Magnet Mart no longer a "family owned" business!

Bunnings is so much better than magnet mart, I don’t know what you guys are on. Have your every bought anything big at MM they only have those standard shopping trolleys whcih are usless for half the stuff they sell. They both sell the same sh t tools though. but it is so much easier to shop at bunnings.

I was waiting for this ever since i heard that Woolworths were diversifying into hardware. It’s much easier and faster to get established by taking over existing locations than building greenfields stores. Economies of scale seem to count for an awful lot, and MM couldn’t get large enough.

Time to buy some more shares in Woolworths.

I’m not surprised by this sale at all and saw it coming a long time ago. Woolworths announced that they were going to enter the hardware business to compete against Bunnings. To do this they were entering into a partnership with the American hardware giant Lowes. (No connection to Lowes Menswear). One of their first purchases was Danks which is the company behind Home Timber And Hardware and Thrifty Link. From a business sense it’s easier for Woolworths to buy existing business than it was to establish new ones. Over the past 12 months they have been buying a lot of hardware businesses and in the not too distant future they will begin to re-brand them to what ever the name for this new venture is. According to the Woolworths Limited website it might just be called Danks. Their purchase of Magnetmart is the same as their purchase of Cannon supermarkets 15-20 years ago which allowed them to expand their supermarkets in Canberra without having to build brand new ones. At the same time they have been getting rid of competition.

Small businesses are an endangered species and their main threat is Woolworths and Wesfarmers.

The next type of business in their firing line is chemists. They’ve already done their hatchet job on petrol stations.

This explains so much.
I used to find Magnet Mart Gungahlin quite good but for such a large store they didn’t have the stock levels you would expect. You also used to get really good service, not any more. Recently had several issues their with their point of sale systems falling over. Don’t get me started on the fiasco of the ‘upgraded’ trade area. I started driving out to Bunnings in Belconnen because I could actually get what I wanted.

This company could have done well but they kept changing their model and the stores around, if they stuck to their core business and principles they could have done so much better.

Wait and see what happens now.

From the Canberra Times article:

Magnet Mart founder Paul Donaghue, outside the company’s Queanbeyan store yesterday, says hardware is no longer a cottage industry.

+100 How true. Hardware stores are now just focused on selling as much as they can regardless of quality or fit for purpose. Gone are the days where you got to know the local hardware store guy (who was always the font of knowledge). Unfortunately if the big privateers cant stand alone, not much help for the small hardware guys.

Sad progress 🙁

You mean Magnet Mart man no longer owns Magnet Mart? NO!!!

Woolies is in partnership with Lowes, the biggest of the biggest hardware stores in the US, and already owns Danks (Victorian) and I think Home Hardware.

Magnet Marts employment policy of older staff and staff with disabilities always made me prefer to spend my money there. The floor walkers are always helpful, knowledgable and good to deal with.

I stand to be corrected but I think Bunnings has an affiliation with Coles Myer

You can stay seated (almost). A few years ago the Coles Myer group broke up with Myer returning to the Myer family. Coles, K-Mart, Office Works etc were purchased by Wesfarmers. Wesfarmers owns Bunnings.

I actually was thinking the other night that Wollies should purchase Magnet Mart. As great as they are, you look at their store in Gungahlin and the range of items has dropped over the last couple of years and they are more expensive than Bunnings for the same item. Combined with their dwindling number of stores (they tried to expand a few years ago into NSW – and those stores have closed), I think Magnet Mart was/is having some problems. So being purchased by Wollies was a good way for them to get out of the business, and for Wollies to get a foot in the Canberran hardware market. The hardware market is one Wollies sees as being very big and one they would like a piece of, and they have big plans for it.

I head Paul on the radio this morning saying how he found woolworths to be a good company.

Good masquerade they had going then, I’ll bet he gets more than one call from pissed off supplier who woolworths will do their best to bankrupt in order to increase their profits. But dont think that will mean cheaper prices for the consumer….just more profit.