Masters To Shut In December
Masters hardware stores have
announced that they will close all their stores this December with many jobs to
go.
A group comprised of aged
care provider, Aurrum, the Spotlight Group, and Chemist Warehouse have agreed
to buy the 82 Master sites subject to agreement from Lowes, the partner with
Woolworths in the failed Masters venture.
Stock will sold down by a
specialist divestment group over coming months and, together with real estate
sales, is expected to recover about $1.5b from the billions originally
invested.
Metcash Buy Home Timber &
Hardware
Woolworths have sold their Home
business to the owners of Mitre 10 for $165m cash after paying $88m for it in 2009. Woolworths purchased
Home as part of their campaign to compete with the hardware champion Bunnings, and followed up with the now failed Master concept.
For Metcash, the deal will
add scale to their Mitre 10 brand and give them a network of around 1800
hardware stores generating $2b in sales. Metcash will continue their strong
focus on trade customers.