A possible buy out of Woolworths-owned Home Timber and Hardware would lead G. Gay and Co Hardware in one big circle, co-owner David Gay said.
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last week cleared the way for Mitre 10 owner Metcash to purchase the embattled hardware business, one of two to be shed by the retail giant.
The ACCC rejected the sale of the Ballarat hardware company to Woolworths in 2012, a decision which Mr Gay called “an error of judgment”.
Should the estimated $250-million deal between Woolworths and Metcash go ahead, G. Gay and Co Hardware will be in the same position as they would have been had the ACCC allowed the sale four years ago, Mr Gay said.
“Bunnings is our major competitor and this makes us bigger and stronger,” he said.
“It doubles the size of the group which means we've got bigger buying power and we can buy more products at a cheaper rates and it strengthens the group for the future going forward.”
Questions remain over the future of Masters Ballarat after Woolworths announced in January it would be exiting its home improvement businesses Masters Home Improvement and Home Timber & Hardware.
A Woolworths spokesperson said the company was currently in discussions about what form the exit will take.
The announcement earlier this week that Woolworths would be closing stores across the country and cutting 500 jobs will not have a bearing on the company’s home improvement sector.
Mr Gay said the purchase of Home Timber and Hardware would “unite” the independent hardware sector.
The reach of Westfarmers’ Bunnings Warehouse, which has been said to impact hardware prices within a 100-kilometre radius of each store, was a factor in what ACCC chair Rod Sims described as a “finely balanced” decision.
Mr Gay said Ballarat’s smaller hardware businesses had been protected from the “devastating effect” the hardware giant has had in smaller regional centres.
“In Ballarat we're lucky we're a big enough regional centre that they merge into the market rather than take over the market place,” Mr Gay said.