Mitre 10's parent or head office has released accounts showing a turnaround. Photo / Hayden Woodward.
Mitre 10’s support centre has cut losses by $71 million and increased revenue by 12%, with its boss saying the business is “transforming” with five new stores despite tough economic times.
Chief executive Andrea Scown said the improved financial performance reflected significant investment in systems and capability, “along with disciplined execution and strong cost management”.
The home improvement business still recorded an after-tax loss of $27.1m for the year to June 30, but it was much improved on the previous year’s $98.9m loss.
Total revenue of $300.3m was up from $267m in 2024, with gross profit also higher at $146.8m (previously $120m).
Scown, who has been CEO of the national garden, DIY and homeware chain for four years, leaves in December.
She released the company’s accounts to the Herald, ahead of Tuesday’s Companies Office filing.
Debt had previously risen sharply from what was last year called by one critic an “horrific” software upgrade.
Mitre 10 last year sold properties at Hamilton, Whangārei and Manukau.
Now, debt has dropped from $161m in 2024 to $56m in 2025.
The group has access to a $150m revolving credit from the BNZ.
The BNZ has registered charges on the Personal Property Security Register and holds mortgages over the group’s land and buildings, notes to the accounts said, but not over intellectual property.
“Our usage of the lending facilities was much higher,” Scown said of the changed debt profile.
The accounts are not for the 85 stores, which are individually owned, only for the Albany-based support centre, which does not supply accounts for each of the stores, which are prominent in towns and cities throughout New Zealand.
Mitre 10 (New Zealand) provides goods and services to co-operative members who own he individual network of stores, including the new cloud-based software system, which has cost it dearly.
But Scown said the company’s strategy was delivering and the national store SAP software upgrade was nearly completed, enabling trade customers to get discounts regardless of which store they shopped at.
“These changes are not just about efficiency. We are building a future-focused business that is better equipped to serve our customers and communities.
“We’ve modernised how we operate, strengthened our supply chain, and embedded new technologies that are already delivering results. From centralised distribution and direct sourcing to the rollout of new technology solutions across our network, these changes are creating a more agile, efficient and customer-focused business,” Scown said.
Despite the economic downturn, Mitre 10 had gained market share. Scown cited “affordability, range, stock intensity and service, backed by the strength and vision of our membership”.
“In the last three years, the group has invested significant expenditure in the customisation and configuration of cloud-based software,” notes to the accounts said.
Those notes also, however, also revealed how disruptive the SAP software upgrade had been.
“The national payments system implementation caused some disruption to operational processes as certain functionality in the purchases and payables cycle did not initially operate as intended. Out-of-cycle payments to suppliers outstanding at June 30, 2024, totalled $56.5m,” the 2025 accounts said.
“That’s all behind us now,” Scown said today.
The SAP upgrade started in 2020 and won’t be completed for another two and a half years, Scown said.
So all up, it would take seven and a half years to complete. She cited Covid and lockdowns as some of the reasons for complications.
The Herald has previously reported how Mitre 10 was at risk of breaching its lending covenant with the BNZ in the December 2023 and March 2024 periods. The group said that it was investing significant expenditure on customising and configuring cloud-based software.
But the new accounts said “as at June 30, 2025 and at all relevant quarterly reporting periods during the year, the group complied with the covenant ratio”.
Total assets of $1.06 billion were declared (previously $1.11b). The sale of property and plant netted $72.6m in the 2025 year (previously $222m).
The Herald’s Power List: Who owns Mitre 10, our biggest garden, DIY and hardware chain showed the largest Mitre 10 shareholder in 2023.
But now a power shuffle via share purchases has seen a change at the top.
Riviera Hardware Holdings remains the biggest Mitre 10 owner, having Mitre 10 Mega Albany, Mitre 10 Mega New Lynn, Mitre 10 Mega Warkworth, Mitre 10 Whangaparāoa, the $30m Mitre 10 Mega Silverdale, Granda Cafe (Columbus Cafe) and Riviera Prenail.
Cam Caithness is one of the owners of that operation.
But a substantial shareholder declaration filed in May showed a new second-largest shareholder.
Second-largest previously was Smiths Hardware (previously known as Upper Riccarton Hardware) of Christchurch but it is now Nees Hardware and Building, owned by Cliff Lockyer of Lower Hutt and Martyn Lockyer of Wellington.
In 2023, Nees only had 376,025 shares but now has 515,216 shares, putting it ahead of Smiths, which previously had 378,184 shares and now has 420,376 shares.
Scown said Nees’ ranking changed after the purchase of a Hammer Hardware, converted to the new Mitre 10 Wainuiomata, which opened in May.
Nees also has Mitre 10 Mega stores in Upper Hutt, Porirua and Petone, she said.
Smiths was founded by Mitre 10 chairman Andrew Smith and family members. Shareholders are Brent, Murray and Andrew Smith and Clair O’Neill, all of Christchurch.
Andrew Smith was 10 when he began working in his father’s Christchurch shop: “I’d bike down after school,” Smith, then 54, said last year.
Fourth-largest is Tauranga’s Juted Holdings, then Ashburton’s W H Collins & Co, Auckland’s Grove Hardware and Hastings’ Scott & Ricketts.
Each member must hold a parcel of 100,000 shares in Mitre 10 (New Zealand), issued at $1 each for each store it owns, 2025 accounts noted.
Although they buy those shares for that paltry amount, those stores each often employ hundreds of people and are usually the largest businesses in areas where they splash the orange and black.
They turn over hundreds of millions of dollars and have huge buying power.
Scown acknowledged that previously, staffing had been put at 8000 and was now 7400: “Some of that is seasonal adjustments but there also would have been attrition. Sales have been suppressed due to the economy.”
Scown said two new stores opened in the 2025 year:
Three new stores will open soon:
After a huge expansion last decade in Auckland, no new stores are planned here but Scown said expanding presence on the isthmus was a goal.
New chairman, Andrew Smith of Christchurch, got $145,000 in the 2025 year (previously $99,000).
Previous long-standing chairman Martin Dippie of Otago got $105,000 in 2025. He finished last April after being chairman for 18 years.
Scown said the pay difference was due to Dippie “stepping down partway through FY24, therefore the fee is reflective of a partial year served, whereas Andrew Smith’s is a full year”.
Scown’s pay is undisclosed. She refused to divulge it, saying it was commercially sensitive.
In related-party transactions, sales to director-controlled entities, which are individual Mitre 10 or Mega Mitre 10 stores, totalled $396m in the 2025 year (previously $419m).
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.