Homewares retailers General Trader and Your Habitat merge

The investment group behind the Ted’s Camera chain has purchased the Tasmanian homewares group Your Habitat, which will merge with the company’s General Trader brand, both companies have announced.

Your Habitat founder Robert Parker will now become general manger of the new 26-store chain. General Trader is owned by the Bajle group, run by James Blythe, which also operates Ted’s Cameras and two other information technology businesses.

Parker told SmartCompany this morning that while the merger had been discussed for quite awhile, both parties felt the time was right.

“I think it’s a situation where we both felt a bit of consolidation was good, we’re both mid-sized players and putting ourselves together will make us stronger and give us more marketing clout.”

The merger comes at a time when retailers are struggling, with consumers opting to save more money than ever before. But Parker says he is confident his segment of the market is doing well.

“We are both trading quite well, and homewares business has been good on the back of the boom in home cooking, with all of these TV shows and so on. We think it’s a good time to build and go forward, and be a bit bullish.”

Blythe was also contacted by SmartCompany this morning, but was unavailable for comment. Parker says both brands will continue to operate.

“We’re keeping both brands, we think the Your Habitat brand is incredibly strong in Tasmania. General Trader is also very strong in South Australia and Victoria, so at this stage we’re building both brands.”

“Exactly how and in which format, that’s more of in the integration process.”

Parker will divide his time between Tasmania and Melbourne, with some Your Habitat staff to relocate to Victoria.

Your Habitat was founded in Hobart in 1984, and has grown to open five stores across Tasmania. The brand will continue operating there. The General Trader was founded in 1989 and has 18 stores in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. It acquired the Red Vanilla chain in 2007.