Bunnings proposes retrenching around 100 out of 300 staff in its NZ support office. Photo / Getty Images
Bunnings proposes retrenching around 100 out of 300 staff in its NZ support office. Photo / Getty Images
National DIY, garden and homeware chain Bunnings proposes to lay off staff from its Greenlane headquarters in Auckland.
Ben Camire, director of store operations in New Zealand, said nothing was decided yet because a consultation phase had begun.
The business owned by ASX-listed Westfarmers employs more than 5000 people inthis country, and although no exact numbers were given for the layoff proposal, the Herald understands around 100 support roles could be affected.
The chain’s headquarters is at Central Park, owned by Oyster Capital, which has tried to sell that office precinct.
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“We have started a consultation process with our team on a proposed review of our support office structure. The changes we’re proposing don’t impact the 5000-plus team who work in our stores, trade centres and distribution centre,” Camire said today.
Around 340 staff are understood to work at the support office in Auckland now. The business only moved to leased premises 660-670 Great South Rd, Ellerslie in March, 2019. Before that, it was at Carbine Rd, Mt Wellington.
Bunnings NZ boss Ben Camire.
The chain has 42 stores in NZ, nine trade centres and a distribution centre.
“Overall, our team continues to grow as we actively recruit roles across our store network and we remain committed to the New Zealand business,” Camire said today.
“Through this process, we’re looking at ways to better leverage the broader Bunnings Group capabilities, while maintaining a strong functional team in New Zealand to drive localisation where it matters most. We’re really mindful of how challenging a change like this can be for the team impacted, and we’ll be doing everything we can to support individuals, including offering redeployment options wherever possible and providing career transition support,” he said.
HQ staff at Greenlane are being offered other jobs within the group if possible. Career advice, transitional support, career development and counselling is being offered, as well as redundancy payments if required.
The business is continuing to open new stores, including one in Timaru on the ex-showgrounds side on the northern outskirts of the city in June. Around 25 people have been employed at that $25 million big green shed.
A new Bay of Islands store is also planned to open at Waipapa outside Kerikeri this year.
No stores in the network are planned to shut, the business emphasised today. Nor are any retail store staff jobs proposed to be affected.
Across Australasia, the business has 282 large warehouse stores, 67 smaller-format stores and 32 trade centres and frame and truss sites. They employ 53,000 people in Australasia.
The latest accounts show an increasingly profitable operation in this country.
In the year to June 30, 2022, Bunnings made $87m net profit after tax, up on 2021′s $52m. Revenue jumped from $1.62 billion to $1.68b and gross profit lept from $505m to $528m. Marketing expenses rose from $263m to $276m. Income tax expenses also jumped from $27m to $36m.
Bunnings here also declared an intercompany loan of $324m from NZ Financial Holdings. But it’s not being called up soon.
“The directors of NZ Finance Holdings Pty Limited confirmed in writing that they will not demand repayment of this loan in the ensuing 12 months from the date the June 30, 2022 financial statements are signed.
“The directors also confirm NZ Finance Holdings Pty Limited will not recall the loan unless Bunnings NZ has sufficient surplus capital to make the repayments and continue to operate as a going concern,” the annual report filed with the NZ Companies Office stated.
Wages and salaries have risen lately from $172m in 2021 to $183m in 2022.
No indications were given in that annual report about the business being under financial stress. The proposed layoffs are understood to be a post-Covid move to streamline some parts of the operations and remove duplications.
Bunnings got $24.4m of initial Covid cash for 4277 employees when the pandemic broke out in 2020, then a further $4.3m for 4798 staff, Work and Income’s employer search database shows.
In 2019, Bunnings announced $350m five-year plans for self-service checkouts and new stores. Toby Lawrance, then-NZ general manager, revealed plans, saying two new stores were under construction, others were planned and being refitted or upgraded, and the customer experience would soon change with scan-and-go checkouts.
”Aspirations for us in the next two to three years are $175m of work, but over five years, another $175m, making it around $350m and creating about 1200 new jobs,” he said four years ago.
Multi-millionaire property investor Ben Cook bought NZ’s flagship Bunnings Warehouse Westgate three years ago, along with two supermarkets. The Westgate Bunnings is a two-level building with 327 ground-level carparks and four separate ground-floor shops, leased to other businesses.
Cook Property owns Bunnings stores in Hamilton, Hervey Bay and New Lynn.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
