Masters Home Improvement

Masters Home Improvement had 6,500 staff and $1 billion of home and hardware stock across 63 sites in Australia. Unable to penetrate the lucrative market dominated by Bunnings Warehouse, our Corporate group was retained to develop and implement an exit plan.

Background

In 2010, Woolworths and its US joint-venture partner Lowe’s established Masters to compete with Bunnings Warehouse.

Failing to gain significant market share, the Woolworths board announced it would sell or exit the business in early 2016.

Woolworths retained KordaMentha Corporate to work with shareholders and its management team to develop an exit plan and, if need be, implement the plan.

Despite an intense sales campaign, no bidder was prepared to continue to trade the business. The decision was made to begin one of Australia’s largest-ever non‑insolvent business exits.

How we helped

• We were engaged to assist Woolworths and the Masters senior leadership team plan and implement a managed exit of the Masters business.
• Following a detailed initial planning phase in mid‑2016, we then deployed our project team to support implementation, coordinating activity across:
  • HR and people
  • store operations and inventory
  • financial reporting and cash flow management
  • real estate (store exits, DC’s, and vacant sites, property
  • transaction support)
  • management of legacy issues.
• Strict confidentiality was maintained throughout the planning phase, with the overall exit conducted under intense media interest and scrutiny.
• In keeping key stakeholders informed, we prepared and circulated detailed weekly reports covering all key performance indicators and metrics.
• KordaMentha partners also replaced the Woolworths representatives on the JV and subsidiary company Boards.

Result

We exited the Masters business and vacated all sites on time and on budget. Selling all stock and finding jobs for over 3,000 staff. We also arranged the handover of IT, finance systems and books and records to relevant stakeholders.