. The three columns topped by balls were a fixture of all Hardwarehouse stores. The first store was opened in the
Sydney suburb of
Bankstown on 3 October 1992. Despite the store having a larger selling space than the ones that opened later, it proved that the introduction of this concept was successful. BBC Hardware continued market testing to further develop the concept and help it gain traction in the retail hardware market. Another store was opened at
Rockdale in 1993, and two more at
Thornleigh and
Caringbah in 1994, to reflect the continuous market testing. In July 1994,
Howard Smith Limited bought BBC Hardware from
Burns Philp and the chain was rebranded as Hardwarehouse. Subsequently, the chain expanded by opening new stores in
Melbourne,
Perth and
Queensland. This followed with the chain's expansion into New Zealand. Since 1994, Hardwarehouse opened up to 14 stores a year. By 2001, the chain had 59 stores in Australia and three in New Zealand. On 13 June 2001,
Howard Smith Limited, owner of BBC Hardware and Hardwarehouse, was bought by
Wesfarmers. The chain began its transition with the stores trading as Bunnings by the end of 2001. During the transition period, three of the acquired Hardwarehouse stores in Australia were closed, as the rest of the stores were reformatted by late 2004. A number of former Bunnings stores that were converted Hardwarehouse stores were converted into retail bulk goods stores, or repurposed for other uses. A few other stores were demolished and rebuilt for larger Bunnings Warehouse stores or relocated to other abandoned hardware stores like
Masters. ==Operations==