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| SafetyQuip (Australia) P/L |
| http://safetyquip.com.au |
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| Address: | PO Box 1332
Noosa Heads - 4567
QLD/Sunshine Coast |
| Contact: | Gary Shearer |
| Email: |  |
Company description:
SAFETYQUIP hung out its shingle on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in 1992 - a pioneer in independent safety products supply, in a market dominated by multinationals.
It wasn't easy to survive. Almost no one wanted to know about our business but curiously, this proved to be the crucial success factor. Because we were perceived as a flash in the pan we were permitted to harass important suppliers into setting up direct accounts. Had the big firms known what SAFETYQUIP would become, their influence would have slammed those doors in our faces.
Our consumer 'in' was mobility - shuttling from workplace to workplace with a fully stocked (second hand Telstra) van. Our competitors considered this comic, but with persistence, it worked amazingly well. Our regular, cheerful call-ins developed strong customer loyalty and the business thrived. Next, we added a static Safety Trade Shop, which sold over the counter and on the phone. This further expanded our market.
It is an effective combination and quite early on, we realised that it was a strong starter for franchised distribution. We seriously considered this in 1997 but the sector was going through its period of self-examination. We also understood that having a successful business was one thing, and duplicating it quite another. So we left it alone for that moment.
A lot of our hesitation also had to do with IT and we reasoned that when we had that straight, we would know whether to franchise. In 1998 we installed purpose-developed multi-user software - and seven hundred modifications later, became the industry leader in business efficiency. In 2001, with the franchising sector was settled down, we put more than 4,000 hours into developing our system and initiated a trial by applying it to a small existing business. It tripled its turnover in 13 months and continues to go through the roof.
Then upshot is that we had somehow managed to turn a 'closed shop' in a booming sector into a brilliant opportunity for experienced businesspeople with no safety background but formidable skills. In the infancy of our program, we have three outlets running, two of them franchised and all of them going gangbusters. It's not an easy business to handle and we stress that up front. But for those with the right attributes, the rewards are immense.
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