FOUR years of meticulous planning and hard work to get a Masters Home Improvement store in Wagga may have culminated in the store’s official opening yesterday, but the real work is now ahead, according to store manager Chris Flanigan.
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“The easy part’s done,” he said.
“Now the hard part comes, making sure we serve customers in the way we’ve promised and deliver on what we’ve promised to the community.”
Member for Wagga Daryl Maguire cut a ceremonial board to officially open Masters in Wagga yesterday after the store opened its doors to customers for the first time on Tuesday.
The Wagga store is the fourth to open in NSW for the Masters chain, a joint venture between Woolworths and US hardware giant Lowe’s, which now has 30 stores operating nationwide.
Masters chief executive Don Stalling was on hand for yesterday’s official opening, and told those gathered of his vision of opening a store in Wagga after first visiting the city some four years ago, with the finished product everything he had hoped for.
He said the city was an ideal location for the chain to base a store.
“Not only is Wagga growing rapidly, but growth from its outlying areas is coming in as well,” he said.
“Not only do people in Wagga have a high percentage of home ownership, they take pride in their homes.”
Masters’ Wagga store cost $23 million to build, has about 13,500sqm of floor space, carries 36,000 product lines and now employs 107 people on a full-time, part-time and casual basis.
