As Bing Lee celebrates 60 years.
Bing Lee CEO, Lionel Lee says the involvement in the Narta buying group remains one of the strongest partnerships for the Bing Lee business.
“Our business would be nowhere without Narta and I am very proud to be a member of the Narta board. Narta are and have been integral in Bing Lee’s success and longevity, led by Kay Spencer and now by Michael Jackson. The whole Narta team does a great job and at the end of the day they are there for the retailer and I think that suppliers who don’t utilise Narta to their fullest extent may be missing out.
“We have many people to thank for this, however as I have said before, without our suppliers, we wouldn’t have a business.
“My earliest work memories of my Dads relationships; the fun and the laughter mixed with Business with the likes of Harry Marr, Jim Hankinson, Paul Cross, Ross Morgan, Mike Church, Charlie Carter, John Riley, Warwick Richardson, Peter Lee , Graham Day, Trevor Carol, Harry Yokoi just to name a few, have enabled our business to remain standing, whilst many have failed.
“For this we are ever thankful, and whilst we go forward, we will always remember where we came from and the Brands such as AWA, Sharp Corporation, NEC, Westinghouse, GE, Lemair, Philips, Panasonic and Sony, who supported us in the early days.
“To those retailers that think their brand is more important than a suppliers brand, you do so at your own peril. At Bing Lee, we have always been of the belief of co prosperity.
“To the industry, please remember that we are a people business, at Bing Lee, relationships in business still stand for something.”
Customer Focus
“We are not rocket scientists, and we aren’t saving lives – it is pretty simple stuff.
“I have always said, at the end of the day we buy stuff and we sell it, and along the way we try and give good customer service so that the customer comes back.
“If you make the customer happy and that person comes back – that is the ultimate compliment. And better still that customer brings their kids in, and you create this progression to the point where we have some customers that follow certain sales staff and store managers to whatever store location they go, based on the trust and relationships they have built.
“I’m sure every business has this, but our industry is a people industry and it is about talking and communicating and listening. Taking a sale for a customer is flattering because they are putting their trust in you.
“We must recognize that every customer has choice, and they could have bought that fridge from several different retailers, but when they choose us, we can’t let them down.”