Page 8 - HW May 2022

hard news
Clifford Buchler, RIP
We were shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Clifford Buchler mid last month.
As CEO of Mitre 10 Hamilton (the Te Rapa and Ruakura MEGAs and Waikato Frame & Truss), Clifford put his people first.
He also gave generously of his time to the broader Waikato business community
Reactions from around the hardware channel and beyond were unanimous in paying tribute to a fine person and an inspirational leader.
Clifford was of course recognised as “our” Retailer of the Year at the 2020 Hardware Awards.
Our sympathies to family, friends, and colleagues.
BuildLink hints at
e-commerce
With the launch of its new website, BuildLink has also let slip that in future, should members so wish, there will be an e-commerce option.
The co-op says on LinkedIn: “Keep
an eye out over the next few months
as some of our stores will be upgrading their own sites, some with the option to purchase online.”
The new BuildLink website was built by The Web Guys NZ.
https://buildlink.co.nz/
Whangaparaoa gets a MEGA in almost all but name
RIVIERA HARDWARE HOLDINGS’ latest opening is a substantial new Mitre 10 in Whangaparaoa, on the Hibiscus Coast, north of Auckland, on a site formerly occupied by The Warehouse.
The project to move from the existing Whangaparaoa store in Karepiro Drive to the new store in Wade River Road began at the end of 2020 with an initial opening date planned for September 2021.
Although the doors finally opened
to the public on 4 May 2022, the store commenced trading in April with a click & collect-only operation while awaiting CPU from council.
The store is big for a non-MEGA, with a retail area over 3,600m2, plus a 650m2 garden centre and a dual function 500m2 timber yard.
Indeed, the retail selling space is more than double the previous site and across the majority of categories the store carries a “MEGA” range of products (some 30,000 products, including exclusive lines from the Riviera Imports business), the one MEGA feature it doesn’t have being a drive-through.
The store is designed for the serious DIYer as well as the local trade market, with supply readily available through Riviera’s Distribution Centre in Silverdale and Mitre 10 MEGA in Albany.
With 160+ car parking spaces across two levels, including a new lift for ease of access, Mitre 10 in Whangaparaoa is the first store in the Mitre 10 network to have additional parking underneath.
On top of a from-scratch fitout, as
with the other three Riviera stores (Mitre 10 MEGAs Albany, New Lynn and Warkworth, with Silverdale coming soon), Whangaparaoa has also seen significant investment in technology, including the installation of electronic shelf labels.
The system brings not only automatic price updates, but also current stock on
hand, eases the tasks of replenishment and stock picking for click & collect, shows secondary locations and product identification, plus a lot more customer- facing functionality when Mitre 10
fires up its planned new SAP system at Support Office.
To cope with the massive scale of the new store, the Whangaparaoa team has doubled to 70 full and part time employees.
The Columbus Coffee Café, also operated by Riviera Hardware Holdings, opened on the morning of 5 May completing the offer with café seating for 115+ customers and creating a further 10 team roles.
It’s been a big investment, but much is also expected from the big new store, with sales budgeted to be treble the old Whangaparaoa store.
www.facebook.com/ Mitre10Whangaparaoa/
6 NZHJ | MAY 2022
MORE AT www.hardwarejournal.co.nz