No repeat of Masters, Bunnings head vows

MELBOURNE —Wesfarmers is investing more than $1 billion to establish the Bunnings banner in the UK and Ireland on the bones of recently acquired Homebase, the Australian Business Review notes. Yet Bunnings managing director Peter Davis has promised industry professionals that the mistakes of Woolworths in launching the doomed Masters chain won’t be repeated. Acknowledging the “big job to be done”, Davis told a gathering of the British Home Enhancement Trade Association that the size and locations of the stores are optimal, but that its till and other systems are two decades out of date. While Homebase’s retail footprint makes for an ideal platform to convert to the Bunnings brand, he added, “in five years Homebase will disappear off the face of the world.”