It's Bunnings v Woolworths

As the very public grocery war rages between Coles and Woolworths, competition between the two conglomerates in the hardware market is being played out a little more quietly - for the moment.

Woolworths' top secret and highly anticipated new home improvement store, code-named "Oxygen" but expected to be called "Masters", is well into construction on the corner of New Cleveland and Manly roads, Tingalpa.

Not to be outdone in the very market it dominates, Bunnings has lodged a development application with the Brisbane City Council and confirmed to The Sun-Herald it had applied to build a Bunnings Warehouse on Wondall Road, Wynnum West - a mere one-minute drive from the Woolworths site.

With the Tingalpa store expected to be one of the first to open in the country, it is likely this location battle between Bunnings and Masters will be the testing ground for a hardware war played out all over Australia.

Woolworths will spend about $400 million on the first 12 stores in its joint venture hardware chain with its giant US partner Lowe's as they tackle the $6 billion-a-year Bunnings business owned by Wesfarmers.

A Woolworths spokesman said stores at Nerang, Morayfield and Springfield were also in the pipeline and that Woolworths was about "halfway through" reaching its target of securing 150 sites across Australia within five years.

"We think the offer will raise the bar when it comes to range, knowledgeable service and value for money," he said.

The name of the new superstore remains a closely guarded secret. The spokesman said Woolworths was "deliberately maintaining an element of surprise".

The spokesman would not be drawn into speculation about how similar the new store would be to Lowe's - but admitted there could be some comparable features, given the new store was a joint venture between Woolworths and Lowe's.

"We're tailoring the offering to what we think the Australian market will want but we will be drawing on the expertise of Lowe's," he said.

Lowe's is the second-largest hardware chain in the United States behind Home Depot and offers everything from hardware to appliances to homewares.

One of the strongest features of the US Lowe's store is its online offering. Every product is able to be purchased online - an opportunity that Bunnings has never offered its customers - and heavily advertised on the Lowe's site is: "Shop. Click. Pick up. 20 minutes guaranteed."

The Woolworths spokesman would not speculate on whether the Australian version would offer a similar online opportunity but said it would "raise the bar above and beyond" the realm of hardware in Australia.

A Bunnings spokesperson said the Wondall Road site was in the early stages of the planning process "following our lodgement of a development application in early March 2011. This was the first application made by Bunnings to develop the site," the spokesperson said.

"Bunnings has a strong pipeline of Queensland stores and we continue to actively seek new sites as part of an ongoing network expansion strategy," the spokesperson said. "[This new site] forms part of this pipeline.

"We've been helping Australian families with their home improvement and outdoor living needs for many years by offering the lowest prices, widest range and the best service to customers."

A Brisbane City Council spokeswoman confirmed the council had received Bunnings's development application for a 12,206-square-metre building on March 9.