Ask the Expert

In this edition of Ask the Expert, Tony Cassar speaks to Simon Meyer from Blinds by Peter Meyer about getting his start in the industry in England, classic car racing, and carrying on a legacy.

In this edition of Ask the Expert(s), Tony Cassar sits down with Jake and Miri Kinderman from Tip Top Blinds. A third generation family company, Tip Top has a reputation for quality and reliability. Tony chats to the couple about how they got involved in the industry, how their faith improves their business and how a piece of cardboard helped create one of the best known blind companies in Melbourne.

In this edition of Ask The Expert, Tony Cassar sits down with Michael Gubby from ISeekBlinds. Gubby is a true pioneer in the e-commerce space in the window furnishings industry. Here he discusses what it was like making the jump into e-commerce, dealing with copycats, and a buyout from a big European player.

With thirty years’ experience in the industry, Debbie Jones has helped grow the Uniline Business in Victoria and Tasmania, putting the success of the company down to product and people.

From selling chocolates to emerging as one of the best known names in the commercial window furnishings sector, Domenic Musumeci from DAAC is a key industry identity. Tony Cassar talks with Musumeci about the current challenges facing the industry, as well as golf, food, and the importance of family.

In this edition’s Ask the expert series, Tony Cassar chats with an old friend, Kevin Dahlberg from Hardback Wholesale Blinds and Awnings, about going up the supply chain, family values, restoring vintage cars and a serious boating accident that changed his life forever.

In a very special edition of Ask The Expert(s), we speak to two industry members at the coalface of the skills shortage in the window furnishings sector. After long careers in all parts of the industry, Richard Waring and Dot Grantham are now out and about educating the next generation of industry experts. WFA spoke to them about the challenges they face, training staff in a pandemic and what the future holds for the industry.

Arriving from Edinburgh Scotland at age 28 with just a backpack on your back is not the usual route into the Australian Window Furnishings Industry, but Kathryn Polgar has carved out a career that finds her now as General Manager for one of the leading wholesale suppliers in the industry, Ricky Richards. In this edition of Window Furnishings Australia’s Ask the Expert Series, Tony Cassar talks to Kathryn about leadership, managing in a pandemic, and the role women can play as leaders in the industry.

From an apprentice printer to head of one of the largest blind fabricators in Australia, Geoff Turner from Viewscape reflects on leadership, manufacturing in Australia and the dangers of being a middle-aged man in Lycra.

Video conferencing and working from home may have been the new normal for most in this industry, but not Kate Bessell. Working remotely for Adelaide wholesale fabricator Pinz from the south coast of NSW was the norm for Kate until March 2020 when she moved back to Adelaide in the midst of a pandemic. After 11 years of remote working, lockdowns couldn’t get in the way of her passion and she is now back in the office every day and loving it. Tony Cassar finds out more about Kate in this edition of Ask the Expert.