As industry insiders say fire sale may be on the cards.
When Appliance Retailer asked major suppliers about the impact of Woolworths’ cutting ties with Masters, the response was unanimous that it was too early to make comment, despite the hardware chain leaving a question mark over 63 store sites, over 7,000 employees, and millions of dollars of stock.
Brad the Builder Constructions owner and co-owner of online retailer, BuildBITS, Brad Trethowan, told A Current Affair, he is predicting an unprecedented fire sale.
“Masters has got to offload everything and they have got to do it at a dirt cheap price to try and empty their stores,” he said.
Canstar spokesperson Simon Downes further commented, “When people in Australia think of hardware stores, they immediately think of Bunnings. It’s ingrained in the Australian psyche that if you need a new hammer or a new power tool or a new whatever it is, Bunnings is the place to go.”
“If a tradie goes onto a job site or someone’s looking for hardware, they don’t actually say ‘where’s the local hardware store?’, they say where’s the local Bunnings?,” he added.
This story first appeared in Appliance Retailer.