Largest Flooring Business in Australia

Media Release issued January 11 2011.

Flooring Brands Grabs the Largest Flooring Business in Australia.

Flooring Brands Limited, run by Auckland businessman Rodney Martin, has acquired 100% of Master Kelwin Floors, the largest flooring business in Australia.

Operating since 1972, with over $A50m ($NZ65m) of revenue Master Kelwin has provided flooring to a long list of high profile developments across Queensland, including the Queensland Underwater World, the Townsville Airport, the Versace Hotel and the Gold Coast Convention Centre. Master Kelwin is generally regarded by the Australian flooring industry as the highest quality and the most successful commercial flooring operator in Australia.

Rodney Martin founded Flooring Brands in 2004 with the acquisition of Carpet Court stores in Dunedin, Napier and Palmerston North. He has gone on to acquire more than 30 flooring businesses throughout New Zealand and in the process take over the “Carpet Court” brand and start “The Floor Store” brand in New Zealand. In 2007 Martin acquired Melbourne Carpets Specialists, a large and long established commercial flooring business in Melbourne.

Martin has been working on the acquisition process for more than two years, and has been a director of Master Kelwin since 2009.

Flooring Brands is now a $260m group with over 70 stores, including 40 franchisees, more than 500 staff and more that 35% of the New Zealand carpet market.

Master Kelwin has been run for the last 21 years by Mike Dunn, who has previously worked for 11 years for Feltex New Zealand and five years for Feltex Australia. Dunn was the General Manager of Feltex Australia for two years before acquiring a controlling interest in Master Kelwin in 1989. “We are very pleased to be associated with Flooring Brands, an exciting company with a bright future in New Zealand and Australia” says Dunn.

“We are very excited about the future opportunities and possibilities that Master Kelwin presents us with in Australia” says Martin, now Chairman and CEO of Flooring Brands.

“Master Kelwin is a fabulous company, the biggest and the best commercial flooring business in Australia, and we have many possibilities to adopt its best practices here in New Zealand. It is very exciting having such a high quality, high profile business in our stable.

“Australia is more buoyant than New Zealand at the moment, both commercially and residentially, and presents us with attractive growth opportunities,” said Mr Martin. “We will continue to look for viable acquisitions in Australia that add value to our group, and to grow our market share and profitability in New Zealand through rationalising and optimising our network of outlets.”

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ENDS

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