Mitre 10 Mega Concept A Hit With Locals

Mitre 10 Mega Concept A Hit With Locals

Auckland’s largest home improvement centre, Mitre 10 Mega Henderson, has opened with tens of thousands of visitors in the first ten days of trading - signaling early success for the Mega concept.

The development, spanning a massive 2.8 hectares – equivalent to four rugby fields, is the first Mitre 10 Mega store for the Auckland region.

Situated at 186 Lincoln Road, Henderson, the store offers up to 45,000 home improvement products and includes a garden centre, lighting and flooring departments and entire kitchens and bathrooms.

Early sales indications show the Mega Henderson store is on track to achieve its sales targets of more than $15 million per annum.

Head of Mitre 10 Communications, Peter Stewart says the response shows that shows that consumers are pleased with the concept;

‘We’re really happy with the response. In part it reflects that this is a store built by a Westie for Westies and the reaction shows that we’re giving locals what they want.

We’re finding people are shopping differently in the Mega stores. They are visiting for longer – up to 2 hours and taking advantage of the café, kids play area and massive product selection.’

Mitre 10 recently commissioned research into the attitudes of kiwi women towards DIY. More than half of Auckland women surveyed had carried out a DIY task within the past 2 years, of these 63% had used a power tool.

The Mitre 10 Mega Henderson is the second Mega store for the group, the first one was launched in Hastings in February of this year. 20 Mega stores will be rolled out by Mitre 10 over the next three years.

Stores are currently under construction in Botany Downs and Papakura, Auckland, Tauranga and Petone, Wellington.

Editors Notes

In 1989 Mitre 10 Mega owner Vinod Kumar employed 6 people - the new Henderson Mega store employs over 120 employees.

The Westgate Mitre 10 store, also owned by Vinod Kumar, will continue to trade in the existing format as a Mitre 10 Home and Trade store at this stage.

The New Zealand Home Improvement sector is estimated to be valued at over $1.1 billion.

In the U.S the Commerce Department estimates that industry sales for the Home Improvement sector were valued at more than $300 billion for 2003. The National Retail Hardware Association forecasts U.S market growth of 5.2% until 2007.

In the U.K the home improvement market is the fastest growing sector in the UK retail scene estimated to be valued at £16 billion. Verdict market researchers predict that the home improvement market will be the fastest growing retail sector over the next 5 years increasing by 32.6% to £21.2 billion.

Today Mitre 10 has 123 stores throughout New Zealand. The retail giant currently employs up to 2,000 staff nationwide and has an annual turnover of $500 million.

Mitre 10 has been a household name in New Zealand since 1974 after being introduced by 15 hardware retailers who had watched the success of Mitre 10 in Australia.

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