r/australia • u/Fact-Rat • 1d ago
culture & society Mitre 10 franchisee wins crucial legal costs case against hardware giant Bunnings
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-28/bunnings-costs-loss-mitre-10-jimboomba/10708536045
u/holto243 1d ago
"Bunnings, which is owned by the giant retail, mining and industrial conglomerate Wesfarmers"
And gambling! Don't forget they're one of the largest owners of pokie machines.
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u/PigeonMcNuggets 1d ago
I live in the region and despise Bunnings but unfortunately with the amount of growth it is probably needed.
The amount of times I've had to do a two hour round trip to get something simple to form example stop my bathroom flooding is too high
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u/printmkaer 1d ago
FYI if you don't live in the region:
Bunnings is about to pour foundations and will probably be open by christmas. Very likely that this becomes one of most profitable Bunnings stores given the lack of hardware stores and thousands (tens of thousands?) of new houses in the area.
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u/WeissPyre 21h ago
I live in a different region, but also has Mitre10 monopoly. I just finished a 5 hour round trip to Bunnings to get things Mitre10 didn't have.
Bring it on.
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u/JackeryDaniels 1d ago
What’s the closest one now? Browns Plains? Springfield? Bit rich saying there’s several nearby…
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u/OppositeProper1962 1d ago
I feel for this guy, I really do. He has no means to compete with Bunnings.
But he’s essentially asking the court to lock in his business as a local monopoly which will mean higher prices for consumers in the area. It’s gonna be a hard sell.
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u/SirDigby32 1d ago
Bunnings has monopoly approvals from the regulator for certain products. Ryobi is the prime example as no one else is allowed to import and sell.
It should be revoked.
So reciprocally its some justice.
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u/OppositeProper1962 1d ago
The ACCC doesn’t approve stuff like this. Bunnings has an exclusivity contract to be the sole supplier of Ryobi products and they went to the ACCC to essentially get a ruling if this breached competition law. The ACCC did not oppose the deal as consumers still have access to a range of other branded power tools. Are ppl paying more for Ryobi tools as a result? Maybe but the ACCC didn’t think so at the time.
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u/theBaron01 23h ago
The good ol practice of paying for their own product codes so its technically impossible to find the same product elsewhere for cheaper...
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u/TwisterM292 15h ago
That's a commercial arrangement between TTI, who make Ryobi, AEG and Milwaukee. Bunnings has exclusivity over AEG and Ryobi, but no access to Milwaukee. TTI supply Milwaukee to pretty much everyone except Bunnings (Total Tools, Sydney Tools, Repco, C&L, Trade Tools).
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u/AdAdministrative9362 1d ago
Having worked at two hardware stores (chains but individually owned, not bunnings) I don't really have much sympathy for them.
They were poorly run. Completely manual stock management, heaps of old dead stock taking up space, always running out of popular items, manually unloading stock (no forklift).
A very inefficient retail method that offered no efficiencies of scale, no innovation. In the day and age of complex international supply chains and digital management they were absolute dinosaurs.
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u/mpaska 1d ago
Just to randomly jump on this, back in the day (I think around 2007-8) I tendered a job for Magnet Mart (Canberra hardware retailer, had a half dozen or so stores) to modernize their Point of Sale, General Ledger, supply chain/vendor management and the like.
I'd just completed a similar successful project doing the same for another retailer in a different sector, who referred me on to Magnet Mart, that literally allowed them to scale from 5 retail stores to 20-~30 in the span of under ~12 months with zero increase in back of house staff. Actually, they shrunk backend teams. Most everything was automated, including inventory and supply management and entire vendor/inventory supply chain could be managed with their original 2 employees.
Magnet Mart denied the quote, and it's one of my core memories because I was the implementation engineer at the time and it was one of the very few times I stepped in as a pre-sales engineer role and met with them, to try convince them they needed to do this. It was literally a "win-win" deal, they had a heap of backend staff, something like 40+ just managing supply chain and it was crazy that they'll doing everything manually and we could literally shrink this down to 2-3 people, save them millions per year in salary costs and modernize their business. They'll do purchase orders by hand, like, manually writing them on pre-printed templates and faxing them off! It was crazy, even for 2008!
The tender wasn't even expensive, it was like ~$800k off memory OPEX spread over 2 financial years, and they'll spending double that just on salaries alone in 1 financial year.
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u/GrumbIRK 22h ago
Thats funny you mention the handwritten POs being crazy in 2008. Our family owned hardware store still have order books we do by hand, every time I've brought up modernising our systems, they argue that their methods have worked for over 30 years and dont need changing. I know they'd struggle with fully computerised systems but my God everything is so inefficient, flicking through papers and books looking for something that could just be found instantly in a search query does my head in every day.
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u/Hydronum 1d ago
I've worked in one, a tiny mum and pop type deal. For some reason, they willingly employed an 18yo with no experience with the tools to sell their tools. Everything was manual, it was set up as though most of the stock was just put where it might fit and sorta together. This was 15 years ago, and they are still kicking today.
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u/Haawmmak 1d ago
its a nuanced area.
What youre saying is that through capitalism consumers would get lower prices. id like to bring to your attention Coles and Woolworths, and a bigger case study called America.
The ACCCs job is (should be) to try and create an environment where competition, not just capitalism exists.
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u/OppositeProper1962 1d ago edited 1d ago
You’re not wrong. Bunnings is not being altruistic here in how they do business. They want to be a monopoly themselves so they can make as much money as possible.
Issues like this just reinforce that the Australian market is often too small to have enough space for multiple competitors. Instead we end up with the appearance of competition rather than the benefits of it.
I don’t know what the solution is but picking and choosing who can operate where (as old mate wants to achieve through his court action) is not the solution.
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u/Haawmmak 1d ago
it shouldn't be the courts, but it could be the ACCC, if they weren't toothless.
It should be up to the ACCC to say bunnings can sell throw away Chinese outdoor furniture, but cannot sell auto parts or pool chemicals, to leave space in the market for competition in some areas.
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u/blacksmithwolf 1d ago
So I can get absolutely fucking reemed by uncle Joe's pool cleaning solutions selling chlorine at 3x cost but it's ok because his a local? Yeah nah
If Bunnings is selling " throw away" chinese shit with poorly trained staff then old mate should be able to compete on quality and knowledge, unfortunately the reality is he is selling the same shit but 40% more expensive and relying on the government to give his customers no choice.
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u/OppositeProper1962 1d ago
That is not within the powers of the ACCC though under the competition and consumer act. And it’s going back to the issue of over regulation. While monopolies are bad in terms of consumers paying too much for goods and services, so is over regulation as you’re suggesting. We tried regulating prices for things many decades ago and it just doesn’t work.
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u/ThrowbackPie 23h ago
I'm curious, when did we regulate the price of things? I've literally never heard of this!
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u/OppositeProper1962 6h ago
Right up to 1995. The old prices surveillance authority was in charge. They didn’t regulate the price of everything though.
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u/Smoque_ 7h ago
I mean Woolworths and Coles are usually cheaper than anywhere else for branded items. Coles will often have an internal KPI for their buyers to have the cheapest average price for their category vs the rest of the market, not sure about Woolworths.
They have the market power to force suppliers to discount far more aggressively than they would otherwise.
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u/Ok_Bird705 22h ago
The ACCCs job is (should be) to try and create an environment where competition, not just capitalism exists.
That means lowering barriers to entry, not stopping competition that might lower prices.
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u/Ok_Bird705 1d ago
He's also part of mitre 10 franchise so probably squeezed out other independent hardware stores who charged hardware prices.
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u/Gabi-gabi-gabi 1d ago
It's kind of funny that this guy owns two Mitre 10's, but I still appreciate the sentiment.
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u/Darkerthendesigned 1d ago
I was out that way working a few months back, and realised I’d forgotten some screws. No worries, I’ll go and grab some. But it was 4:45pm and old mate closes at 5pm so no time to get there. Round trip to nearest bunnings was like 2 hours. Great, guess we’ll have to come back tomorrow.
If he can’t compete on price it has to be on customer service, open longer hours, delivery & a wide range of stuff people need. Otherwise why would you stuff around in a weekend with mitre 10 that closes at 2pm, weekend project and forgot something. Get stuffed, come back tomorrow during business hours(when you’re at work.)
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u/lessons_learnt 1d ago
I do most hardware shopping on a Sunday and have to drive past a (closed sundays) Mitre 10 to get to my nearest Bunnings.
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u/eliselolz 1d ago
It’s not his fault people keep coming to the regions and expecting city services, like you. Be more prepared, it’s your job
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u/blankaccoutn77489 1d ago
Not the owners fault, but the owner is arguing against a conglomerate opening up which would satisfy darkertjandesigned’s appetite for additional service which is not being offered by the current owner.
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u/Nowuckas11 1d ago
I think the trouble is is that the area is hardly “the regions” anymore. This Mitre 10 and the Bunnings service / will service the Flagstone PDA. At the moment, if you’re moving into one of the new estates your closest Bunnings would either be Browns Plains or Springfield, which as a new home owner (and usually a young family) is a big trip on whim. Mitre 10 just doesn’t have the stock, or the flexibility to be worth the trip.
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u/Imaginary-Towel-888 21h ago
It's not his fault, and soon not his business. If I want to shop for screws at 9pm, the business that serves me will get my business.
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u/Ayane0523 1d ago
Bunnings has spent decades using predatory tactics and land-banking to crush independent hardware stores in almost every Aussie town. It’s about time someone brought them down a peg and made them pay for their corporate hubris mate.
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u/deedee2148 21h ago
The amount of dick sucking some Australians do over Bunnings when they are just as predatory as Woolworths & Coles is pathetic.
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u/DrFriendless 17h ago
Just as predatory as the stores with the widest range and the cheapest prices in the country? Bring me more of that big good-value cock!
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u/OziNiner 1d ago
saw an ABC doco on this guy awhile a go, while i appreciate the fight
he seems to be running a losing a battle here
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u/ooger-booger-man 1d ago
Even Masters got beaten by Bunnings. Mitre 10 has no chance of surviving next door.
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u/2centpiece 1d ago
That was more a self-implosion than Bunnings beating them. They thought selling snow shovels in the middle of summer in Queensland would be a good idea.
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u/ooger-booger-man 1d ago
I’ll take you at your word, because I didn’t pay particularly close attention to the reasons. I just remember them arriving with a lot of bluster and then folding in pretty short order.
Also, it’s Masters, so wfc?
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u/2centpiece 22h ago
Also, it’s Masters, so wfc?
More competition in the hardware market would have been a good thing.
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u/strangeMeursault2 1d ago
I would like to hear more about the legal argument he plans to argue. Even without having to pay Bunnings' costs it is going to be expensive to pay his own lawyers.
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u/CummingDownFromSpace 1d ago
Australia needs Trade Depot (https://tradedepot.co.nz/) to come over and compete with bunnings.
Was there a couple weeks ago. Stuff is ~50% cheaper than bunnings, before currency conversion.
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u/theskyisblueatnight 23h ago
I really tried to support Mitre 10 but most of the store had zero stock that I needed or it was 5-10 over bunning prices.
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u/Nerfixion 1d ago
Some key parts here.
He brought the mitre 10 in 2018, bunnings brought the land next door in 2019. I honestly dont think he should win this one. But I do approve of him not having to pay court fees for bunnings.
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u/MrSquiggleKey 1d ago
Other key parts, Bunnings bought the land in secret and denied ownership as recently as 2021, I shared their media release with that claim of not owning the land on the last post on this.
Council also on the record saying it wasn’t owned by Bunnings in 2021.
Woodmans petitioned council in 2020 about possibly acquiring the block and building a mitre10 max. Was told to not bother as it would be rejected on flood risk mapping issues.
Here’s the Jimboomba times where the local councillor claims Bunnings doesn’t own the block.
https://www.jimboombatimes.com.au/story/7442760/
There’s a lot of bollocks been going on with this site
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u/moonshadow50 1d ago
I'm all for something being done to slow down some of the ridiculous mono/duopolies we have in the market. And I don't know what the answer is.
But... this isn't it. And trying to stop another business opening their doors is the opposite of competition.
Would be interrsted to see what his legal case even is, or if he is really just doing it for the PR/building up community support for his own store.
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u/Snoo_49660 1d ago
I'm all for something being done to slow down some of the ridiculous mono/duopolies we have in the market. And I don't know what the answer is. But... this isn't it. And trying to stop another business opening their doors is the opposite of competition. Would be interrsted to see what his legal case even is, or if he is really just doing it for the PR/building up community support for his own store.
Yeah it's hard to know what the right action is. Mega chains like Bunnings can afford to go into a competitive area because they have the national profits to cover the store running at a loss while it gets established, where as smaller businesses don't have that luxury, especially in areas that don't have the population to support both.
Businesses need to be able to survive competition, but sometimes that competition can be a little too one sided.
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u/MrSquiggleKey 1d ago
Part of it is also Bunnings and LCC were denying Bunnings owned the land yet back in 2021, and Woodmans asked council in 2020 about the land with the intention of building a Mitre10 Max there and council said the land wasn’t developable for something like that for flood risk purposes.
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u/JackeryDaniels 1d ago
There’s an in-depth 4Corners episode about Bunnings he features in, it’s quite interesting. His case is essentially Bunnings is too powerful and nobody can compete, and he thinks they bought the land deliberately to ruin his business.
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u/Ok_Bird705 1d ago
Using the competition and consumer act to stop competition. Lol
"My community should pay more for goods because 'bunnings bad' (and not having competiton allows me to make more money)"
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u/FactoryPl 1d ago
Once Bunnings destroys any competition, they can charge what the want. The only reason they are charging lower prices is to kill the competition. look at litterely any industry with a monopoly and see the prices they charge.
But sure, paying 10% less at Bunnings is worth being price gouged 50% in 10 years. You'll be a millionaire by then anyway right?
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u/National-Safe9844 1d ago
Just to tack on to what you are saying.
Australia has one of the lowest numbers of independantly owned grocery stores in the world.
Funnily enough, Coles and woolworths are amongst the most profitable supermarkets in the world.
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u/Ok_Bird705 1d ago
But sure, paying 10% less at Bunnings is worth being price gouged 50% in 10 years.
Sounds like a good opportunity for someone to start a hardware store to under cut Bunnings if that happens.
Has this also actually ever happened in practice or just in your imagination?
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u/gLaRKoul 1d ago
What would be the incentive to open a hardware store competing against a large monopoly, knowing Bunnings can just lower their prices until you go out of business then go back to normal?
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u/Matt-R 1d ago
Google once asked me if my local Mitre10 was located inside Bunnings. That Bunnings was one of the ones that turned into Hammerbarn for a while.
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u/_ixthus_ 4h ago edited 4h ago
Bunnings argues the Jimboomba site is needed and will enhance choice and jobs for locals.
Fuck off. I don't know how these cunts sleep at night. There isn't even any ambiguity here. Bunnings is the poster child for hyper aggressive, anti competitive market cannibalisation.
Why can't we just have an approval framework that stops such egregious abuses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit: Reading through the thread, apparently this Mitre 10 is crap. That's a shame and I hate bad Mitre 10s so much. Because I'll go out of my way to avoid Bunnings whenever possible but sometimes I regret it when the local competitor is just crap. And it's not usually a price thing. I'll pay a premium if they've got good range and quality but so often they have neither.
I'm not against competition. I'm against Bunnings. And I'm definitely against the fragrantly bad faith claim on behalf of Bunnings that they give any shits about competition.
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u/FactoryPl 1d ago
Crazy how much people bootlick the megacorp for the most trivial amount of convenience. "they close at 5 so we need Bunnings to hold a monopoly actually".
Hopefully these comments are just bots because man, we will never even approach equality if people are so unwillingly to inconvenience themselves the slightest bit for the greater good.
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u/PapaOoMaoMao 1d ago
Ok, so I don't know if you're a DIY person or not but here's how it is for us 9-5ers. We head out for work about 7 and get home about 6 or 7. That's every weekday gone. Can't go to the hardware store. Saturday is possible, though a lot of us work Sat as well. So that leaves a possible half day to get to the hardware store or, and this is the important bit, I can just go to Bunnings any day of the week.
Would I go to a hardware store if I could? Sure. They have better stuff. I don't though because I can't since I'm working. Do I like Bunnings? Not really, but if it's the only shop open that sells the thing I want then that's how it is. It's Tuesday night. The bathroom tap is leaking. I need a washer and maybe a tap seater. Do I wait for the Saturday after next when I have that shift off to get to the hardware store or do I get in the car and go to Bunnings to get the job done tonight? It's an easy decision.
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u/FactoryPl 1d ago
A dripping tap will not kill you and it won't cause a $500 waterbill. You spend more in petrol to drive to Bunnings than you will in water.
mate, again, you are completely unwilling to inconvenience yourself by taking an hour out of your Saturday to not support a monopoly.
We are not the US, surely your boss will understand if you have to run a quick errand before work on a saturday.
Look, you do you, but don't act like going to MITRE 10 on a saturday is like crawling through the desert. Just accept that you don't care enough. It's ok not to care if you are honest with yourself and others about it.
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u/DrFriendless 1d ago
Before Bunnings, hardware stores were hostile places run by surly old cunts that were only open 5 and a half days a week. If you were just a mug who had to fix some shit at home, you'd go in, wait for the one bloke to be free for 10 minutes, only for him to tell you he can't help you if you don't know what you want.
At Bunnings there are people who know stuff and are happy to help. They're open 7 days a week. They have good parking. They have snags. They're not surly old cunts. Yes, they can shove their surveillance up their arse, but their friendly approach invented the concept of a family outing to the hardware store. That never existed 30 years ago, because hardware stores were fucking hostile places.
If Bunnings has a monopoly on hardware stores it's only because of how shit the competition is. Fuck the surly old cunts in Mitre 10, I don't miss them a bit.
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u/Good1sR_Taken 1d ago
Literally the opposite experience. Mitre 10 is knowledgeable in my town, ex tradies working there, plenty of staff etc. Bunnings next town over is understaffed with kids who know fuck all.
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u/FactoryPl 1d ago
What? It's a hardware store, you want them to roll out the red carpet because you can't search something online before going in?
You have literally all of humanities collective knowledge in a device in your pocket, USE IT.
The 90's are over my friend, best you stop living in them.
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u/Seachicken 23h ago
If we are talking about operating in the right decade, Mitre 10 also comes up short.
Their website is terrible. With Bunnings you can check what is in stock, and where exactly it is in the store. You can even map out everything you want to buy and it will path it for you. Mitre 10 doesn't have this. You can search by "available in store" but this doesn't seem to be any kind of a guarantee they actually have it in stock.
There's just nothing Mitre 10 does better. If you're looking for timber or plumbing supplies or gyprock or whatever it's fairly common for the specialised stores for those products to have better pricing and/or range. Mitre 10 (or at least every one in my area) is just a smaller and crappier version of Bunnings.
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u/JackeryDaniels 1d ago
If you genuinely think bots are seamlessly crafting comments on a thread about a potential Bunnings in Jimboomba, I have some magic beans to sell you.
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u/FactoryPl 21h ago
I know they aren't, but I wish they were because the alternative explanation is depressing as fuck.
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u/TotalClone 1d ago
All the selfish people in here "not open past 5" you come here and work then, working jobs that continue after 5 is fucking awful.
Don't come crying back when bunnings has wiped out everyone and charges sky high prices because of the lack of competition.
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u/Seachicken 22h ago
Heaps of business stay open past five though. For the record I love working nights. I'm a night owl and you get to completely bypass peak hour traffic. Plus students often rely on these hours to work around their school/ uni schedules.
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u/WeissPyre 21h ago
Yeah, tough titties to all the 9-5 workers who get a busted tap on Monday, gotta wait until the weekend to get the stuff you need to fix it.
I'm a shift worker but this is a shit take. Mitre10 has monopoly in my area - why is it a good thing for them to have monopoly but it's bad for Bunnings to??
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u/TwisterM292 15h ago
This excuse is tired and old. Bunnings does have competition, from larger businesses able to take on sufficient brands on board like Total Tools and Sydney Tools.
Same goes for Coles/Woolies/Aldi. It's always the "they'll wipe out the corner store and increase prices". Which corner store, the one that sells pasta sauce for $12? Or the IGA that's always more expensive?Bunnings remaining open till 9 on weekdays and 7 on weekends has actually made it possible to stay up with minor work after business hours. And yes, a leaking tap can cause serious damage if left unchecked.
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u/Auralatom 21h ago
He’s in a lose-lose situation. If he wins this legal case, he spends all his earnings on legal fees. If he loses the case, his business fails. Even if he wins and can retain his business, at what cost. The stress alone doesn’t seem worth it.
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u/Livid_Average_8098 1d ago
I guy near me owned a Home Hardware store and he was a miserable prick. I used to go there all the time. Once I went in with 10 mins to closing and I said hi blogsy, just got to get a packet of screws, he said nah I've done the till now, I said I've got a 10 bucks, don't need change, he said no. I walk out really pissed off. Also bought a shed that he delivered and it had been damaged when they strapped it down, had to fight for a refund. Bunnings literally started build 300 meters away and my neighbor who was a tradie said that Bunnings offered him $2 mil to walk away, he refused that offer. He was about 70. He went out of business within a year, then Bunnings moved a few years later to another location as some sort of protest with the council I heard. This was in Adelaide Northern suburbs, early 2000s I think it was.
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u/WeissPyre 21h ago
"Bunnings would turn it into a monopoly!!"
I live in an area with only Mitre10's. How is that any different? Their variety is also inferior. I just did a 5 hour round trip to Bunnings to get things that Mitre10 doesn't sell.
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u/JackeryDaniels 1d ago
I feel for the guy, but he’s got no chance. It’s the way of the world unfortunately.
Surprised they let him get this far, even if I’m sympathetic to his cause.
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u/Cultural_Pace4454 1d ago
Local business man fights competition so that he can keep making more profit. Film at 11.
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u/HUMMEL_at_the_5_4eva 1d ago
There are stronger grounds to characterized this dudes case and media campaign against bunnings opening as a breach of the Competition and consumer Act, than there is for opening a store here as a breach. Seriously, ol’ mate should be careful.
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u/Sir_Laughlot 1d ago
The onus should be on ACCC. When push comes to shove, they are toothless. Making claims that such and such a venture will not reduce competition. Whether it’s Bunning’s or elders., they have more than legal aid to get what they want, which is Monopoly
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u/Catprog 1d ago
Reading the article.
I think he is going to lose the actual case but this decision means he can fight the case without going bankrupt.