You need to get to know Michael Schneider. It’s not that easy, as he lives and works a world away running one of the largest retailers in Australia and New Zealand, Home Improvement retail powerhouse Bunnings. But I’m doing my part - Michael was my very special guest recently at Retail Council of Canada's STORE2021 thought leadership conference, so I thought it only appropriate to bring our conversation onto the podcast.
Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
You need to get to know Michael Schneider. It’s not that easy, as he lives and works a world away running one of the largest retailers in Australia and New Zealand, Home Improvement retail powerhouse Bunnings. But I’m doing my part - Michael was my very special guest recently at Retail Council of Canada’s STORE2021 thought leadership conference, so I thought it only appropriate to bring our conversation onto the podcast.
In fact, this is Michael’s second time on the podcast, so we spend a bit of time catching up with current events, but then get right to the good stuff: how Bunnings is one of the most, if not the, respected and trusted brand in Australia - of all brands. What principles, guidelines, guardrails are in place to achieve that kind of cohesion across all of the departments, people and the communities they operate in.
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a rating and review, as it really helps us grow so that we can continue getting amazing guests on the show.
I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you’re looking for more content, or want to chat follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!
Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and the all new Conversations with CommerceNext podcast. You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to the Voice of Retail, I'm your host, Michael Leblanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 00:10
You need to get to know Michael Schneider. It’s not that easy, as he lives and works a world away running one of the largest retailers in Australia and New Zealand, home improvement retail powerhouse Bunnings. But I’m doing my part - Michael was my very special guest recently at Retail Council of Canada’s STORE 2021 thought leadership conference, so I thought it only appropriate to bring our conversation onto the podcast.
Michael LeBlanc 00:32
In fact, this is Michael’s second time on the podcast, so we spend a bit of time catching up with current events, but then get right to the good stuff: how Bunnings is one of the most, if not the, respected and trusted brands in Australia - of all brands. What principles, guidelines, guardrails are in place to achieve that kind of cohesion across all of the departments, people and the communities they operate in.
Michael LeBlanc 00:53
Let's hear from Michael now.
Well, Michael, welcome to STORE 2021. It's such a great way to wrap up an already full day of thought leadership. Welcome to the conference.
Michael Schneider 01:05
Thanks so much, Michael, I hope you're well.
Michael LeBlanc 01:08
Well, you know, you and I've had the opportunity to meet in the before-time. You visited Toronto, I got the chance to learn all about you and all about Bunnings. Let's jump right in and tell the, tell the folks at home all, about all about Bunnings and how you go to market and yourself and your role there.
Michael Schneider 01:25
Thanks, Michael. We're running since Australia's leading Home Improvement and outdoor garden provider, we operate in the home improvement sector, much like Home Depot, and Lowe's, and Canadian Tire do in, in your part of the world, Michael, we've got close to 400 trading locations right across Australia and into New Zealand as well. And we employ close to 50,000. Team members, our revenue is sort of in the 16 to $17 billion sort of scale from an Australian Dollar point of view and yeah, I think we sort of sell everything that you can possibly imagine from you know, pretty much the front gate of your, your property to the, to the very back fence.
Michael Schneider 02:06
For me personally, I've been a, I've been a career retailer, I've spent most of my working career in home improvement, retail, discount retail, and variety store retail. But it's not where I started my, my career, I started out wanting to be a high school teacher. So that's what I went to the University to study, but found that the sort of law of retail really drew me in. And I think it is really the pace and the ability to work with customers, ability to work with team members, and obviously amazing products. They're all pretty, pretty compelling things. I've done lots of different roles in my time from store management and regional management to work in HR and then for the last six years, I've been the CEO of the Bunnings group.
Michael LeBlanc 02:48
Well, this is a great opportunity to, to explore not just the fundamentals of retail strategy, but also, also what's happening in your market. And, and you know, all the different countries in different regions have been managing through the COVID ear in different ways, perhaps a little more open sometimes in New Zealand and Australia. But I have to think for a population that's used to traveling great international travelers, there's been a focus on the home, which is not unlike us here in Canada, give us a sense of, of the COVID experience for you, the COVID world and consumers and your operations.
Michael Schneider 03:23
Yes, certainly, I think as it has for pretty much everyone around the world, it sort of turned everything that we thought was normal on its head. In March, April 2020, the Australian Government made the decision to close its international borders to the rest of the world and that meant that, you know, people couldn't come to Australia, but interesting, the Australians couldn't leave Australia either, or, for very limited reasons. And it's very similar in New Zealand as well, certainly in the early period. So, we've been experiencing a series of rolling lock downs as we work towards vaccination time, and so 70 and then 80% of the adult population being, being double vaccinated. And you're right, Michael, that meant that people really repositioned to working from home, educating from home and, and doing so many things around the home and like so many home improvement retailers right around the globe, you know, we've seen this really significant increase in demand.
Michael Schneider 04:12
And I really am interested to see whether, long term, this represents a genuine structural shift in the way that, that sort of our industry operates and I think as we go forward, they'll be more and more flexible working, certainly becoming an ordinary and emerging thing, along with technology before the pandemic. You know, it's certainly very much the case now and I think it's really evident that people are going to spend a lot more time in their home, we've been educated that, you know, home is probably the safest place you can be with your family and they've really invested in making our homes very, very efficient from, from a workplace point of view, very, very efficient from, you know, an energy consumption point of view and I think certainly a lot more comfortable given the significant amount of time we're spending so we've seen elevated, you know, volumes in categories like gardening as people have done more things physically and mentally active.
Michael Schneider 05:02
And clearly technology and office furniture and office fit out has been a really significant trend, but also I think in categories like painting and wallpaper where, you know, our customers have really worked hard to, to personalize their space has been really good about 35% of our revenue, Michael, comes from, you know what I think, you know, businesses like depot call the pro customer we call the trade customer. And that's, you know, reflected a couple of things. One has been people remodeling and redeveloping their homes to accommodate the way that they're living in the way that they're working, but it also reflects, both in Australia and New Zealand significant investments by federal governments to, into the housing construction industry as a way of keeping the economy afloat, creating new jobs in the sector and, you know, businesses like Bunnings, and many others in Australia and New Zealand in the sector, we operate and have been beneficiaries of that.
Michael LeBlanc 05:55
So, that, the same, kind of, economic stimulus, that we see, that we see around the world is to some degree benefiting the natural flow of the business. And for the folks listening who are particularly in the hardware section of the of the retail trade, are you seeing this, kind of, ebb and flow between the DIY and the do it for me, kind of, that movement back and forth, as you said, a big pro-business, trade business a seeing that movement back and forth, both before COVID and, and during, and perhaps after?
Michael Schneider 06:25
I think the biggest, the biggest thing we saw, Michael, was, was a significant shift to some of the online model. So, we've had curbside and we call it drive and collect. So, customers driving our car parks and our team put product in the customers, in their car. We certainly saw elevated levels of that sort of online shopping, particularly during lockdowns when we've had restrictions on, on our stores being open. Our stores have been open in all jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand, right throughout the pandemic, but in really different ways.
Michael Schneider 06:53
In some jurisdictions, we've been fully open, recognizing that hardware is an essential retail business. And in other jurisdictions a little bit more limited, we've only been open for the trade or for a very narrow category of products that were deemed as super essential, you know, we're in we're in a winter down here in the southern hemisphere. So heating and hot water systems are products that sort of springs to mind that you need if you know, they sort of burn out or weather events happen that you know, damage a home, obviously, people need to be able to make those repairs, as they're sort of ebb and flow, what we've seen these elevated levels across both categories.
Michael Schneider 07:27
We have seen customers take on more and more DIY projects. I think one project will build confidence and leads into the next project. And I think that's been a great development for our business and the industry sector. There's also been a challenge around accessing trade and when I think about large scale construction projects we've had, Australia's is a federation, we've got a number of different states and territories. And throughout the pandemic, we've had, you know, internal border closures as well.
Michael Schneider 07:56
So, the ability for me to travel from, from Melbourne to Sydney at the moment, for example, that's not possible because the border between Victoria, which is the state that I live in, in New South Wales, which is the state that, that Sydney needs is actually closed. There's a significant Delta outbreak in, in New South Wales at the moment. So other states have closed their borders. So those border closures have led to limitations in access to try and that's what's really, I think, given the DIY customer a bit of a bit of a sort of a hurry along or encouragement if you like to take on some of the bigger projects that perhaps once upon a time, they wouldn't do.
Michael LeBlanc 08:30
Well, and I also like what you've, what we've talked about off mic, about mental health, right because mental health is so, so important in this time, all times, but do it yourself. I've done a little few things myself that, you know, maybe I wouldn't have had the gumption to go do myself but I've done them and, and you know, yet there's a bit of pride there and takes up, you know, some of your time and things to do and you, you have that pride in your house, it gets me to the question, that I'm really interested around two things, but one is how you've been able to sustain and maintain a brand momentum, well beyond the recognition of retail, you're not only one of the top recognized regarded retail brands, you're one of the top regarded brands of all in Australia. How do you, talk a bit about how you achieve that and I guess, I'm also more interested in how you maintain it because getting there is one thing, keeping it you've kept it for a long time, how do you, how do you get your people motivated to, kind of, get that together and get that sense of community to achieve that, kind of, that trust and that brand recognition?
Michael Schneider 09:34
It is a, it is a really interesting question, Michael and inviting me I think 16 years in a row now, we've been voted the most trusted retail brand in the country and this, this year is possible. We're also recognized as the most iconic brand bindings as a brand new 135 years old this year in the Australian market. We've been in New Zealand for over 20 years now. And our warehouse format you know our first stores opened in 1994 So the warehouse format has been in Australia for quite some time as well, not as much as North America, that's for sure, but certainly for a period of time, I think the way that we sort of build and win trust is, is by just trying to do all the little things, right, if that makes sense.
Michael Schneider 10:16
So, we want to have a really compelling offer for our customers that our product has to be the right product, it has to be a good assortment. So, one of our strategies is to have, you know, the widest range of Home Improvement and outdoor living products. We're really committed as an eDLP retailer to the lowest price. So very disciplined around having low costs in the business, sorting our product at the lowest cost, which clearly at the moment, is a real challenge with low cost of freight, and certainly a sort of a significant desire for raw materials to sort of go into the products that we that we sell, but we work really hard to have, you know, an engaged and empowered team.
Michael Schneider 10:55
And one of the real highlights for me, I guess, in the last 18 or so months is that, you know, we gave it we gave over 10,000 Australian and New Zealand as the opportunity for a new job, during the pandemic, you know, at a time where you couldn't fly an aeroplane, you couldn't serve on an aeroplane hotels were closed, restaurants were closed, we were so busy that it gave us the opportunity to give people you know, employment, we understand the role that, that plays, not only in the in the economy, but for those people themselves in putting food on the table and paying their bills and in our team has grown from sort of 40 or so 1000s to just on 50,000.
Michael Schneider 11:29
And that's been an amazing transformation in the business, it creates its own challenges around culture, for sure. But yeah, we do everything we can to support and recognize our team, you know, we do, we've got great bonus programs and great reward and recognition programs. You know, a simple example of that is that, you know, during extended periods of lockdown in, in, you know, markets like Victoria or around Melbourne, you know, randomly will give team members $100 over at Archer, you know, that's a significant investment for businesses our size with the workforce of that size. But we do that for two things.
Michael Schneider 12:03
One is to give, you know, our team members a night of cooking at home, give them a bit of variety, but it also supports some of the smaller businesses in their communities, because obviously, they can then go on, purchase from them. And they don't to, you know, I guess surprise, but recognize our team and show them that, you know, we're really focused on that we're really, really focused on, on safety, it's something that is so incredibly important to us and you touched on, on mental health, we see safety as a 360 hold a person model where it's you know, heart, mind and body if you like, and we've invested a lot into resilience and you know, expressing gratitude for the things that are going on.
Michael Schneider 12:39
So, people do keep a positive spin, we really work hard to engage positively with governments and regulators, our suppliers, so we've sort of, you know, it is all those little things that I think, at the end of the day have people sort of understand that Bunnings is a business is definitely a for profit business, don't, don't get me wrong, we are we are very financially driven, we are very performance focused, but, you know, we believe we can do the right things, but more importantly, we believe we can do them in the right in the right way and I think that, you know, bunnies will act as a business and engages brand in really different ways.
Michael Schneider 13:12
You know, one of the big topics in Australia, I'm sure it's the same in Canada at the moment is getting, getting the community, you know, vaccinated and getting people who may be sitting on the fence when it comes to vaccination to at least go and speak to a doctor or a pharmacist to, to get an informed opinion. So, they're not being they're not being guided by, by Dr. Google, and they make informed decisions. So, you know, we along with other Australian businesses have got paid advertising, you know, on TV and in the media, newspapers, social media, you know, encouraging people to go and, you know, get vaccinated, or at least go and get information to support their choices around, around vaccination.
Michael Schneider 13:49
And, you know, they're all the things that we do as a business to build trust. And, and finally, I think the thing that I enjoy the most about our business is that when our customers think about Bunnings, they think about their, their local store, they're not seeing a 50,000-person organization with, with 400 locations around Australia, New Zealand, they see their local Bunnings store, you know, as their local as your local hardware or home improvement store. And I know that, that stores doing things in its community, it's got team members going out when, when we can, of course, into the community doing things that, you know, kids’ schools, you know, helping them set up, you know, vegetable gardens and things like that.
Michael Schneider 14:28
We have barbecues on the weekend at our stores for fundraising for local sporting teams and local community groups. So, there's this real sense that you know, our team lives in their local community, they raise their families in their local community, they send their kids to local school, they play sport at the local sporting clubs, and all those things are really important.
Michael Schneider 14:46
So, that connection starts at a quite a granular level and I think it's the sum of all those little things that people, kind of, go, yes, this is the, the Bunnings we see, or this is Bunnings we feel and as a part of that era, flex on the sort of people who want to come and work in a business. So, the recruitment culture, I think at the end of the day, selling the products we sell isn't, isn't hard. All the products that we sell, you know, from timber or lumber to power gardening or, or power tools or anything like that, you know, we can teach team members about the products and how they work and how they operate. All those things are, you know, a really important part, if you haven't got the culture, right, then you've got nowhere to go.
Michael LeBlanc 15:26
Well, let me pull on that cultural thread a little bit, because I want to understand your thinking as it's evolved over time, I, you know, when I reflect back on the past 1520 years of retail, strategy and execution, it's really been getting the data locking down process being refined, you know, really real, just in time kind of inventory management, those things that kind of collapse expenses. Have you, have you started to pivot or have you needed to pivot into agility and if so, how do you, you know, how do you change that culture, or at least in view, the culture with that sense of, yes, we still have to be locked down on what we're doing, but boy, agility is going to be pretty important now and foreseeably in the future, talk about that for a little bit.
Michael Schneider 16:12
It's a, it's a really important part of our thinking, Michael, would be a few years ago now, I'd say probably 2017, 2018, I took quite a lot of travel around your part of the world around, around Europe, into, into, into Israel as well, you know, all parts of the world and sort of talk to businesses that had been making these transformations because, you know, the bank business had been a really has been a really successful model over a very long period of time, but there was certainly a sense of not, not setting our way, but certainly very set on, on process and practice, it was delivering very clean and very good outcomes, but
Michael LeBlanc 16:48
You had, you had outstanding results. I mean, it's interesting, right, because you've had great results. I mean, if you look at the results that go in one direction, so it's almost like culturally, the response will be, what's wrong, why, why do we need to change, things seem to be going pretty well, but I guess as the leader, you, kind of, have to see around the corner course COVID, kind of, introduced you to around the corner, unfortunately, is that is that what you're thinking was as well, kind of, see how I put change in place when things are going well?
Michael Schneider 17:16
Yeah, look, I think that's, that's right, and I'm sure some of the people on, on, you know, today's session will be aware that, you know, back in 2016, we entered the, the UK and Irish markets with an acquisition of a business in UK called, and basically it was, there was a period of time where things didn't go right for our business, and we exited that business in 2018. It wasn't, it wasn't the success, we'd hoped it had been and I think, for a business that delivers the sort of results that you touched on, Michael, that was a moment where we have to stop and reflect and go, we do make mistakes, we do get things wrong, and there is a compelling need for change, I think most emblematic in that regard was the digital transformation in the business.
Michael Schneider 17:56
I think for a long time, you know, the business had a really strong sense of belief that, you know, to some extent, Australia and home improvement retailing in Australia was a little bit immune from some of the digital changes and digital challenges that, you know, businesses around the world have been, have been facing into. And it did take a lot of time to educate the team, but the changes that we made in the investments we've been making, when we hit when we hit COVID and I think for all leaders, you know, we've been told for years now that, you know, we need to be much more data reliant, you know, instinct rates, leadership on its own isn't going to be the way to go forward. You know, just because you got 20 or 30 years of experience doesn't mean that you've got all the answers.
Michael Schneider 18:36
I think that that's very right, but what COVID showed us is that we need to be able to move with incredible speed, incredible agility, but we do rely on a really strong teamwork and that agility that you touched on which we embarked on that journey. And as I said, did the sort of study trips trying to understand what businesses had done and the pitfalls that they, they'd, sort of, face, we certainly found plenty of those ourselves, but it did open my eyes as a leader to the fact that we need to be changing and we need to be changing at a, at a, at a rate that's much faster than at times I think feels comfortable, because circumstances will always will always catch you out.
Michael Schneider 19:11
And I think the pandemic has shown us that, you know, I genuinely hope it's a one in 100 year event, because navigating businesses through these sorts of times it's pretty, it's pretty taxing, as I'm sure we can all attest to but it has set us up to be a fitter, stronger, much more agile business, but what it's also donated sort of borne out why we've made some of the changes and the benefits. So, people in our team who might have said, look, I'm not sure that Bunnings really needs to be making as much of an investment online. It was saying that say in 2018, 2019 are sitting here in 2021, are going, thank goodness, we did that, and I wish we might have gone faster. So, it's, sort of, it's not to cure anyone of any doubts about the importance of it and we continue to, sort of, want to evolve the business in that, in that sense and have certainly informed a lot of our thinking about us. strategic agenda going forward?
Michael LeBlanc 20:02
Well, and as your leadership style changes, so does the composition of the people who work for you, right, I mean, different generations have different priorities. So, if you need, that was going to happen or was happening with or without a crisis like COVID, COVID, kind of, acts as this one mission, like everyone can align to one mission. But you know, as you as you think about the people that you now hire, whether it's in store support, or in the frontlines, and as you think about, fortunately, you know, as the COVID era starts to wrap up over the next number of months, how are you thinking about managing the people that you have today, and in the current modern retail environment, we hear much talk around, you know, remote work, or hiring executives that are either off site or maybe located somewhere else, or come into the office less often, how are you thinking about your organizational structure, not just now, which is kind of an unusual time, but is it informing your thoughts moving forward?
Michael Schneider 20:59
Yes, it is something that occupies a lot of my, my time, and a lot of my thinking, like, I think that first and foremost, I recognize that my role and any, any CEO will understand these, he's you know, you're simply a, you simply a relay runner, in a relay race, you taking the baton from someone and at a point in time you pass that baton on, and you hope that during your leg of the relay, you're, you're doing, you're doing good things and you're setting, you're setting your team up to win, not just two or three years down the track, but you know, 10 or 20 years down the track and as a part of that, you need to build a team that can essentially replace you and build your capability.
Michael Schneider 21:32
And I think when I look at the Bunnings organization in 2021, and I think about the Bunnings organization I inherited in 2016, and I inherited a great business with incredible people in incredible, incredibly good shape. We needed to develop and transform. We've got, you know, people doing jobs that, you know, we didn't have in our business,
Michael Schneider 21:53
Didn’t exist.
Michael Schneider 21:53
five years ago, and yet the jobs themselves didn't exist. And you know, being very candid, people will talk to me about jobs, particularly in some of the more technological or new and supply chain parts of their business, and I, sort of, kind of, go, okay, that's interesting, and, sort of, wonder what they really, really do, and then you go away, and that's been nice to sort of learn a bit more and find out about it, but, you know, we've certainly put a lot of investment into digital capabilities.
Michael Schneider 22:18
We now have a Chief Information Officer, that wasn't a role that existed, we had someone running it, but we've now got a function that's got digital, its data and analytics, and data science and all the technology pieces, you know, all in together, you know, there's clearly been a shift globally around, you know, Environment and Sustainability and governance or ESG and, you know, we've got people focus very heavily in those areas, because they, they go so much to trust and reputation, and we touched on earlier. So, you know, what is the sort of new world or new age roles, there's also roles that have been created, because they reflect where we're moving as a society and as a community, the one thing that hasn't changed, and I think he's really important is the bit that I touched on earlier, which is we recruit for culture.
Michael Schneider 22:20
So, you know, it is sometimes a little bit harder, and there's more technical roles, but, you know, we're working with, we want to recruit people who like working with other people who want to be part of a community, they want to be serving, no worry, they're serving customers, or we're serving the team who was serving the customers. And that sort of brings us to how we think about flexible working, you know, we've learned, we went through the pandemic, that every job can be done from home, you know, two or three years ago, not sure about payroll, I'm not sure about some of that graphic design work, you know, where we need, you know, specific types of machines to do the work that they do.
Michael Schneider 23:38
But I think within the course of about a weekend, when, when locked down seven hidden, we worked out all those jobs can be figured out from home real quickly, we sorted those problems out really, really quickly. But I'm really conscious that our, our store teams, our distribution center teams, we have trade centers, for our for our pro customer, we have manufacturing sites, manufacturing, frames, and trusses for people's homes, all those team members have to go to work to do their job, but they can't do their jobs from home, they have to be there to serve the customer have to be there to move product around and because we're a support center, and we're supporting the team that support our customers will serve our customers.
Michael Schneider 24:13
We've, sort of, said that, if we think about a fortnight being 14 days, you know, we'd love to see our team in our support centers, you know, between, sort of, four and eight days, at least in that 14-day cycle and we think about the 14 day cycle because for some of our team working on a Saturday or Sunday might be better because of their family circumstances. It's easy to find a car park in the office, you know, all the facilities are there and we're actually moving our national support center, literally as we speak a new support center is being fitted out.
Michael Schneider 24:44
And you know, one of the one of the upsides to the pandemic has been a commercial property space and the rental market has been turned on its head and we were able to negotiate a really good deal on a on a new support facility for our, for our national support center, here in Melbourne, and when we're able to get back into the office, that's where we'll be going and it's very much precinct based work, it's all built around agile ways of working.
Michael Schneider 25:09
Team members can, you know, work in all different parts of the building, they can work with the teams that they need to work with, but they're working in an environment that is, is, you know, certainly represents some of the very best now in terms of workplace safety and post COVID sorts of controls and measures. So, we're going to be very fortunate that the team coming back are coming back in an environment that I think will really, really reassure them that they're going to be safe when they're, when they're at work, but they'll really want to be there and still reflecting the focus we have on, on low cost. So, you know, we don't have big offices and fancy boardrooms or things like that, but we've got a very fit for purpose facility for, for our team to work in.
Michael LeBlanc 25:47
So, maintain an innovative culture, maintain productivity, which is probably not so bad over the I think the learnings have been you can be productive. Over the long run, though, it decreases kind of that interaction or intersection, even between different departments. Right, I'm sure that casual, kind of, interaction.
Michael LeBlanc 26:05
And I think I think we're all missing that a little bit. Last couple of questions, I want to talk about growth and growth strategy. Now you've got double digit CAGR, kind of, numbers. So, growth for you is, is maybe harder to come by then easier, how do you think about growth in the years to come?
Michael Schneider 26:22
Yeah, we think about it a couple of ways. Marco first, first, we started thinking about the growing market and then growing anticipation in the market. So, we've touched on what we think might be a bit of a structural shift around people in their home. So, certainly the interest and appetite for the home improvement market has grown and, you know, if we do the things that we think are right, then we earned the right to be chosen first by our customers and they'll, they'll, hopefully, shop, shop with us.
Michael Schneider 26:45
We also think about growth in terms of geography and I touched on the fact that we thought about offshore acquisitions and growth and that was something that we learned was, was really difficult and I wonder now had we still held that asset, how it would have been managing a team on the other side of the world during, during a pandemic would have been really, really difficult in the time zone, Australia is very own time zone friendly, pretty much to the rest of the world if you've ever traveled to this part of the globe, where we, you know, our mornings are most other people's night time.
Michael Schneider 27:15
So, there are unique challenges around geographic changes, and you know, we are, we are a very English-speaking focused country and I'm always envious when I travel overseas, just how many people speak two, or three, or four languages. So, growth offshore is, is a challenge, but there's ample growth within Australia and New Zealand and you know, our focus is on continuing to innovate and evolve the DIY office. So, we're really relevant and we're doing a lot of work on how we use space in our source from a productivity point of view and assortment point of view and arranging point of view. And that's got all sorts of knock ons into, into supply chain, but we've also got a really clear focus on rapidly accelerating that, that trade or produce as you know, as I said 35% or so is, is, is, is trade or pro based. We'd love to say that is 50% of our business but not because they are DIY slows down but because there are trade business accelerates in the last decade, we've seen double digit growth in our, in our trade business.
Michael Schneider 27:20
We're making acquisitions in specialist channels to I suppose increase the share of the, we call our trade vehicles, util, utility vehicles, you know, the share of the, sort of, toolbox in the, we'd love to see more and more of the products from, from our business going in there. So, that's where that acquisition focus is based in part for, for trade, but we also want to increase the share of the whole, build on a, on a customer's home and in some categories, we've got good share and in other categories, like electrical in plumbing that's behind the wall.
Michael Schneider 28:45
So, everything you don't see when you go into our kitchen or bathroom, our market shares are very low and we think we can, we can do more there and participate more strongly in those categories. So, our focus is very much on evolving in a really contemporary and effective way that DIY business, going really hard in the trade space and we restructured the organization in 2019 to accommodate that we've effectively got a consumer business and a commercial business what we haven't done is duplicate costs. So, we have one bind function they buy for the whole business, but we've got product and brand specialists in the trade business who guide the buyers and the merchants thinking around products that are relevant, relevant for the brand.
Michael LeBlanc 29:25
And, no doubt, different in store experiences, right, because the trade looks for very different things then a consumer looks well. You know, listen, I, the only regret I have about our time together is you don't have more of it because it's really fascinating, and we really appreciate you joining us. I wish, I wish it was in person, but we'll look forward to that perhaps in the future, but notwithstanding all that, thank you so much for your contribution thank you for joining us at STORE 2021. Fascinating to continue to learn about your business. I encourage anyone who's, who's interested, which would be everyone, go to Bunnings and learn because you do some really amazing things that are brand forward. So, lots of lessons to be learned. Thank you.
Michael Schneider 30:07
Thanks so much, Michael for the opportunity. Thanks, everyone for listening bunnings.com that I use is our website or you can look me up on, on LinkedIn, really happy to share and we're very happy to learn as always and Michael, I wish we were in person was great when we were together and I look forward to the opportunity of doing that again, hopefully in the not too distant future.
Michael LeBlanc 30:25
All right, from, from your lips to God's ears as they would say. Until then be safe and wish you much continued success.
Michael Schneider 30:32
Thank you.
Michael LeBlanc 30:33
Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you enjoy podcasts, so you don't miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review as it really helps us grow so that we continue to get amazing guests onto the show.
Michael LeBlanc 30:52
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and if you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or visit my website at meleblanc.co
Michael LeBlanc 31:02
Until next time, stay safe. Have a great week.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, people, pandemic, Australia, retail, Michael, customers, trade, home, products, Bunnings, New Zealand, home improvement, bit, team, DIY, world, brand, categories, store