Hardware giant hit by Harbour Link

The new Harbour Link viaduct has forced one of Tauranga's leading hardware and building materials retailers to close up shop and concentrate its business activities at one other site.

PlaceMakers Tauranga in Marsh St is closing on December 23 and its present staff of seven will be relocated to the Mount Maunganui branch in MacDonald St, at the start of Hewletts Rd.

Since the Harbour Link expressway was opened in December 2009, traffic along Marsh St has decreased dramatically and, accordingly, business at the Tauranga outlet dwindled.

In a letter to customers, local joint venture operator Wayne Minell said "despite our best efforts over some time, we've had to make the tough decision to close this store".

He said the store had been effectively bypassed by the new motorway system and had been underperforming for some time.

"Some customers were coming through, but it just wasn't viable in terms of turnover," Mr Minell said.

Before the second harbour bridge went in, the old one was handling more than 30,000 vehicles a day and many of them went along Marsh St - and passed PlaceMakers.

"The drop in traffic was huge - to almost nothing. The only ones using Marsh St were going to Sulphur Point, and coming from Dive Cres you can't turn straight into Marsh St," Mr Minell said.

"You have to go right through the traffic lights and make a right U-turn near the concrete plant and come back again to Marsh St.

"Don't get me wrong. I don't stand in the way of progress. The new motorway was good for the city, but not good for business. We knew the motorway could create issues and it was always a wait-and-see situation about whether the people would come back (to the store)," he said.

Ironically, Mr Minell said, it took customers another five minutes driving from the Tauranga to Mount store because of the new motorway - that's as long as it took them to get through all the traffic lights in Marsh St.

He said the Tauranga store was a call-in depot and the Mount was the hub.

"It's busy and the closure won't affect business that much. In fact, it could make us stronger."

Mr Minell, who has the PlaceMakers franchise in Tauranga city in partnership with Fletcher Distribution, said he might look at developing another depot "in town sometime in the future".

"But at present the Mount is adequate for what we require."

Fletcher Distribution is the retail trading arm of Fletcher Building and has more than 60 PlaceMakers stores throughout the country, selling 74,000 product lines from concrete to paint and plasterboard.

Mr Minell employs 87 staff including the seven from the Tauranga store.

Twenty-seven work in the PlaceMakers frames and trusses factory in Newton St and the remainder - including sales reps - are based at the MacDonald St site.

The PlaceMakers retail buildings were established 16 years ago and Mr Minell took over the franchise in 1998.