Clayton’s Kitchens made and wholesaled a product that retailers loved, so they have decided to start retailing too.
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Entrepreneur: Paul Bradbury, Managing Director
Company: Clayton’s Kitchens Australia
Business type: Design, manufacture and delivery of kitchens and vanity units
Founded: 1981
Turnover: $10M - $50M
Head office: Laverton North, Victoria
Contact details: +61 3 9931 0088
The Clayton’s Kitchens Story
Paul Bradbury started his business in 1981, working from his mother’s garage with a couple of saws. Since then, he has made Clayton’s Kitchens into Victoria’s largest kitchen design and manufacturing wholesaler, supplying the home-building industry with over 80 finished kitchens a week.
Paul believes that his ability to learn and his determination to provide a quality product and good service as efficiently as possible have given Clayton’s its competitive edge. He says: “During my apprenticeship - spent in five places - I looked at the different ways people were doing things. I couldn’t understand why a lot of them generalised into all sorts of things. There didn’t seem to be any efficiencies there. When I started my business, I decided it was to be one thing - kitchens, which I enjoyed.”
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Key learning points:
- Product quality - Before moving from wholesale to retail trade, it is essential to have an efficiently made, high-quality product.
- Cost - Try to minimise your retail start-up investment in case the move to retail is not successful.
- Marketing goal - To persuade potential customers that the superb product they see in the showroom is what they will get at home too.
- Sales force - Kitchen sales people should be experienced in manufacturing the product. Sales staff should be always be truthful and direct.
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In 1998, Clayton’s installed state-of-the-art German and Italian machinery including computerised design and bar-coding technology to improve efficiency and ensure quality. As an award-winner in manufacturing, why move into retailing?
On an interstate trip, Paul had been excited to see how sophisticated retail kitchen showrooms could produce sales. He was less impressed by the manufacturing operation supplying these showrooms. He says: “I started to recognise that we are fantastic manufacturers. And I thought, if we can learn to retail but back it up with good manufacturing, then we have got something very good to offer the public. Why not have a go?”
Paul is ambitious about his sales and marketing plans for the new retail kitchen business. He says: “We’d like to cover the whole of Victoria or the whole of metropolitan Melbourne with showrooms from July 2001 if we possibly could.”
But he is cautious too. Costs will be kept low. Clayton’s have opted to start retailing not in a leased or purchased stand-alone facility but in an owner-builders’ display centre, which takes a commission on sales in lieu of rent. He says: “If it [is] not to be successful, it is not costing us a lot of money so it’s a fantastic way for us to start.”
Paul wants to transfer the values and principles that made Clayton’s manufacturing and wholesaling business a success to the new retail side. He says: “Our ability in manufacturing and servicing and wanting to get the person the right sort of product is what we will take into the retail market - something I personally believe is not quite there at the moment.”
Clayton’s plan is to have experienced cabinet-makers and designers - including some of its own employees - as its retailers (referred to by Paul as resellers). All its retailers will have manufacturing experience. Paul says: “A lot of people in retail shops don’t have manufacturing backgrounds. All our current designers are ex-cabinet-makers. I want to teach them how to deal with people face-to-face because they know and understand construction. I want my people to be very honest, to show clients why putting the oven there won’t work, for example.”