THE FUTURE of Wagga’s Masters site has been plunged into further disarray after Woolworths moved one step closer to ending its disastrous venture into the home improvement market and sold Home Timber for $165 million.
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The supermarket giant also announced it would close all its Masters store by December 11.
Executives also placed the company’s shares in a trading halt on Wednesday.
It comes after The Daily Advertiser on Monday reported that Woolworths executives were holding a three-day crisis meeting with Wagga’s Masters staff to discuss their future.
Local consumers have already begun pitching their wist lists for potential stores to take over the Hammond Avenue warehouse should the failed chain be brought to a close.
Suggestions for the new site ranged from an IKEA outlet, to a Costco store and even a Direct Factory Outlet.
Director of PRDnationwide Wagga Simon Freemantle acknowledged that while the site would be perfectly suited to an outlet like IKEA or Costco, neither have policies to move to regional areas.
“Huge bulk suppliers like IKEA and Costco don’t do business in country cities at this point in time, but they’d certainly qualify to take the site if they did,” Mr Freemantle said.
“It’s a multi-zoned bulk supplying site so I definitely think another big chain could take it over – maybe even a department store like Harvey Norman or David Jones.
“My understanding is that Masters would have a lengthy lease on the property so if they fold, they would have to cover the costs of the lease until it expires.”
He said it is possible the site could be broken up and leased to several smaller retailers, if the hardware chain does fold.
“They wouldn’t be able to turn it into a small mall or a shopping centre but they could certainly split the site between a few stores,” he said.
It comes after the supermarket heavyweight admitted it would not “continue to sustain ongoing losses” at Masters and would instead consider selling or closing the store.
“Woolworths is looking to exit the home improvement sector and we are unable to comment on the sale process that is currently in train,” a spokesperson said.
Masters home improvement stores across the country have already racked up more than $700 million in losses since 2011.
It remains unknown what the future will hold for neighbouring stores Anaconda, PETstock and Pillow Talk, which operate in the same shopping centre as the Masters store in Hammond Avenue.
