Andrew Smith is Mitre 10's new chairman. Photo / Alex Burton
New Mitre 10 chairman and Cantabrian Andrew Smith was 10 when he began working in his father’s Christchurch shop.
“I’d bike down after school,” Smith, 54, said last week from the headquarters of Mitre 10, New Zealand’s biggest garden, DIY and hardware chain.
Smith was appointed chairman of the orange-and-black national retailer on February 28, following Martin Dippie who chaired the co-operative for 18 years.
Smith recalled continuing to work for his dad Reg when he went to Burnside High School.
From the co-operative’s national boardroom at 67 Corinthian Dr, Smith tells how he would sell Christmas trees, bag potatoes and handle fertiliser.
His father’s business had started as a coal yard on Waimari Rd in 1964, then gradually expanded.
A black-and white-photo shows him surrounded by hooks, waterproof and floating torches, scissors, clamps, screwdrivers, rulers, paintbrushes, “a new type of scissors everyone can use”, and chain and drill bits.
Smiths Hardware still trades today, 60 years later - albeit in less of a corner-shop style format, more as one of Christchurch’s biggest retailers in footprints of more than one hectare or more inside.
In 2015, Smith’s parents Helen and Reg were inducted into the Mitre 10 Hall of Fame at the retailer’s annual awards dinner, acknowledged for their significant contribution to the sector.
Andrew Smith says he is not alone in being a second-generation Mitre 10er.
Many other store owners have similar inter-generational backgrounds “and that’s why we are unique as a co-operative because each member has a part of the community in their heart”.
Smiths Hardware now owns two of New Zealand’s largest Mega Mitre 10s: at Papanui and Hornby.
A third Christchurch Mitre 10, also owned by Smith, is at Beckenham and will soon be replaced with a much larger store. The Mitre 10 Beckenham 2600sq m shop at 264 Colombo St will shut when a now-under-construction 11,500sq m giant not far away at 32 Montreal St opens as a Mega Mitre 10.
So Smith’s business itself is upgrading, experiencing exactly the same growth and change synonymous with this popular 85-store retail national brand.
Smith is a powerful voice in the co-operative because Smiths Hardware is Mitre 10′s second-largest owner, behind Riviera Hardware Holdings.
Smiths Hardware owns 3.99 per cent of parent Mitre 10 (New Zealand), behind Riviera’s 5.76 per cent, according to the Herald’s power list of Mitre 10 owners published last year.
Smiths Hardware employs more than 429 staff and gained substantially from the multi-billion-dollar earthquake recovery Christchurch rebuild. Demand for its wares continues to expand in that fast-growing city.
Smith says he doesn’t expect to serve as long as former chairman Martin Dippie, who was in that role for 18 years.
This June, Mitre 10 will turn 50. Owners will celebrate in various ways, including at their stores - but a Hamilton supplier expo during June will also be an occasion where owners can gather to mark the milestone, Smith said.
Mitre 10 has been a part of New Zealand’s home improvement culture since 1974, the business says on its website, and is “a co-operative of small and medium businesses owned by Kiwi families across the country, with 85 stores and a national support centre employing over 8000 people and supporting more than 500 local suppliers throughout New Zealand”.
The country’s largest home improvement and garden retailer is also rapidly growing its trade and commercial business.
Smith is proud of Mitre 10 this month hosting 45 delegates from the European DIY Retail Association and Global Home Improvement Network.
The representatives from 17 countries visited here and Australia, coming from Norway, Finland, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Britain and elsewhere to learn about Mitre 10′s inter-generational business model and how the co-operative works.
Smith named reps from Home Depot, B&Q and Hornbach, saying he was proud that people from such significant businesses came here to study and learn more about the Mitre 10 model.
He particularly cited their interest in Mitre 10′s innovation centre at Albany, testing how new ranges or products are displayed in smaller and larger-format stores.
Eighteen months ago, that centre showcased a new paint department format for stores and Smith praised the hub’s role in the national network.
Asked about the most popular products selling at this time of the year, Smith named heating and power gardening equipment including water blasters and leaf blowers. Home renovation products - particularly paint - remained ever-popular.
“I’m an inter-generational retailer so I’m very passionate about the co-operative, about what Mitre 10 stands for and I know how important this business is to communities. This is about galvanising the membership and Mitre 10 being a co-operative. We are here to support each other and provide guidance,” Smith says.
Part of that is investing in new information technology systems, he said.
The parent company recorded a $67 million loss in the year to June 30, 2023, down on the previous year’s $1.8m profit, primarily due to one-off expenses from a major technology upgrade.
Smith said that loss was entirely expected and upgrading IT systems was a “big transformation, a multi-year project.
“Our plans are well thought out and rolled out. This is an end-to-end system that is important because it touches every part of our business from how we engage with our suppliers and order products. The ultimate goal is to serve the customer more efficiently and to enable our team to have the tools to make the sales process frictionless.”
ANDREW MARK SMITH
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
'Some people can’t remember anyone in their family owning a home.'