Cheque-mate: Warehouse abandons bank scheme

Nearly two years after it signalled it was keen to introduce its own banking services, The Warehouse has abandoned its plans for a joint venture with one of the Big Five.

It is widely believed to have got well down the track with the ANZ, but confirmed yesterday that it had now gone "back to square one" after becoming concerned it was not going to be able to provide "a big enough bargain."

Managing director Stephen Tindall said the company became uncomfortable with the way talks were going and it was now planning a fresh approach.

It has written off $1.6 million of costs associated with the project.

Meanwhile, it is working on ways to speed up what it acknowledges are bottlenecks at its checkouts during busy periods.

Together with technology firm NCR, it has come up with ways to improve the efficiency at its tills by about 30 per cent.

The new system was introduced at its Milford store in Auckland three months ago, and will be introduced to all stores as they are upgraded.

Around 1.5 million people now pass through a Warehouse store each week - around half of whom are paying customers.