings. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
- ↑ "49 Thoughts Everyone Has While Shopping At Bunnings". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
External links
- Bunnings Warehouse home page
- Bunnings Warehouse NZ home page
- Wesfarmers home page
- Bunnings Trade Home Page
- Bunnings Property Trust
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