Home Timber and Hardware burns Masters as it prepares to close down

A RIVAL hardware chain gave Masters one final insult as the failed multibillion-dollar Woolworths experiment prepared to shut its doors for good.

Masters shut its doors for the last time on the weekend. Picture: Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

A RIVAL hardware chain gave Masters Home Improvement one final insult as the failed multibillion-dollar Woolworths experiment prepared to shut its doors for good.

A customer taking advantage of the last days of Masters’ fire sale near Melbourne on the weekend, snapped a picture that showed Home Timber and Hardware was making the most of Masters’ demise.

Outside a Masters big box store was a Home Timber and Hardware truck, with a message written on the cargo container that absolutely whacked the failed Woolworths hardware chain.

“The true masters are still selling hardware,” the message said.

A Home Timber and Hardware truck parked outside Masters.

Home Timber and Hardware used to be owned by Woolworths, but was sold to Metcash when Woolworths announced its exit plan from hardware earlier this year.

Woolworths sold Home Timber and Hardware to Metcash, the owner of Mitre 10, for $165 million.

Metcash chief executive Ian Morrice said in August the sale would help Metcash become more competitive and deliver a better outcome for both hardware retailers and customers.

“Our objective is to continue to build successful independent retailers and grow a vibrant independent hardware sector, for the long term,” Mr Morrice said.

Woolworths Limited confirmed all Masters stores ceased trading on Sunday.

Woolworths said its number one priority was to ensure Masters employees were immediately given redeployment opportunities and support.

More than 1600 Masters employees were given jobs elsewhere in the company, mostly in Woolworths supermarkets.

“Within a week of the announcement of the Home Improvement closure, 63 additional HR managers were employed by Woolworths to provide critical local store support and counselling services to all affected staff, including one on one interviews,” human resources director Gillian Davie said.

“We also provided over 4000 hours of tailored training to our team to help them in their job search.

“For those employees who didn’t want to move into supermarkets, and instead chose redundancy, Woolworths established a Job Placement program. In doing this, we partnered with over 100 external organisations who provided our team members with over 580 employment opportunities through a well-connected network.”

Metcash did not respond to news.com.au’s inquiries about the truck and Masters did not wish to comment.