By Sarah Falson
COFFS HARBOUR: After 42 years with Retravision NSW, Garth and Howard Morrison’s Coffs Harbour-based store will join the Narta buying group at the end of next week trading under a new brand – Morrison’s Electrical Megastore.
Store director and manager, Garth Morrison, told Current.com.au that he had been looking to make a change for three months, but Retravision NSW’s recent receivership and administration acted as the ultimate catalyst for the move.
“That made the decision for us: we hadn’t made any decisions before this," Morrison said.
“Ultimately we had to make the decision fairly quickly. For a store our size, the lack of resources could have had crippling effects.
“Basically we were faced with the problems that Retravision was facing – we had no stock supply. Fortunately there was a better option out there anyway, which we had investigated beforehand. We were weighing up our options with a bigger buying group that had better buying potential.”
Morrison, who this year is celebrating 52 years registered under the Morrison’s Home Appliances company name started by his grandfather, who was also one of the founding NSW Retravision members, said the move to Narta represents a step forward for his business.
“We’ve made the right decision. Narta is a very professional corporation, and this will work out to be a better relationship in terms of pricing and the fact that the type of business Narta is, is closely aligned to what we do.
“We both represent premium products and home cooking appliances, which we experienced little support for from Retravision.
“The newfound relationship with Narta is going to strengthen our store.”
According to Morrison, his business officially resigned from Retravision on 1 November, but due to accounting processes, Morrison’s Electrical Megastore won’t sever its final tie with its former buying group until 1 December, even though its account with Narta is already active.
Even so, Morrison is excited about the supplier opportunities offered by Narta.
“We’re going to keep the support of the brands we are already strong with, but this is also the first time we’ve been able to secure the likes of LG, which will be quite interesting.
“Not having anything to do with the supplier before, but controlling such a big part of the market as LG does, it will only strengthen what we do here. We no longer are in the situation where we can’t source LG, which was the situation with Retravision.”
According to Narta managing director, Kay Spencer, Morrison’s Electrical Megastore matches Narta’s culture.
"Their profile includes European cooking, so it blends in with us quite nicely."
Spencer told Current.com.au that the new acquisition supports Narta’s distribution model.
"Coffs Harbour is another good addition to Narta as we start to look at strategic distribution. We now have Electrical Discounters in Whyalla and throughout the surrounding regional area in South Australia, Murray Neck Electrical at Alice Springs and Anthony Cowan’s Your Electrical Superstore in the Albury Wodonga area.
"The addition of Coffs Harbour helps the suppliers too as it gives them a stronger distribution of Narta members in regional areas."
In February this year, Retravision Coffs Harbour relocated to a larger superstore in order to maintain its position as one of the best-performing stores in the country, Current.com.au was told.
The relocation saw the team move from a 350 square metres site to a 1,000 square metres superstore, with a staff increase of 25 per cent.
“The relocation has been going well, despite the hardships of the last month,” Morrison told Current.com.au
"Business was tight in the last month, but that was the same across the state. We’re happy with the location and shop layout. Trading is all positive.”