Mitre 10 announced layoffs at its headquarters, with positions affected included retailing and marketing. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Mitre 10 announced layoffs at its headquarters, with positions affected included retailing and marketing. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Mitre 10 has laid off 14 staff from its headquarters, after 33 people left five stores in the Auckland network recently, meaning redundancies and changes affect at least 47 people.
A spokeswoman released a statement explaining why the 14 were being laid off from the HQs.
“We recently concludeda consultation process at our national support centre and 14 roles were made redundant from our total support centre team of 506.
“Those leaving the business were offered employee assistance programme support services along with outplacement and career transition support,” she told the Herald.
The 85-store big-box national retailer is headed by chief executive Andrea Scown.
One staff member said a reorganisation of the chain’s national support centre at Corinthian Drive on Auckland’s North Shore had resulted in the latest layoffs.
Some staff laid off were in the mid-tier management and the numbers were small, considering Mitre 10 (New Zealand) had more than 500 people based in the glass-fronted building near the motorway, that staffer said.
Positions affected included retailing and marketing.
The headquarters of the co-operative sells goods to store owners who are shareholders. It takes a percentage of that as profit and provides services to members including IT support.
But those owners also buy goods from elsewhere as well.
Unlike the Foodstuffs co-operatives which are this country’s dominant supermarket owners, co-op members of Mitre 10 can own more than one outlet.
Cam Caithness, managing director of Riviera Hardware Holdings, said this month 33 people were leaving five Auckland stores. Most of the 33 were being made redundant.
But the business was also hiring 20 staff after rosters were readjusted, Caithness said.
He cited trading conditions as a reason for layoffs at Mitre 10 Mega Albany, Mitre 10 Mega New Lynn, Mitre 10 Mega Warkworth, Mitre 10 Whangaparāoa and Mitre 10 Mega Silverdale.
“We needed to realign rosters to reflect current trading conditions. Despite every effort being made to redeploy people, this has unfortunately resulted in 33 people leaving the business, most by way of redundancy and a handful by choice,” he said earlier this month.
The new Silverdale store with staff, all ready to go when it opened in August this year.
A staff member at the new $30 million Silverdale store spoke out against layoffs, saying many people were going.
Caithness said then that store had “deployed the majority of the team into adjusted rosters”.
A second disillusioned Mitre 10 Mega Silverdale staff member said the layoffs were far more widespread.
Mitre 10 (New Zealand) made a $67m loss in the year to June 30. That was down on last year’s minor $1.8m profit after expenses rose from its big information technology upgrade.
Revenue for the chain’s parent rose from $307m to $315m from June 30, 2022 to 2023 but so did expenses, up from $155m to $196m.
The co-operative-based business has been upgrading its IT systems across its network and support centre.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
