BIG BUSINESS, SMALL TOWN

“Running a business in a remote location, with a population of 128,000, and your nearest supplier is 3000kms away in Adelaide means that you run your business quite differently to the way you would in a large city,” says Adrian Moscheni from Straitline Blinds in Darwin, NT.

Straitline Blinds has been a family run business for 28 years. For the first 10 years they manufactured vertical blinds but all of the other products were transported up from Adelaide or Melbourne. Eventually the supply delays and the amount of damage made them rethink their business model.

They decided to become a manufacturer and they now manufacture 90% of what they sell. “Having a smaller population to sell to meant we needed to maximise the number of products and keep higher stock levels than most other businesses would,” said Moscheni.

The business is normally 50/50 residential and commercial, however over the last 12 months with commercial building slowing down in Darwin they started relying more on the retail market. Being a local family business with strong ties to the local AFL sporting club & community groups helped them build the long-term community relationships and cement their footprint in the marketplace.

“We are often driving 300 kilometres to towns like Katherine and even 6 hours to assist with installation in a Darwin Military Base” comments Moscheni.

“Over the years the commercial work has taken us to some interesting places, one of the most notable being the install of over 4,000 blinds, in over 50 separate buildings in the new prison,” he adds. Whilst large jobs are great, he says Straitline Blinds struggles with the ability to source extra quality staff to boost production when they have a larger job.”

He and his wife Sharron joined the Fashionline Group nine years ago. Being so isolated from others in the industry meant it allowed them to create stronger relationships with suppliers. This means they could can carry the higher stock levels with flexible options to suit their location. “We don’t get a lot of sales rep visiting Darwin, so having these strong relationships has really benefited our business.”

Travis Davidson operates Davidson Blinds in Ballarat, Victoria, which has a population of just over 100,000 and located about 90 minutes out of Melbourne.

About 80% of their business is residential. “There is a saying in Ballarat – It’s either cold and windy, or hot and windy,” says Davidson, adding he felt he needed to know what products worked best for his particular client and his unique climate. He also needed to know the limitations of those products.

“Probably our biggest challenge is access to a good pool of trained staff. We find we have to train our staff and train them from scratch. Once we train them, we have to look after them”

Asked if community involvement played a major part in his strategy for building his business success, he commented: “I support quite a few local sporting clubs and we have a really positive attitude in the town to support local business and the community”, “I’ve seen business come and leave again without making a footprint in the community. Community is very big in regional towns.”

“I was once at morning tea at a Fashionline conference and started chatting to another member about an issue I’d had for a few weeks. Within five minutes he’d given me the solution and told me how to fix it. That sums up Fashionline for me.”

Davidson Blinds does get supplier reps calling in regularly but nothing is like being exposed to high level management of some of the suppliers. “Getting to know them on a more social level when I attend meetings and understanding their company on a big picture level helps me in my own business,” says Davidson.

Darren Gray of Mildura, Victoria (population of 60,000) owns Fashion Window Blinds. The company services an area close to 95,000 people and a radius of 300km, including places like Broken Hill in NSW. Around 70% of its work is residential and the balance commercial. “We have just finished a commercial job for a new Chinese bought winery where they have invested 100 million dollars in the area. We supplied the whole winery and buildings with motorised roller blinds and motorised slimline venetians,” says Gray.

Located 400km from Adelaide and 600km from Melbourne, the business’ biggest challenge used to be transport and logistics of stock. Servicing the Mildura area has improved over the years, but Gray said he still feels they need to keep larger quantities of stock than most to service the area well.

Because Mildura is a large agriculture area, and the blind industry has specific skill sets, it is an issue to find already skilled staff. Fashion Window Blinds have made a conscious effort to invest in technology as much as they can and have just finished building a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and showroom in the heart of town.

Gray says he chose to expand the range he manufactures locally, so he can control his own destiny. “We get to determine our own lead times and can control re-works more efficiently. If something is mismeasured, we can go back to our own factory, fix it and get it installed immediately. This has saved on costs, lead times and is a competitive edge over other companies in the area.”

“There’s the blind man!” is a common call-out when Darren walks around his local area. He is strongly involved in the local community and sporting clubs. In regional area, he says everyone knows you. “Being in such a small community you can’t afford to do the wrong thing in business. Word of mouth really is the strongest form of advertising and customer expect exceptional service.”

“I don’t know many other smaller businesses in our region that would get the opportunities I get at Fashionline for business development. We’ve had speakers talk about HR, OHS, and the latest trends in marketing. Attending the conferences has given me the ability to work on my business and step out of the everyday and focus on big picture thinking.”