New owner for Mitre 10 Mega

Bay of Plenty family business the Bold Group today announced it has acquired Mitre 10 Mega Rotorua from Mitre 10 (New Zealand) Ltd.

The Bold Group also owns and operates Mitre 10 Mega Tauranga and Mitre 10 Waihi.

The Rotorua store was originally opened in December 2012 as a company-owned store by New Zealand co-operative Mitre 10, with the intention of eventually finding an owner-operator for it.

Bold Group director Greg Bold said the company's expansion into Rotorua was a fantastic opportunity to grow its network.

"It's a promising acquisition," Mr Bold said. "As a business, the Rotorua store presented itself as an ideal addition to our company. We're really looking forward to working alongside the team to grow the Mitre 10 presence in Rotorua."

The store will be overseen by group general manager Wayne Mansell, who has spent many years in the Rotorua area working in the FMCG sector and is looking forward to returning back to the area.

"I see this as an exciting opportunity to offer the people of Rotorua the best home improvement and building products," Mr Mansell said.

Mitre 10 chief executive Neil Cowie said he was pleased to see the Bold family's business growing and prospering as a long-standing member of the hardware co-operative.

"The Bold family spans two generations - they've operated Mitre 10 stores in the Bay of Plenty since 1978 and opened one of the first Mitre 10 Mega stores in New Zealand in 2004," Mr Cowie said.

"It's fantastic to see them continuing to be a part of the Mitre 10 family, and we're pleased to be able to divest our company-owned store to them."

The Bold family's retail footprint has grown from 400 sq m to more than 13,500sq m and a full timber and building materials offering covering some 11,000sq m. This is in addition to a pre-nail and truss production unit based in Waihi that is currently being redeveloped in anticipation of the growth in the trade sector of the business.

Mr Bold said the family - including Judith Bold and Nicky Bold - was looking forward to working alongside the team in Rotorua and putting the store back into local ownership.

"Our acquisition means the store will be fully owned and operated by Bay of Plenty-based people, which gives Mitre 10 Mega Rotorua a real family business focus," Mr Bold said.