Thread: Who is going to buy Masters?

Originally Posted by bob10

Hence the Mitre 10 advantage. Old Mr Jeays, and his sons , have built up a good reputation at Sandgate, especially with service, especially with local tradesmen. It's the old scratch my back' I'll scratch yours, arrangement. Also, in the same vein, the garden centre at Clontarf, Snook st. is streets ahead of Bunnings. Support your local little guy.

The local Mitre 10 near here is good as well.
They seem to always have what you are looking for.
The guy who runs the place has had hardwares for 40yrs and knows what people want,their service is excellent as well.

There isn't a bunnings very close,so he has picked position well.

The only good thing about Bunnings is we now use their oxy and acetylene.Same price as BOC,no rental,you pay a deposit on the bottle.
And there are more Bunnings around than BOC agents and the Bunnings stores are open every day.

Originally Posted by scarry

The only good thing about Bunnings is we now use their oxy and acetylene.Same price as BOC,no rental,you pay a deposit on the bottle.
And there are more Bunnings around than BOC agents and the Bunnings stores are open every day.

Cool, didn't know that. How much is the deposit?

Originally Posted by bacicat

Cool, didn't know that. How much is the deposit?

Deposit is $200,they only have D size,they are called Coregas.

The bottles are actually 10% bigger than BOC,so they say.But physically they look the same size.

We had the pressure relief on an oxy bottle go off in one of the vans last week,hopefully that won't happen again..They changed it over,which was good.

i believe not all stores have coregas,but we haven't found a store that doesn't have it..

Why would you air-condition a hardware store or stock furnishings, as Masters did? I think they misjudged the market and raised their costs too high.
If I'm after hardware I'm probably dirty, sweaty, wearing my muddy boots and grumpy because I didn't plan ahead and have had to stop work to go buy something. I don't want air-con and I'm not interested in furniture.
It would be interesting if the Mitre 10 group took over Masters, cut their costs and made them a real competitor to Bunnings.


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Originally Posted by bob10

Hence the Mitre 10 advantage. Old Mr Jeays, and his sons , have built up a good reputation at Sandgate, especially with service, especially with local tradesmen. It's the old scratch my back' I'll scratch yours, arrangement. Also, in the same vein, the garden centre at Clontarf, Snook st. is streets ahead of Bunnings. Support your local little guy.

I use Jeays when I can I.e. Support the little guy.......but wouldn't go as far as saying their service is good.

Here is an article by journalist David Elias on the history of Bunnings from a book by Jenny Mills.



"Brothers build foundations for success
February 28, 2004

Had brothers Robert and Arthur Bunning stuck to their plans, theirs might have become a household name in America rather than Australia.

As members of an East London artisan family used to travelling overseas to find work, they sailed into Fremantle on the SS Elderslie in June 1886 intending to visit a sister and brother-in-law before sailing on to California.

They were builders with skills in carpentry and stone masonry, and after deciding to stay in Australia they won a contract to build additions to the Fremantle lunatic asylum. This was followed by more work building a stone hospital and post office at Roebourne, 1600 kilometres north of Perth.

Robert Bunning, who was 27 when he arrived, remained in control of the business for 50 years until his death in 1936. Arthur, 23, was regarded as a finer craftsman but after a bad fall from a horse in 1888 his injuries precluded him from taking business decisions. However, he remained with the family business and died in 1929.

During Western Australia's gold boom in the 1890s, Bunning Brothers became timber merchants, brick makers and building suppliers but in the early 1900s it concentrated on the development and expansion of sawmills and timber yards in the south-west of the state. Bunning Brothers Limited was incorporated in April 1907. It survived a fire in 1914, the Great War and the Depression, and also pioneered the use of motor transport to haul timber.

Robert's sons Joe, Charles and Tom took over the business after their father's death and enlarged it. They went back to making bricks and during the Second World War, Bunning Brothers teamed with the rival Perth group Millars at the request of the federal Ministry of Munitions. They became shipbuilders and built the small "snake" boats used by the famous Z force to land on Japanese-controlled territory in Asia.

Bunning Bros Pty Ltd rode the postwar housing boom to become the largest logging operators in Australia. The brothers became leading lights in the Association of Sawmillers and Timber Merchants during the 1950s and Charles Bunning, as president of the Employers Federation, championed the cause of greater national and international investment in West Australian industry.

The company went public as Bunning Timber Holdings in 1952 but continued to trade as Bunning Bros. In the mid-1950s Bunning Bros took advantage of the WA building boom and diversified into hardware initially to serve the trade. But on seeing the way new-style supermarkets were selling food, the company decided it could retail hardware the same way.

It opened its first retail store in West Perth in 1961 followed by the Bunnings' Super Centre at Albany in 1962. The company was set on track for an explosion that would make Bunnings market leaders in Australia and New Zealand.

The second generation of the Bunning family continued to run the company through the 1970s and introduced the third generation, cousins Bob and Gavin Bunning, to the board in 1974. The cousins remained until Wesfarmers, a public company formed out of the old West Australian farmers co-operative, won control in 1992.

- David Elias

Source: The Timber People, a History of Bunnings Limited, Jenny Mills, Bunnings, 1986."

Originally Posted by weeds

I use Jeays when I can I.e. Support the little guy.......but wouldn't go as far as saying their service is good.

As with anything, it's a matter of opinion. I haven't had any problems with them, but perhaps I've been lucky.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I don't want air-con and I'm not interested in furniture.
It would be interesting if the Mitre 10 group took over Masters, cut their costs and made them a real competitor to Bunnings.


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I second this! Fantastic idea!!!!