Bunnings stocks up on BBQs, indoor plants and pool supplies

Under Mike Schneider the hardware retailer is seeking out new categories to keep the cash registers ringing.

Mike Schneider, managing Director of Bunnings, sees plenty of projects for around the home for Australians to take on as the east coast is blanketed by a wet and cold spring. Picture: Peter Mathew

The way Bunnings boss Mike Schneider sees it, the pandemic has helped Australians fall in love with their homes all over again.

That’s not to be unexpected, especially in the states that suffered the worst of the lockdowns over the last two years, while more work from home arrangements have meant more wear and tear on properties, driving repairs.

The wet weather blanketing the east coast has helped, turning people’s minds to their homes.

This is prompting Bunnings, the nation’s largest hardware retailer, to seek out new categories and push deeper into existing product ranges as it follows the customer from the letter box to the back fence.

Schneider walks around the Bunnings store in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Mentone, one of his larger format stores, pointing out where many of these new ideas are being trialled before they are taken nationwide.

Bunnings is growing more in the pool maintenance area, offering chemicals and pool water applications. There is a vastly expanded area for barbecues with the hardware giant seeing this as a huge opportunity, selling cookers and smokers that are the beasts of the BBQ world, giant pieces of machinery that involves slow cooking, pellet-fired flames or charcoal for a much more advanced and sophisticated cook.

Again, according to Schneider, who was appointed the boss of Bunnings in 2017, much of it goes back to Australians rediscovering their own surroundings through Covid-19 and lockdowns.

“For me, what I have seen really strongly after the last two or three years is Australians have re-fallen in love with the home, we are spending inordinate amounts of time there, it is a really safe place to be and we want to do things around the home and create really great experiences,” Schneider says. “Anything that helps customers fall in love with DIY, big or small, is what really excites us which is why we have so much content on our YouTube channel, more than 640 hours of YouTube content, just shows how much people are interested in learning those new skills.”

Pool supplies is one new category Bunnings is expanding into.

An especially hot category at the moment is indoor plants.

This has been a handy category to have firing at the moment given the unseasonably wet and cold spring much of the east coast of Australia is having at the moment that is keeping many people away from starting gardening and outdoor projects.

It’s something Schneider has noticed all too well.

“I’ve been at Bunnings for 17 years and spring is sometimes early, sometimes late, but spring always happens,” he says.

“It’s easy to be very Melbourne centric because we are here. It’s certainly been well documented that Victoria had its wettest October on record, that NSW has already had its rainfall for the year.

“There’s clearly a bit of a bias to indoors in the home so a lot of our marketing and advertising will be what can you do with your indoor garden? And when it’s wet there is more to do around the home, around mould and moisture in the home, you can do indoor painting projects.

“And for the commercial pipeline there is a lot of demand, there’s a bit left over from the HomeBuilder scheme and it is just flowing through, a lot in the alteration and addition activity and obviously with people working at home two or three days a week now there is a lot more wear and tear on the home.”

And when that weather does break and Australians rediscover their backyards, Schneider knows he will hear it through the nation’s neighbourhoods. “When that weather is better I’m sure come the next Saturday we will wake up to the sound of lawnmowers and whipper snippers.”

Hopefully, there will also be the ringing of cash registers too.

Originally published as Bunnings stocks up on BBQs, indoor plants and pool supplies