Bunnings COO Ryan Baker on the Future of DIY Retail and Customer Trust | Global DIY Summit 2026

Hello, everyone, this is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Chris Walton and I'm coming to you live from the Vuzion Podcast studio at the DIY Summit in Amsterdam.

And joining me now is Ryan Baker.

Ryan is the Chief Operating Officer at Bunnings Group.

Ryan, welcome to omnitalk.

Thanks very much, Chris.

I'm looking forward to this chat.

Yeah, when I reached out to you, I was stunned because you said, hey, I listened to your podcast down in Australia.

I do all the way in Australia.

But, yeah, definitely enjoy the podcast.

And, Oleg, it's always great to hear what's happening in the world of retail.

Yeah, thank you, man.

Thank you.

Really appreciate it.

Well, tell us about yourself.

Your career is also really interesting.

I was looking at it on LinkedIn and also about Bunnings, too, for those back home.

Yeah, sure.

Well, I might start with Bunnings.

Basically, Bunnings is very similar to what you might find the Home Depot and Lowe's in the US, or Leroy Merlin or B&Q in the UK.

So big box home improvement retailer, very strong in garden lifestyle, but also 40% of our sales is through for the Pro customer as well.

So we're very strong on the DIY customer, but also have a fantastic offer for the pro.

So Bunnings is the most trusted brand in Australia, which we're very proud of, and, you know, we're a very strong business and have a fantastic team across Australia and New Zealand.

So that's Bunnings.

Yeah.

So for myself, I've been with Bunnings.

I'll be 25 years in September, so started when I was 20 years old.

Wow.

Started on the shop.

Where'd you start?

On the shop floor.

Shout on the shop floor, Yep.

And work my way through basically every operational role you could think of.

Started leading stores, leading areas, leading states, and then in the end, led all of the stores for Bunnings.

Before coming over, as you say, I did the Chief Customer Officer role, now in the Chief Operating Officer role.

So in that role, I have merchandise marketing, supply chain, global sourcing and retail media.

So a nice wide and broad remit, but it's one that certainly very exciting.

Yeah, just those things.

Yeah.

That's what's really interesting to me is, like, that's a really broad responsibility for a coo.

So what was the theory behind combining all of those functions?

Yeah, look, well, for us, it was.

It was fairly simple.

So I was really thinking about the customer offer, so, you know, really thinking about.

So in my remit across my team, we get to think about the customer all day long.

And so from a merch perspective, what's the offer look like from a supply chain point of view?

How do we move it internationally, domestically, two stores to the customer, from a last mile point of view, how are we going to market with marketing the brand, et cetera.

So being able to tie that in all into the one team means that there's no conflicting priorities.

We're all going in one direction and making sure that the customer is at the heart of what we're doing.

Ryan, is that because I haven't talked about this in a while, but is that because supply chain in today's day and age of retailing is honestly a merchandising weapon?

Like it's actually something that can be merchandise to the consumer in new ways because of digital commerce than it ever could before?

Oh, for sure.

Look, it's a critical part of the offer.

You've got to be where the customer is and I'm sure we'll talk about it a bit in this podcast, but you've got to also be able to get it to the customer.

And right now it's not just good enough to have a great offer in store, you've got to be able to get it to the customer if that's what they're looking for.

That's very smart.

So I wonder if we'll see more people go to this type of structure.

Look, it'll be interesting.

You can see all around the world different structures and I think every retailer has their own thoughts and process on that.

This has worked very well for us and it's allowed us to really line up and make sure that we're chasing the right things.

One has worked really well too, because you guys, you have delivered, I think, just over 3% revenue growth over the past year.

What is it that's enabling you to do that?

What are the calling card points of differentiation for Bunnings?

Yeah, sure.

Look, I think the backdrop at the moment is it's not the easiest environment out there in the market.

So we're an everyday lowest priced retailer.

So we don't have specials, we don't have any gimmicks.

We're about offering the best price every day and value right now is king.

So we have worked really hard to make sure that we're the lowest price in the market, everywhere that we are.

And that's a really trusted proposition.

That's a big part of the reason why we are the most trusted brand in Australia, because we just do the right thing for the customer every single day.

So customers are shopping with their feet and they come into where the value is.

We've also spent a lot of time really thinking about the addressable market.

So for us, in recent years, we've moved into more areas like pet and to cleaning and automotive.

We've totally revamped our whole tool offer.

So thinking about the core and how do we turbocharge that, and then what are those new adjacent categories that customers are saying to us, hey, we want you to start selling more of these products.

You think about the pandemic.

Pet ownership went through the roof.

Right.

So that really opened up the opportunity to say, well, hang on, a lot of customers are saying to us, we want you to be involved here.

Right.

We felt we could bring a really great offer to market and it's been very successful.

Bought in new customers, they're shopping other categories and that kind of ecosystem.

And flywheel continues to turn.

I have some more questions I want to ask you about that too, but I'm curious, I want to go back to the value point.

Yeah.

Because this has been a topic of conversation on social media, particularly of late, and it's also been a topic of conversation for me, something I'm really passionate about.

So.

And not knowing the Australian market, you know, very well at all, you know, having never been to Australia, never claimed to know the market well, if you.

Ever coming down that way, make sure you let me know.

I'm definitely looking you up, man.

I'm definitely looking you up.

But so value for you, is it solely, Is it mainly about price or is there other things that go into the value equation for you in the marketplace?

It's the whole part of the value chain, really.

But price is the first and foremost.

That's the battleground to start with.

There's no point saying that you're a great value operator if your pricing's out.

For us, our pricing has got to be spot on and we spend so much time and attention on that.

We also have a guarantee for customers.

If customers ever find anything cheaper, then we'll just beat it by 10%.

So actually the customers, if they do see something cheaper, if another retailer does something, then customers will come and tell us and we'll make sure we beat it by 10%.

But then the customers are still coming to us at the end of the day as well.

And then as you start to wrap around those different areas, the way in which we get it to customers home, you know, the big box format that we have, that all kind of flows together on what value really looks like.

Got it got it.

But it is.

It is core part and parcel to price.

You're not going to get beat on price.

No way.

No.

No way, no way.

Wow.

Love it.

And right on the front of our building.

Its lowest price is just the beginning, really.

So you can't walk away from it.

That is our key proposition.

Gotta love this job.

I said this yesterday when I was interviewing Harry from the finish from Casco.

I'm just learning so much about retail globally at this conference, more so than I probably ever have.

All right, let's shift to online, because you've had a lot of success there as well.

What's driving that?

Yeah, sure.

Look, I think from a home improvement industry point of view, it first and foremost starts with inspiring the customer.

So.

So you've got to inspire the customer to want to take on projects around the home.

So many retailers are selling products for us.

And you were speaking about it yesterday on the pod was really dialed in.

I did, definitely.

But for us as projects.

So customers are doing projects, whether they be painting the kids room, whether it be building a veggie patch, whether it be whatever it might be, customers are coming to us for projects.

So our job, first and foremost is to inspire the projects, give you some confidence to take it on.

So how to videos are so critical for us.

And so we want you to get excited about painting your kids room.

Then we want to show you the how to videos and say, hey, anyone can do this.

Here's step by step how you do it.

You give it a go, you get some confidence, you do more.

And that's very much what the home improvement industry is about.

It's all about helping customers get confident.

Do those projects feel good about themselves and make their home the best it can be.

So as we think about that, inspiration's big, and then that whole journey starts online.

A lot of that starts online, you know, whether that might be watching TV shows, those kind of renovation shows, whether you're on Pinterest, whether you're just on social media somewhere looking at something, hey, I love that.

And then we start to drive that into our ecosystem, whether customers then want to go and transact there, and then we've got to be fantastic at what we do, or we love customers coming in the store.

So for us, it's not one or the other.

It has to be seamless.

There's always work to do.

And for us, now, we've made a lot of progress, but we're nowhere near where we want to be.

We want it to be more seamless.

We Want it to be much easier for our customers.

But we've made a lot of progress in the last couple of years in particular.

Right?

Yeah.

Man, you've got me thinking again.

This business.

People always talk in retail.

Fashion is the content business, but DIY is just as much the content business as fashion is.

Look, I'm sure I'm biased, but this is the best industry to be in because everything you are doing is trying to help your customers make their home, their business better.

Right.

And that's really what we get out of bed to talk about and do through the day.

So it's a great industry to be in from that perspective and to potentially.

Save a lot of money doing it.

For sure.

When you go back to your value proposition.

All right, I'm curious.

One of the parts of that is you launched a services marketplace.

What is that?

What is a services marketplace?

This is really about helping.

So we have a lot of customers that want to do it themselves, but there is a growing trend of customers who want someone to do it for them.

Yep, keep hearing that.

And so for us, we've set up a services marketplace that helps customers, our customers get lined up with our other.

Our other customers, our trade customers, to be able to go and say, I need a door hung.

And then you can use the customers that are already shopping with us in our ecosystem.

So we're connecting them together.

And so it's really about trying to help our own pro customers with our DIY customers, or do it for me customers been able to do those projects.

So a lot in this space is about, geez, who do I go with?

How do I know they're reputable?

We do a lot of that work to make sure that they're really strong, reputable businesses.

You go through the marketplace, you line it up, they'll come and do the work for you.

And, you know, that's something that's building a lot for us over time.

You do.

So you have to do that vetting yourselves?

Yeah, we do.

Wow.

That's got to be okay.

That's pretty.

That's pretty impressive.

Yeah.

Is that pretty unique in the.

In the industry, globally?

Look, I've seen people dabble in that,.

But it's unique for a retailer to do it.

But those platforms are out there, so, you know, we've certainly been able to learn from a lot of what others are doing.

You know, for us, it isn't the biggest part of our business.

It's an area that we're continuing to learn in, and we're taking on different paths as we go.

But we do see it as an opportunity for us going forward and it helps reward our own pro customers that have been shopping with us, that are loyal with us as well.

Right, right, right.

All right, let's change.

Let's change gears here.

Now let's go to the other area under your remit, which we talked about in the beginning, which was supply chain.

So when you think about supply chain, what has been something that you've implemented that has had a pretty significant impact on the business, say, over the past three years?

Is there one or two things that you.

Look, I think the biggest part of supply chain that's had the biggest impact is that last mile fulfillment.

A couple of years ago, we were three to five days delivery.

That's where we were at.

So now you can get next day, same day, within two hours, really.

And in the last couple of months, we actually launched on Uber Eats.

And so on average, customers are getting that order within an hour.

So it's really changed the way in which customers shop.

And if you think about like a fantastic retailer like Amazon, that's where they have been very strong.

So for us now it's about.

We've got stores from an Australian point of view.

We've got a store within 20 minutes of 80% of the population.

So we've got the physical footprint.

This was about us tying that in and using that as a competitive advantage, putting a supply chain offer around that or a last mile offer that can really get it to customers.

And from where we were a couple of years ago to where we are today, and as I say, the job's never done.

We want to continue to be better.

But even just this partnership now with Uber Eats has brought in new customers.

These are a lot.

These are often younger customers.

Haven't even thought about maybe Bunnings in the past, or all of a sudden they're in the middle of a project and, oh, I didn't get that paintbrush.

Now you don't have to leave.

You can keep going.

It'll be delivered to you within an hour and away you go.

And it has been very successful.

And I think it's gonna be one of these ones that's gonna continue to gain momentum.

But if all of a sudden now you can get it within an hour.

And for us, we've made sure it's in store pricing.

So you know how on some of these platforms you'll pay a bit more or whatever?

No, no, you will pay the same price on there as you would if you came into the store, which is part of that trust equation that we spoke about earlier.

And you guys have the leverage to do it.

Yeah, that.

Wow.

Yeah.

So, okay, so a couple takeaways there for me is like, because we've been talking about this a lot in the States.

So there is a push to get faster than same day.

There is a push to go even faster than three hours hence.

Well, look at Walmart, if you think about what they're doing and they have been super successful.

And for us, we're always out looking globally at best practice to make sure that we are stretching ourselves.

Because if you just look around in your own market and you're doing something pretty well, you know, we always want to make sure the complacency doesn't come in.

So you look to global best practice.

We travel a lot around the world to go and see what that is.

We're a very curious business, but it allows you to go, wow, what Walmart's doing there, that is really impressive.

Okay, well, what could that mean for us?

It's a different industry, but it's still looking after customers.

Right.

So we get inspiration from some of these fantastic retailers around the world, and it helps us bring the best offer to our customers that we can.

Right, right.

And the other thing it told me or that it calls to mind for me too, is there are certain DIY emergencies.

And so you're gonna need to be available that quickly for those customers.

And then the other point is the generational thing, like I think retailers sometimes underestimate.

I'm curious if you guys did too underestimate the impact from a marketing perspective.

It sounds like you did in terms of reaching that new swath of consumers that are out there on these platforms that maybe just don't know you otherwise.

Oh, look, this is a big part for us.

We have a whole campaign that's really focused in on that next generation coming through.

Cause that's gonna be the next generation.

They're going to be homeowners, etc.

But how do you resonate with a lot of this cohort of renting?

Yeah.

So what's a DIY project look like for them?

Yeah, so it's got to be removable products that they can take with them when they move to the next rental or whatever the case might be.

We've built out a huge amount of range now that can do that.

Okay.

So there's a lot of things that just stick on the wall or whatever.

The case might be removable.

You think about all the hooks, all the stuff you can do in Your bathroom, all that's removable, and you take it with you.

Right.

And even the moving category itself, boxes and tape, and that's a massive category for us now.

So that's actually what we see as one of the gateways into some of these kind of renter cohort.

You can hire the truck from us to move.

You can also get all the boxes and all the other bits and pieces or the cleaning to do the pre and the post kind of move in.

And that's a good way to get started.

And then you get people used to coming into Bunnings and, you know, you know, Home Depot and Lowe's, you go in, you.

You're very rarely leaving with exactly what you came for, because you'll see a lot of other great products or innovative things or something at a fantastic price point.

So making sure that we've really dialed into that place and those customers, it's a big focus for us.

But I love how you're thinking about it from a merchandising perspective, too, because for me, I'm not a big DIYer, and I find the Home Depot or the Lowe's experience very intimidating.

But if it was designed or architected in a way to get me as the person that is unfamiliar with the space, by showing me products like Moving, for example, or highlighting that in some way, that would capture me, and particularly if you're on these other platforms, too.

So that's really interesting.

All right, I got to ask you this, you know, because you've got me thinking about it.

Like, you talking to you, it makes it sound like it's so easy.

It's so natural for you guys, and there's such a palpable.

I can tell, love of the industry from talking to you.

Yeah.

How easy was it?

Like, were there battle scars along the way?

Like, what were some of the tough challenges that you had to get over as you look back over, like, the last five or 10 years?

There's lots of scars.

Yeah.

And there has to be.

If everything you're doing is a perfect success, then you're not pushing the boat out too far.

But for us, you know, moving into online, like, our stores have always been the absolute heart of what we've done.

As we went and pushed more and more into the omnichannel space, we had to bring the business on the journey to say, hey, this isn't just about replicating that offer or trying to discourage customers to come into stores or whatever the case might be.

This is about being where the customer is.

Now, that's not easy.

When you've got a format that's been around, very successful for 30 years, you got to create the own burning platform for yourself rather than be waiting for someone else to do it to you.

So that whole online piece supply chain, that has been really heavy lifting and we've still got a long way to go, Chris.

So as you think about those investments, it's easy to not make them, it's easy to talk yourself out of them, but you've got to make investments today that might not give you the best financial return today, but you've got to be in this for the long term.

And I think that's where I see retailers around the world.

If they're thinking quarter to quarter, you quickly find yourself in a tough position.

If you think in the long term, strong, sustainable results.

How do I see what else is happening around the world and in my market, and how do we position ourselves to be just as relevant, if not more relevant tomorrow than we are today?

Then you're in pretty good shape.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I mean, what you're saying there too is I think you also have to be willing to challenge the prevailing business model, economics of what you're doing because, like, the big box is kind of antithetical to all the things we've been talking about here, but yet for some reason it all works and creates a good whole.

Like there's, it's, it's a summation of the parts that matters.

And so I think that's the interesting takeaway I have from what you just said.

All right, so on that note, I'm gonna get you out of here on this last question.

Your, your managing director has said that the transformation is at Bunnings that we've been talking about here has been fairly underestimated by the industry overall.

So why does, why is that, and what is the message you'd like to leave for everyone here at this summit that they should know about Bunnings as well as all the audience back home?

Yeah, sure.

Look, I think it has been underestimated.

That's mainly because we don't stand up and talk a lot about it, if you know what I mean.

We're quite often not the ones out there saying, look at this and look what we're doing.

And we go about and make these things happen in a pragmatic and practical way.

So if you think about AI for example, we've done a lot in that space, but it's around helping our team members with tools to be able to get all the right information for our customers, it's about helping customers.

Like on our website now, we've got an AI program called Buddy.

You can type in your project and it'll tell you all the things you need, how you go about it, the how to videos all the way through to add it all to cart and transact.

Right.

That's on the Google platform, the Gemini platform, and we're one of the first retailers in the world to go on that.

Okay.

But this is just about us getting out there, doing the right things, not making a big song and dance about it.

If you think about from a productivity point of view or the inventory planning, a lot of the supply chain stuff is mathematical in the background, so we can do a lot there.

So it's not the shiniest and most glamorous areas, but they're the real areas.

They're the areas that actually make a real difference to your business, make a real difference to your productivity.

And then we're using that to then go and invest back into the business.

That's kind of the way we're thinking about how this works.

So it might not feel like the shiniest thing or for people to go.

I've never heard a retailer do that before.

They're actually just really good, pragmatic and practical ways to bring it to life.

Because AI in itself is not a strategy, it's an enabler to be able to go and make the customer offer better or make us more productive.

And so that's kind of how we think about it.

And I think that's why we're not usually out there beating our chest about what we're doing.

Right, right.

Yeah.

And it also calls to mind for me, I think, as I've been doing this for eight years, you're getting a sense more and more that the understanding of what good omnichannel retailing really is at its core is getting more well understood throughout the industry, too.

With you, you all at Bunnings leading the way too, on that front.

Well, thank you so much, Chris.

This was a blast.

If I ever am in Australia, I'm definitely looking forward.

This has been super fun.

All right.

And thanks to the DIY Summit and to the VUSION and to Vuzion for partnering with us on all this great content.

So we could bring you fantastic interviews with folks like Ryan here.

And until next time, as always, be careful out there.