Ask the Expert: Michael Gubby

Tony Cassar: Michael, thank you for being part of the WFA Ask the Expert series. Michael, let me start off with what you were doing before entering the window covering business.

Michael Gubby: I started selling mobile telephones for a company called Hutchison Telecoms. I moved to radio advertising and then I moved to television.

My first serious job was working for Kleenmaid, a retail store that no longer exists. They sold electrical appliances and I found a real passion for retailing and for sales, particularly in the showrooms that were developed nationally. I spent 12 months working at the Canberra store which I really enjoyed.

I got to fly around and meet the national crew and work in their stores. I was part of the million dollar club of the sales club, which is a top 5% club that I was always in. I enjoyed that challenge very much.

Tony Cassar:  Where did you learn your retail skills?

Michael Gubby:  My sales training through Kleenmaid and DoubleT FM included watching American videos talking through the sales process from beginning to end and how to open a conversation.

I had a successful time at Kleenmaid and I got approached to work for a company called South Corp Industrial Textiles. They were based at Clayton and that was when I got that job. I was the Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian sales representative under a guy called Olivier Pomie.

Alan Comby and all of the crew from the South Corp were in McNorton Road and we had a big manufacturing plant attached. There were several hundred people employed there.

We were in industrial fabrics for all different types of applications which led me to canvas which then led me to awning manufacturers. In a roundabout way, this was my first taste of Blinds being a kind of segment of textiles and fabrics.

Those times were also spent with Bob Cahill in particular and I was part of the ACASPA organisation at South Corp Industrial Textiles. We used to have a lot of fun back at the early ACASPA shows I went to in Melbourne and Sydney and there was one at the MCG. The after party of their ACASPA functions was just fantastic back in the day. I remember them fondly.

At the Victoria golf course, I won the golf day in 2000 with 44 points.

I think I’m the only guy on the cup to have my name on the suppliers trophy and the and the Arthur Evans plate which I was very proud of. On that particular evening, I sat next to a gentleman called Rod Kelly who I hold very dear to my heart to this day. He asked me to come and work at Turnils, which was in the late nineties.

At that time western red cedar venetians were the popular colour. Turnils were heavily involved in the Ibiza Awning programs. So I got to see a lot of wholesale manufacturing of blinds including rollers and Venetians and all the things that Turnils supplied and awnings and sewing. That opened my eyes as a component supplier to go and see all these wholesale factories and see how they all worked. My knowledge was really at the starting point then. 

I don’t recall the year but with Rod Kelly I went over to Stuttgart and had my first trip over there. I just remember how cold it was when I arrived and I had no experience of Europe except a few little backpack travels as a kid. I went over to Sweden and I really got to see the blinds from a worldwide aspect as I visited all the factories.

I worked at Turnils and I enjoyed it. However, I had this calling back to retail and I tried to look forward in my career and imagine myself turning 30 staying in these types of sales jobs and continuing to work for the Hunter Douglas organisation. 

Using the knowledge I’d learned through wholesaling, retail, manufacturing, and general passion, I put my own business together but I didn’t know what that business was or what it looked like.

It was back in 2003 and my wife had been developing some of the first websites. Back at that time, it was a really early time for the internet and for emails. People were still using dial up internet connections which was very different to how it is now.

I had the blind skills and Annette had the internet skill so we thought “why not?” We were aware that e-commerce blind businesses existed in the US and started to look at their models. 

The context of who to wholesale and who to manufacture it was easy for me to go and approach those people and say, “If I start selling blinds can you supply me?” The idea of ISeekBlinds was born as I was driving home from Turnils one night. 

Tony Cassar: What are your greatest challenges within the business today, Michael?

Michael Gubby: Coming out of the Covid period, it was a very difficult landscape. Retailing has significantly changed and is constantly adapting and evolving to the challenges of the changing retail atmosphere, such as interest rate rises.

Pressure in family households and pressure on heating bills mean businesses must try to evolve and adapt and be relevant today.

Tony Cassar:  What range of blinds does ISeekBlinds offer?

Michael Gubby:  Our core product and the backbone of ISeekBlinds since 2004 has been our roller blind program that has evolved into motorisation.

Battery motors have really enabled that to happen for a DIY business, particularly for people fitting blinds after they’ve had their house built or who are changing their window coverings. Curtains have been a very big part of the business as well.

We’ve invested a lot of money in machinery on conveyor belts to try and keep up with the volume of curtains that we sell. These machines are quick and efficient and they can do a lot of curtains in a short amount of time, not relying on the old fashioned method of someone doing a little bit of sewing at a time.

Also plantation shutters. I’ve had a love and hate affair with them. I put plantation shutters on the ISeekBlinds website back in 2005 or 2006 and I really love them.

Tony Cassar: What type of promotion does I seek blinds undertake and what is the most successful?

Michael Gubby: We’re constantly working on evergreen campaigns, which means campaigns that stay live for the whole time and they encourage customers to be aware of ISeekBlinds and to order their free colour samples.

In recent months we have introduced a video consultation service where clients are able to book a consultation with me personally. We are also promoting the YouTube videos and the information and training I provide to help customers understand the process better.

Google advertising is very popular and very important to ISeekBlinds and also our search engine optimisation.

Being the face of the business, people watch me on the YouTube videos and enjoy the experience. When they finally get to talk to me, they think I’m some kind of rock star because they can’t believe that they were just watching me on YouTube but now I am here having a personal video consultation with them. I have really enjoyed that.

Tony Cassar:  What challenges do you believe the window covering industry is facing at the moment?

Michael Gubby: The window industry is changing and evolving and the big players are getting bigger while the small players are getting brushed to the side. The market and the economy will be the ones that suffer.

I think those with a sound business plan and the ability to stay true to themselves and true to their core business and do their core business well will always survive and they’ll always do well. Those who are getting rattled by the market and the economy will be the ones that will suffer.

e-commercebusinesses become reactive and they’ll start to lose their way and lose their thinking. They won’t be able to just focus back on their core business that made them great in the first place. 

There is an opportunity for everybody, whether they are an e-commerce business, retail business, or manufacturer to participate in an industry and make it profitable. To do this, businesses must think clearly and understand who their customers are and what their market is, without being overwhelmed by what competitors are doing.

Tony Cassar: What would you say the greatest achievements throughout your career have been?

Michael Gubby:  I’ve loved the fact that I’ve been a pioneer of the e-commerce space. I was proud that when I started ISeekBlinds, there was no one there to copy and I had to really figure it out.

My journey’s been filled with people that have done really done a direct rip off of ISeekBlinds and they’ve looked at us for inspiration and potentially building their own e-commerce sites. I’m probably most proud that we’re still there, still trading and still strong.

Tony Cassar: I see you have a new patent.

Michael Gubby:  I have a YouTube channel where you can see videos that we roull out to educate and train customers on measuring and installing blinds and shades.

Automation has sparked my interest in the blinds industry and given me joy to see the industry evolve with emerging technologies like thread and matter.

When I saw the zero head Rollease Acmeda motor this immediately led to talk of retrofitting existing blinds.

I’m always looking for a new opportunity or a new way to do it. So when I saw that they could retrofit into Rollease Acmeda hardware, my mind immediately went to, “Ok, how do we retrofit into non-Rollease Acemda hardware?”

We came up with a jig that could join tubes together and roll fabric over from the old tube to the new tube. Accurately cutting it off could be done in someone’s home, making it accessible to everyone.That would enable people who like their current window coverings to enjoy the benefits of automation. It gives them the opportunity to bring their home up to date and enjoy the Googles and Alexas, reducing their energy bills and consumption and blocking their west windows. I wanted to make automation accessible to everyone, whether you had the Rollease Acmeda tube or whether you didn’t.

With the jig and the patented method and design pattern on the jig, I have been able to create a product that I sell on the ISeekBlinds website.

I’d like to share the jig and the method to other retailers. If anyone is interested, they can go on to my YouTube channel and watch the video. Watch the video and watch how I do it on a domestic basis directly with the consumer. If there are any retailers that are interested in adding that to their business and wanting to work together and create an opportunity, then I’d be really open and welcome to having those conversations. Perhaps I might be able to give a little bit back to the retail industry that I’ve been so proud of and so fond of over the years.

I never sought to smash the retail sector. I had a small and manageable business and I never wanted it to get too big and unmanageable. I’m proud of my relationship with the retail sector and proud that even at the recent BMAA show I was able to walk around and have conversations with everybody including lots of retailers. They’re really keen to work with me.

See Michael demonstrate how to motorise any roller blind here.

Tony Cassar: Who has had the greatest influence in your life and why?

Michael Gubby: There are probably two people who spring to mind. One was my father, Philip.

My dad was a salesman through the seventies, eighties, and nineties. He did very well out of sales. He worked for Xerox and was in the photocopy industry. When I had the opportunity to work in Canberra for Kleenmaid, that’s where Dad was based, selling copiers into the Australian government and their contracts.

Dad used to tell me back in the early days that people used to mock him for being a professional demonstrator. He was keen to talk and understand and demonstrate the product. People would walk past and say “there’s Phil just doing another demonstration”. He ended up being the top salesman because those people that he would demonstrate to would always come back and buy the product.

And then the guys that never did that never saw the opportunity of working hard and being so professional and accurate in your presentation and the way you went about it. So you know the orders kept coming in. 

The other person was a gentleman called Rod Kelly mainly in the window covering business. When I came into the Kelly family, I was the brother to another mother. There was Lisa, Sean, and Matthew and I fitted into that family perfectly because I was the same height and look. When I went to the family functions, it was just like I was at home.

Obviously, Rod took me under his wing and we enjoyed many happy years together at turns before Rod retired.

Many happy golf days together, trips to ACASPA and Europe, dinners and shows, and everything that we did was really fun in the industry back then. That really doesn’t exist anymore; everyone takes themselves too seriously these days. Back then it was great fun. It was awesome to share that with Rod and I learned so much about the window coverings industry from him.

Tony Cassar:  I believe you have now sold your business. How did it go?

Michael Gubby:  I got a call from Deloitte’s, an accounting firm, saying there was a business in Europe interested in growing and moving into the e-commerce space. At the start, I rejected the phone call as I thought it was a scam.

ISeekBlinds was a business that was going to go on forever and ultimately can go on forever. I would pass it down to my kids and their kids and their kids and it would keep it relevant and fresh. It would be an easy business to manage into the future, but the kids weren’t interested in blinds. I had a discussion with the gentleman from Europe from their group called Mzuri. We struck a deal that I thought was satisfactory.

It gave me an opportunity to open my mind to not just an Australian marketplace but to a worldwide marketplace and that really excited and invigorated me to know that I could finally be part of something bigger.

The Australian marketplace is very different to that of Europe. It has been a real learning exercise for me to understand and learn about the European product. For them to also learn and understand about the Australian product as well; we are very different. While some of our names are the same, venetian blinds, vertical blinds and roller blinds, the concept of what it is we do from one side of the planet to the other is really very different.

The Mzuri group may have 30 or 40 containers on the water at any one time coming out of the Far East. 

There are opportunities that will start to come through because I have only been involved for less than two years now. Time has flown as we have come out of the back of Covid. There will be opportunities. Doors are certainly open that would never have been opened before, which has been enjoyable to talk on a more global scale.

I have just turned 50 and have been in the blinds industry for 25 or 30 years, nearly 20 of which have been with ISeekBlinds. My mind sometimes wonders what the next part of my life holds or what the next chapter looks like. I am looking to learn from a bigger business, but potentially also to set up my exit from I Seek Blinds.

Tony Cassar:  Tell us about your family and your interests outside of work?.

Michael Gubby: So I have two beautiful children, Thomas and Charlotte. Thomas has just turned 18 and he did his driving test in my Ford Ranger. He passed his license and I’ve not seen that Ford Ranger back since. That was in May.

My daughter Charlotte just loves to sing and dance. We go water skiing together. In fact, we were out at Pikes Creek last weekend and the water temperature was nine degrees. We were both wake surfing behind the back of the boat with the stereo blasting and having a great time together. I’ve got a master 22 ft big ski boat and we discovered wake surfing several years ago. Before that, I was a water skier in my earlier years. Wakeboarding has now turned into wake surfing. And so everyone loves to jump on the back of the boat off the swim platform and go out to the Murray, the Den, or Pikes Creek. Water skiing is good fun and everyone enjoys it.

Tony Cassar:  Michael Gubby, thank you for sharing your insights and your memories from a great career with us. 

Michael Gubby: Thank you Tony, it’s been a great pleasure speaking with you and with Window Furnishings Australia.