Bunnings - Product safety

The safety and wellness of Bunnings’ team members and customers remain our highest priority. The team strives to provide customers with the confidence that any product they purchase from Bunnings will be fit for purpose and safe to use.

Bunnings has an extensive range of products that are used in conjunction with safety instructions and personal protective equipment, including gardening equipment, hand and power tools, and electrical products.

Selling products that are safe, fit for purpose and comply with applicable mandatory or voluntary standards remains key to Bunnings’ efforts.  

Bunnings requires all relevant products to meet applicable Australian, New Zealand and international standards and monitors performance of product quality and safety through multiple channels. 

Products that do not meet quality or safety standards are withdrawn from sale and public safety recalls are conducted where there is an ongoing safety risk to customers.

Bunnings continued to proactively engage with suppliers to strongly encourage adherence to product safety standards. This included annual product audits to monitor conformance with mandatory standards and independent safety tests on selected products to confirm compliance to safety standards and customer expectations.  

During the year, Bunnings worked with product manufacturers to implement a range of product quality and safety specifications, including for electrical and gas related products. For example, in conjunction with the Australian Gas Association, Bunnings introduced a Product Quality and Compliance Specification for the manufacture of all direct sourced LPG barbecues, outdoor heaters and cookers. This specification incorporates opportunities identified from prior product quality reviews to establish benchmarks for quality, safety and durability testing above those required by the current mandatory standards.   

Bunnings also introduced an LPG gas cylinder use safety video for the Bunnings website, which links to the gas cylinder product page. This is designed to educate customers on the hazards of using LPG cylinders and how to perform leak tests on connection before use. 

During the year, Bunnings’ requirements regarding ISO9001 quality certification were expanded for direct sourced factories and independent third-party final random inspections for electrical products were increased. This has resulted in improved transparency and identification of potential quality deviations prior to shipping. 

In March 2021, Bunnings conducted an annual product safety labelling assessment to identify continuous improvement opportunities for safety labelling of products resulting in product safety labelling improvements with suppliers. 

As part of Bunnings’ long-term goal to increase the range of alternative low toxicity garden care products, new organic options were introduced into Bunnings’ range. These were complemented by new garden care and pest control packaging standards incorporating additional PPE safety icon labelling.  

In the coming financial year, there will be a focus on expanding product safety education for customers and introducing enhanced product quality specifications for direct sourced products.