Best of both businesses
Meet the new boss uniting two iconic Geelong hardware brands, writes DAVE CAIRNS
UNITING the cultures of two fierce rivals into one integrated business is the priority for the new boss of Belmont Timber and Fagg’s Mitre 10.
General manager Andrew Pitman brings a fresh perspective to the hardware and timber business, given his corporate background in the oil industry.
“I don’t claim to know the timber, but I think I know and understand business and how we can market the business in a different direction and in a different way to reach the customers better than we do at the moment,” Mr Pitman said.
The business involves two significant Geelong brands with the Fagg’s business having a 164-year history in the city and Belmont Timber established by legendary Geelong Cats benefactor the late Alex Popescu in the early 1950s.
In recent years the two have shared parent company ownership through Metcash but there is a commitment to keep both brands under the new merged operation.
“There is a rich history and pedigree of experience there which is well recognised in the Geelong community and we are not going to let that go,” Mr Pitman said. “We are keeping the heritage of both companies alive.”
Having completed the initial back-end integration so they share point of sale and accounting systems, attention has turned to harmonising the cultures of teams who were focus was on the user experience for all patrons.
“We are looking at a digital transformation strategy, which will be the website, how people buy tickets, what the once competitors.
That process includes relocating some senior management from Fagg’s, which has absorbed the Belmont Timber business, and investing more than $100,000 to renovate offices on the Settlement Rd site.
Belmont Timber represents about 30-40 per cent of the combined operation which employs 230 staff (including casuals and part-timers) and which now promotes itself as the largest timber and hardware business in the greater Geelong region.
Mr Pitman said the focus would be on growing its share of the trade market.
“We don’t discount the retail side … Bunnings has had an impact, but our DIY and Mighty Rewards customers remain loyal and from a trade perspective, that’s where our strength is and that’s where our core business is,” he said.
Operating out of four locations will give trade customers, particularly Belmont Timber clients, greater scope and opportunity to engage with the business.
Fagg’s is partly owned by Metcash, which owns the Mitre 10 brand, while Belmont Timber has been owned by Metcash since it bought the Home Timber & Hardware group from Woolworths for $165 million almost two years ago.
“They were owned by the one company, (but) operating independently, competing independently. What we have done has brought them together,” Mr Pitman said.
Previously the Australian wholesale fuels sales manager for Mobil Oil Australia, Mr Pitman’s career has been in downstream marketing in the oil industry and his retail exposure was through running Mobil’s company-operated service stations.
Having started on June 1, his appointment brings an outside perspective and experience garnered in a competitive environment to help steer the Geelong business. “We are going to employ new technologies, new marketing techniques, things that I am going to bring to the table that haven’t necessarily been in play in this industry,” he said.