Up to 15,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created in Victoria in the next five to seven years due to Woolworths/Lowe’s home improvement venture.
Coolaroo in Victoria will be the first store in the network to open in late 2011, with a further 30 stores planned for Victoria within the next five years.
The joint venture will not only introduce competition into the large format hardware sector, but will also have a significant and positive economic impact via the creation of approximately 4000 direct retail jobs for Victorians. Up to 11,000 thousand more jobs will also be created during the store construction phase and from subsequent flow-on jobs.
“Woolworths’ $400 million investment is expected to generate 4000 direct retail jobs over the next five years and during construction of the planned 30 stores state-wide is expected to create 11,000 Victorian jobs,” said Premier of Victoria, John Brumby.
Woolworths chief executive officer Michael Luscombe said Victoria is an important market with excellent growth potential.
“Victorians are passionate about their homes and their hardware, which is why Victoria is such a natural choice for our first store location,” he said.
“We look forward to unveiling the very first store in Cooloroo in two years time and giving consumers a totally different home improvement experience.
“Our commitment to invest a further $400 million in Victoria over the next few years truly underscores our confidence in the state’s economic outlook. We are very excited about this opportunity not only to deliver real benefit to consumers, but also to contribute to the longer term prosperity of Victorian families,” he said.
Construction will commence on the Coolaroo store in the next few months and is expected to take approximately 18 months to complete. The store will be more than 10,000 square metres in size and will employ around 130 people when fully operational.