ASK THE EXPERT - Domenic Musumeci - DAAC

Tony Cassar: Domenic, thank you for joining us in the Windows Furnishing Australia magazine Ask the Expert series.

Domenic: Thank you Tony.

Tony Cassar: Let’s get straight to the point and ask the two questions that are on top of everyone’s mind at the moment, the first of these are the supply chain issues, how has this affected DAAC and how are you handling it?

Domenic: It’s a global situation, so we’re not alone and not just in window furnishings, but in construction, retail, hospitality, and so on. I think the biggest issue is the delivery aspect of it. You can now source things from overseas, but the shipment is where we’re having the problems, and until that gets rectified and back on track, I think we’re heading into more challenging times. 

We have clients in the construction industry calling continuously asking – how is the supply going? Have you received stock? How are your procurements? It’s all because they are having similar issues from other trades and suppliers.

Tony Cassar: Are customers understanding of the situation?

Domenic: They’re understand that it’s out there, but are they accepting it? They still have a deadline that they need to complete by and don’t want that compromised. I have been asked once; “talk to the ship.” It’s incredible. We’re not alone, it’s tough, it’s challenging.

Tony Cassar: And shipping costs have gone up?

Domenic: The shipping costs have gone up – for a container before the pandemic that might have been $2000 – $4000, now we’re talking $12,000 – $15,000 in cases. Air freight is becoming affected by it too, so you can be off loaded onto a wharf in China, Singapore and it could sit there for weeks.

Tony Cassar: The second big questions is staffing. Have you found this a challenge and are you trying to fill and roles?

Domenic: Staffing at an installation level is challenging. Because we employ our installers, they’re not sub-contractors, I think that’s the difficult part as we’re not trade specific. You don’t go through an apprenticeship program to become a blind installer or technician, it’s all on the job training. 

We’ve gone through a long process of trying to get installers. We’ve looked at carpenters, plumbers, electricians who want to stay in the construction game because its great money. They fit well in the window furnishing trade – and the work is not as heavy, not working in any external conditions, working indoors where its clean and lighter – and not compromised in their wages. 

Tony Cassar: What were you doing before entering the window cover industry?

Domenic: Believe it or not, I sold chocolates.

Tony Cassar: Sold chocolates!

Domenic: Yes, yes – in 1985 I was working for Red Tulip in Key Accounts, I used to go out to supermarkets and there was no direct selling, it was just consumer relations. They ordered through their warehouse and we would just check their stocks and merchandise. They loved us come Easter time. 

My fiancé then, my wife now, Connie, her uncle owned a curtain shop called Broadway Décor and he said he needed some extra hands. I said – yeah sure no problem. Extra money, we’re going to get married soon. 

I’m the type of person that if I’m doing something I need to know how it works, the ins and outs of it, so I’d go in the factory, learn how to cut, learn how to sew, make tracks, how to measure – and yes it started from there. 

From then on it got busier and busier and he said – “why don’t you come work full time, I want to retire one day,” so I did. A year later he wanted to retire. I couldn’t afford the business on my own, so I had a brother-in-law who was in the hairdressing business, and he decided to come in with me.

Then a year went by and then my brother-in-law wanted to go back into hair dressing, so I went to the bank, borrowed the money at a great 18% those days, and took it out on my own and that was in 1988. 

One day after that, a guy walked in, he was an architect. He says, “We have a bank down the road,” it was called Westpac DOC (District Operation Centre), “and we need curtains, and we need this job done in two weeks’ time.” 

In fact, the bank opens on a Monday, the job’s going to be done through the weekend. I had a look at it, in those days faxes were just coming out in the roll form, so I wrote in a quick quote, I went to measure and I’ll never forget, it was $3,600 and I said – we wanted deposit. The architect says “you’re working for the bank! You don’t need a deposit.” I thought – no, take the risk. 

We did the project, we installed it. On that Monday we received a phone call from the architects saying “you’ve done a great job for us for Westpac, now this is how you’re going to do your invoicing from now on.” 

So, I said – “Invoicing? What do you mean?” He said “well you’ve done a great job – we’ve got a whole lot of banks and we’re going to get you do all this other work.” So, from then on we went from one branch to another. 

Prior to this all our work was domestic, and I was doing a lot of night selling talking to the husband and wife customers, for a $5000 sale for the whole house.

Here I could get a phone call, go there measure and in 10 minutes give the quote and get the order for $10,000. So, I thought  this is fantastic. And I thought well – hang on, if that’s Westpac, what about ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB? From then we sold the curtain manufacturing part of the business and started Corporate Design Blinds in commercial.

The rest is history, it grew and grew and in 2000, Helioscreen bought 80% of the business and they took over. I was with them for about four years running Corporate Design Blinds. I set up the business in Sydney and Brisbane and then in 2004 we parted our ways, there weren’t any disagreements, just a different way of thinking.  In 2004 I had DAAC as just a domain company, and we setup more of a consulting business. 

Tony Cassar: And DAAC stands for?

Domenic: For Domenic, Alana and Adriana (my twin daughters) and Connie my wife. Then DAAC just grew from there, first consulting, then it was – “please can you supply me this, supply me that” and then we just grew and grew and here we are now.

Tony Cassar: I remember you telling me that your mum was a big influence?

Domenic: She was in many ways. Unfortunately she passed away in 2000. She was a designer, a fashion designer by trade. She used to make a lot of dresses, pattern making. I always remember as a kid, we would be having dinner and then afterwards she’d clear the table and then stick newspaper together and just draw lines, and then cut, and then she would make her own pattern making and then create a dress or create a jacket – it was just amazing to watch her. 

Tony Cassar: Beautiful. Dom, tell us a little bit about DAAC. Your expertise really has shone in the commercial sector, but very much so in the creative work. It’s not just roller blinds.

Domenic: There are so many great companies out there and knowledgeable people that provide window furnishings, blinds, and curtains. The difference is that we are very driven by innovation and creativity. It’s been 35 years in the industry, but I think we have always had that old school mentality. “This is what we want to create,” and we then create it. There are always possibilities. 

Tony Cassar: And it sounds like that you’ve never said no, you’ve said – let me try?

Domenic: Yeah, never said no – I’ve said “Okay – we’ll get back to you; I’ll come up with something.” There is always a possibility, there’s never the impossible. There have been plenty of types of application where we’ve had certain suppliers from overseas saying that we cannot do it, or it can’t be done. Our systems cannot be aligned to that, and we’ve come back, and we’ve looked at it and we’ve designed something that can work, outside the square.”

Tony Cassar: You approach things very differently. That’s obviously where your reputation really does shine.

Domenic: Yes – a very influential client who is well respected in the industry, he said to me – “Domenic, it’s not about what you do, it’s how well you fix the problem.” And that always stuck with me.

Tony Cassar: And also in that terminology, the word problem, the architect has a problem when he can’t get what he wants and you come up with it – I mean that’s solving a very big problem.

Domenic: Yeah it is of course. 

Tony Cassar: These window coverings are going to be seen by many hundreds of thousands or people over the years and a lot of the work you’ve done has become a statement of the building.

Domenic: That’s right, and we’re there to represent the client or the builder. Not everyone’s going to know that it was supplied by DAAC. This was created by this designer or this builder or this client, and we create that makes them proud of their finished project.

Tony Cassar: Dom, you have some family members working with you? Tell us a little bit about them.

Domenic: I do, as you know I’ve got twin daughters, so I’ve got one daughter working with us, my other daughter has an amazing position with the AFL – so she quite enjoys that. We’ll get her onboard one day but it’s going to take a while. And my two son-in laws are also involved. 

Tony Cassar: How are they going?

Domenic: They’re going wonderfully. Sam looks after sales and marketing and Pierre is more inclined to installation and delivery. So that’s how the two work and they’re working very well.

Tony Cassar: And what is your daughter doing in the business?

Domenic: Alana works in estimating.

Tony Cassar: Beautiful.  Outside of work, I know you have some great passions – golf, thoroughbreds, and cooking. Tell us about them.

Domenic: Yeah, three passions I have – I love horse racing. I have put a little into shares in a few horses. I’m not a big game punter by far, but I just think they’re just beautiful animals and I love to see them, to hear them breathe, the sound they make. They’ve just got this presence about them. So, that’s one of my passions as a horse lover.

My other two passions are golf – which I love as a sport. I love it not just in the competition way, but I really love it in a social way. I have a few friends that we go away with a couple of times a year to play, I’m in a couple of clubs, they’re unique – they’re beautiful. 

My other passion is cooking – which I quite love and that’s probably been a big influence from my mother. I’ve got a beautiful cucina built underground, with a cool room, wood oven, commercial mixer and pasta machine. We get together with a few friends where we do our sauces and a group of guys that we do salamis and sausages, we make a mess, but we have fun. I also make my own tuna which I absolutely love. Once you have this tuna, it’s hard to go back to tuna in a tin.  

You need to get people together, that’s what it is. Especially the family. Especially sauce day, it’s a weekend, you work hard, you laugh and the music’s on – after the first day once its finished, you clean up a little bit. On the same table pasta is made, the fresh sauce is ready, and we all eat and drink, it’s wonderful.

Tony Cassar: Beautiful, what more do you need? Dom who has been the greatest influence in your business life?

Domenic: I’ve had a lot of good support, and what I mean by support is that when I had an issue or something that I wanted to do in my life, especially in the start – I had good support. And good support by my wife Connie. She always said, “I believe in you, you know what to do”. We’re all going to have our ups and downs, but it was never a situation where I was sort of questioned why.

We have twin girls and then they were babies she would be feeding one and the other one she would have in a little bassinet with her foot – rocking it – and I would say “let me help” and she’d say – “go to work. I’ve got to feed them at 11 o’clock, you go and do what you’ve got to, you leave them to me.” To me that’s been a big inspiration because you know that you’ve got someone that’s got your back and will support you. 

Tony Cassar: Very good. Who has been your biggest influence in life in general?

Domenic: I’m a big family man. To me family means a lot. Come Christmas time, I want my family with me. Those things are very important to me so they’re – the sort of big influences in my life is having those and in business I think influence. I’ve had a big relationship with Vertliux and Ross Lava has unfortunately passed away, he was a great man in many ways. We would do a lot of business together and work on projects together and it was a great team. 

Tony Cassar: And what’s the trend in the commercial sector at the moment in regard to window furnishing Dom – what type of product is in demand?

Domenic: I think curtains have come a big way; sheer curtains have come in a big way. Not on the façade, but mainly internally, there’s a lot of curtaining. Roller blinds are still a big factor, automation’s gone even bigger and now and there is also a big push for non-PVC. Everything’s got to be more environmentally friendly. That’s very, very important these days. But probably the biggest thing is still automation. Motorisation, automation are gaining as costs come down and there’s more of a volume of that coming through. 

Tony Cassar: What advice would you give to a young, new company or a company wanting to forge its way into the commercial segment?

Domenic: It’s a great part of the industry, but you really do your research first because commercial is very different. There’s the Tier 1 where construction plays a big part when you’re doing a fit out.

It’s becoming more and more like this across the board in construction, nearly every project holds retention, and then there are hidden cost issues to understand, because you’re working on a big major project, there are costs like site allowances, travel allowance – all these sorts of allowances that you need to make sure that you comply with. 

Tony Cassar: What does the future look like for you and DAAC moving forward?

Domenic: We’re pricing a lot of work, which is great. I think we’ve got some good people; we’ve got some good people working for us – people that I really care what they do, and that’s so important. I’m like the father and they’re like my children. And I still enjoy every day; I think that’s important to love going to work every day. 

I love the people that I work with. I like my customers. You do have your bad days and you have your good days, but I think the day that you wake up and you don’t want to go in to work, that’s a problem. To me family is very important, and if you create that as a family in your workspace, you can achieve anything.

Hairspray, tennis nets, and cooking pots

Domenic Musumeci talks about some of the top projects and innovative solutions he has come up with in his time in the industry.

Tony Cassar: Dom you’ve carried out some very impressive work on some impressive buildings – can you share some of that with us?

Domenic: We were involved with Crown Casino in Melbourne, in the mid to late 90s, so we were one of the three companies involved. We were involved a lot in the design aspect of it and then in the application part of it. That took a long time and I think that really made us grow to another level.

Tony Cassar: Because of reputation?

Domenic: I think that and because we were dealing with a lot with architects and consultants, we were going through design; we achieved a certain level of respect from the market. I’ve still got a lot of those clients today. We still talk, we still do business together. We love creating things above and beyond. Today we’re doing more and more about the product, there’s a lot of design involved. It’s not just a standard item.

For example, we had a client that wanted a certain net fabric for the curtains and it was way over the budget, we’re talking about $300 a metre, which would have cost over a $100,000 just to buy the fabric for a restaurant. The client said – “You’ve got to look at an alternative”. Where do I find a net fabric? Two days later I was playing in the men’s Tennis comp on a Thursday night, I’m standing at the net to receive the ball and bang! The light went on. There’s a net and that’s white. They want a black and grey one. The next day, back into the office I found a company in South Australia who produced nets and found a dye. From the fabric that was $200+ a metre, down to $7, the whole job was done for under 20K – it was fantastic and today – they’re still up. It’s still a talking point and the client still loves it – Atlantic Seafood Restaurant, Crown Melbourne.

Tony Cassar: And what other impressive buildings have you done?

Domenic: There have been many impressive projects we’ve done, Crown Casino Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Collins Square which is five towers and buildings, Melbourne Quarter which is another precinct in the city which consists of many towers, Collins Arch, Melbourne Park, 80 Collins, 5 Martin Place, Monash Uni, Gold Coast University Hospital. We were involved in two projects – Crown Resort Sydney and 80 Ann St Brisbane – in the middle of Covid lockdown. There, we were involved in all the guest rooms and super sky villas which have a very detailed curtaining and blind system. Those are just a few achievements that have come to mind that we’ve done.

But as far as technical goes, we’ve done huge systems involved with at the Melbourne Airport. We have installed curtains that were made with certain metal fabrics, string curtains, different designs, and roofing systems. I think we’ve done a lot of those architectural products that have just turned out amazingly well. 

Tony Cassar: I remember seeing one at the Hyatt Hotel where you made these window coverings with rope and timber balls.

Domenic: They wanted these ropes with balls, so we thought where do we get those? We found a rope supplier and we bought these little timber balls, pre-drilled and we fed them in one by one and put little knots and it was just remarkable. It was great, to achieve something where at the end the architect and the client loves it after putting in all that hard work, all that effort, was fantastic. 

Tony Cassar: What do you think has been the most interesting job that you’ve had to carry out?

Domenic: One we did that was new, which is a beautiful restaurant in Melbourne CBD called “Society” and the client wanted these curtains on track in an open void area, that was four layers, so four sets of track running, expanding 20 metres by eight metres, and they all had to be specifically curved. We had to curve those individually which was a very difficult process, but we just set the time in the factory, set up certain templates and they came out beautifully.

Tony Cassar: And you just experiment with different designs to try and get that design and look?

Domenic: In their other restaurant next door, called Lillian Terrace, the client wanted some sort of Roman blinds in a cloud format – so we thought – how do we get these clouds puffy? We thought how can we get this fabric to look like that? And funny enough – I was watching a movie and there’s a scene involving hair spray so I thought – hair spray! Hair spray is sticky, so we grabbed heaps of hairspray, we sprayed it on to the fabric and we crushed it all up – there’s a cloud. And it stayed that way – we put it up and the client loved it.

Tony Cassar: I also remember a job you did using string curtains, where you ended up with a very unique colour solution?

Domenic: We had a client who wanted some string curtain and they wanted it all cut up in different lengths. But not only that, they wanted it in four pink colors – fuchsia, light pink, dark pink – who makes these colours? What do we do?

We found a string curtain, all in white, and next  we needed to dye it – but no one wanted to touch it. The dyehouse said – no, we can’t do it – it’s polyester it will melt. We talked to a few people, and found a dye solution that can work on polyester at a certain temperature. But how?

We pulled out the big pots -60- 100 litre pots, we’ve got the big burners that we burn the tomato sauce on, and we’ve got the big wooden spoons, and we chuck in the boiled water, we put the dye component and we put them all up and they look amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Tony Cassar: Never been done before.

Domenic: Never been done – funny enough, we’re talking to another client about another project. They want a type of green. I said no problem. We can do this for you. The pots are coming back out. We can’t make sauce anymore with them, but now we have another use!