It has been strangled by a hard-headed new Woolworths board led by Scotsman Gordon Cairns, who simply couldn't stomach tipping any more funds into the Masters hardware chain, after $3 billion-plus had leaked into the drains outside its 63 stores across Australia. Masters was conceived in 2009, at a time when the Woolworths boardroom was over-confident and a certain arrogance had permeated the upper echelons of the company.