Jackson Motor Company buys Derwent Park K&D store site
JACKSON Motor Company MD and entrepreneur Errol Stewart has confirmed his company has snapped up the K&D site at Derwent Park.
Tasmania
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JACKSON Motor Company managing director and entrepreneur Errol Stewart has confirmed his company purchased the K&D building at Derwent Park late last year.
K&D chairman Greg Goodman yesterday said the hardware store would close at the end of March.
MORE: ABOUT 40 JOBS TO GO AS K&D SELLS GLENORCHY SITE
He said staff and shareholders had been advised of the decision.
Mr Stewart said his company bought the store just before Christmas for close to $6 million.
He said he had not yet decided what the site would be used for, but that it was possible he would expand the nearby motor company or install a tenant.
“It just gives us some options to expand ... it’s a really good site,” he said.
Mr Stewart — whose latest projects include a $16 million hotel development on a prime Tamar River site — said the K&D store was in a “strategically great location”.
MORE: STEWART AIMS HIGH WITH $16M SILOS HOTEL ON TAMAR
He said he expected jobs to be created at the site after K&D’s closure.
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Mr Stewart expects to take possession of the site in the middle of this year.
Glenorchy Mayor Kristie Johnston said her immediate thoughts were with the staff who would be displaced by K&D’s closure.
“It’s sad when any business collapses in Glenorchy,” she said.
“We look forward to working with the new owner on job and economic opportunities in Glenorchy.”
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, which represents the K&D workers, believes the closure will affect about 40 employees.
The union’s Tasmanian general secretary Paul Griffin said redundancy packages for employees and redeployment opportunities would be the union’s focus.
Mr Griffin said he expected redeployment opportunities to be limited.
K&D opened its first warehouse store in Hobart in 1986.
The Derwent Park store opened in 1996.
The company’s website says it employs about 260 people.
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