Metcash concessions on HTH

The retailer hopes fresh undertakings will win an ACCC tick for its Home Timber & Hardware bid.

Wholesaler Metcash has made a series of concessions and undertakings to the com­petition regulator to get its proposed takeover of Home Timber & Hardware over the line, in an offer that includes not restricting hardware retailers from acquiring products from non-Metcash sources.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has sent letters to interested parties in the nation’s $45 billion hardware and home improvement sector as it reviews Metcash’s plan to buy Home Timber from Woolworths.

Metcash owns rival hardware wholesaler Mitre 10.

The ACCC is concerned about the impact on competition if ­Metcash also locks up ownership of Home Timber, in particular the ability of retailers within the Mitre 10 network to buy products from other ­sources.

Metcash has now made a ­series of undertakings to the ACCC around the issue to get its deal approved.

The ACCC has already pushed back its decision date to July 21 as it investigates the competitive outcome of a tie-up between the two key wholesalers.

The ACCC said after the proposed acquisition, Mitre 10 would have an ownership interest in about 100 retail stores. Some retailers are concerned Mitre 10 could discriminate against them in favour of its own stores.

“So Mitre 10 has offered to undertake not to restrict retailers from acquiring products from such sources,” ACCC commissioner Roger Featherston said.

“The proposed undertaking is also intended to prevent any such discrimination.”

Woolworths’ sale of Home Timber is part of the supermarket chain’s exit from the hardware sector following the failure of its Masters chain.