After painful flops and business failures, a Bendigo couple learnt how to create a successful national furniture making and retail business.
| Entrepreneur |
Margot Spalding, Co-Founder (with husband, Alan) |
| Company |
Jimmy Possum Furniture |
| Business type |
Upmarket furniture manufacturing and retail |
| Founded |
1995 |
| Employees |
150 full-time equivalents |
| Head office |
Bendigo, Victoria |
| Contact details |
+61 3 5449 3772 |
Key Learning Points |
|
Staff retention
Is your business a place where people work until they find a better job elsewhere? Keeping people requires planning, investment and the right systems.
Business models
Think outside your square and try something new from time to time - it may just be the making of your business.
|
The Jimmy Possum Story
The recession of the early 1990s drove Alan and Margot Spalding out of their first furniture-supply business. Alan, a cabinet maker, was devastated and considered farming emus and other agricultural eccentricities near Bendigo in Victoria. But none of them ever looked like being money makers.
With children to feed, Margot swallowed her pride and went to work as a sales assistant at a local furniture retailer. It was an eye-opening experience. As she watched customers select and buy furniture, she saw the possibility for a niche that she and Alan could fill: a line of high-quality, Australian-made product with clear, attractive branding. They would supply only to retailers, cutting out the time-consuming distractions that had plagued their first business.
Getting the brand image right was important from the start. They chose a business name - Jimmy Possum - that is endearingly Australian but pitched at the upper end of the market. The design and quality workmanship had to appeal to customers who wanted contemporary, Australian-made furniture rather than product that is stapled together somewhere in south-east Asia.
Jimmy Possum was launched in 1995 and the Spaldings have not looked back since. It is now a national operation that employs 150 people.
The Challenge
To respond to rapid growth by changing the business model while retaining a close-knit, quality-obsessed corporate culture.
The Solution
Growth brought new pressures and decisions for Alan and Margot. Should they abandon their business model - of simply being manufacturers - and set up branded Jimmy Possum retail outlets? Could they sustain the close-knit, family business culture as it grew?
Their first retail outlet - at Fortitude Valley in Brisbane in 2001 - took three years to get right. But then it boomed and has since tripled in size. It was a timely move as retailers began to desert Australian furniture makers for low-cost imported product. Margot says: "If we hadn't opened our own stores, there would be no Jimmy Possum now." Four other retail outlets have since been added in Melbourne and Sydney.
Margot and Alan apply the same principles to retail that they do to manufacturing. They have implemented very precise systems for ensuring the quality of the customer experience from purchase to delivery. "You can't just open a shop and hope it sells," says Margot.
Finding and retaining good staff is a key issue in a very tight employment market. Margot is a believer in FISH!, the philosophy based on the positive outlook of workers at the Seattle fish markets. FISH! seeks to foster playful workplaces where staff can authentically express themselves and delight customers.
But this approach requires a commitment from management. Margot says: "We have no casual staff anywhere in our business - and we never will. People need to know what their hours are and how much they will get in their pay packet at the end of every week. If we go through a quiet period, there is always something else useful they can do." The company tries to pay well, provides plenty of training and support, and fosters an inclusive, welcoming atmosphere.
Nurturing the Jimmy Possum culture takes more than just FISH!. When the business was smaller, Alan and Margot regularly invited staff members to parties at their house and family members worked in the business. Family members still work in the business - Margot and Alan have seven children between them - but throwing a party takes a lot more planning.
Last Christmas, Margot and Alan shut the entire business down and flew employees and their partners to Bendigo for a big party featuring a sit-down dinner for 250 and music from a house band ‘Jimmy and the Possums'. Margot says: "It got manufacturing and retail together. It was amazing to see cabinet makers dancing with retail managers and accountants."
The Result
Since it started as a manufacturing workshop supplying wholesalers in 1995, Jimmy Possum has grown and changed. Retail turnover reached $11 million in 2005-06 and manufacturing turnover was $6 million, up from $280,000 in 1996.
In 2006, Margot was named as Telstra Victorian and Australian Business Woman of the Year, and Westpac Victorian and Australian Business Owner of 2006.