e&s opens Chadstone commercial showroom

e&s owner and CEO, Rob Sinclair climbed on to a benchtop to address over 250 people and officially open the new commercial showroom at the e&s Chadstone store.

The ‘Meet the Makers’ event held this week at e&s Chadstone featured designers, architects, specifiers and interior designers for a “curated evening for the local design community”.

Rob Sinclair (e&s) addressing attendees.

Rob Sinclair said he “dreamed of a store like this” when he started working in the business 32 years ago.

Over 250 people attended the event.

“In October 1962, my dad and his two brothers started e&s one kilometre down the road at High Street Ashburton – which is roughly the size of one of our displays at the front of the Chadstone store – that was the entire size of the original store. If you look at the commercial showroom, that is the size of the 1966 store,” he said.

“This is one of the finest showrooms in kitchen, bathroom and laundry going around in Australia. This showroom is for our customers and a lot of work has gone into it – and I would like to thank the supplier partners that have supported us.

e&s Chadstone commercial space.

“This store is all about a vision when I joined dad as a kid in 1991 as a starry-eyed 19-year-old. I don’t know what it was – but I dreamed of a showroom like this – a place where the end consumer can be immersed in the finest products from around the world – but not just one or two products – almost every model is on display from the major brands.

Mark Meldrum (e&s), Jacqui Howard (BSH) and Lauren Mastoropoulos (e&s).

“If there is a brand you are after, you can sink your teeth into it and take your time to understand the comparison between the models and the features to make the best decision – and that’s our job – to find the perfect match to suit the customer’s needs.”

Lloyd Roberts (Smeg) and Mark Meldrum (e&s).

According to e&s senior category manager for home appliances, Mark Meldrum, the event was an important opportunity to bring the entire commercial, specification and project team from the business to meet with customers and develop relationships.

Maddie Murphy (Oliveri), Mark Meldrum and Joe Mulholand (Oliveri).

“For us, tonight is about bringing in our key partners in the building, design and architecture space to see what e&s is about to fully immerse themselves with the brands. We are going to be rolling out a program of these ‘Meet The Makers’ events over the next year with two events in each store – one every six months – or 18 annually. Not every event will be as big as this, but we will be targeting customers within a 5km to 10km radius of each store so that they know what they can show off to their customers,” he said.

Rob Sinclair and Frederick Quadros (e&s) in the upstairs office space at the Chadstone store.

The Chadstone store – which completed its renovations in August – now features 3,000 square metres of retail space – a similar footprint to the Prestons store in Melbourne’s north, as well as another 800 square metres of commercial space complemented by additional upstairs meeting rooms, bathrooms, staff facilities and office areas. The meeting rooms are appropriately named after Rob’s parents – Bob and Kaye Sinclair.

Unox managing director Wayne Viles (centre) showcasing the SuperOven with the e&s chefs.

“The showroom is a reflection of what this family business is about. It’s deeply heartfelt and it means a lot to me and the e&s team,” Sinclair said.

The location of the Chadstone store is adjacent to Harvey Norman and within the same complex as The Good Guys, Bunnings, Freedom, Godfreys and Barbecues Galore.