By Claire Reilly
Thomo’s Betta North Rockhampton has been named the Betta Home Living Retailer of the Year 2013 at the retail group’s annual conference in Hong Kong, with the Queensland Betta store being chosen from among more than 200 stores across Australia for the award.
The award was presented at the company’s “That’s Betta” conference, which has been timed to coincide with the Hong Kong Houseware Fair and will run until tomorrow.
Speaking about the award, which was presented to the store’s owners and operators, Gary and Carmel Thomasson, BSR Group CEO Graeme Cunningham said the store had been a strong part of the Betta retail group since opening in 1990.
“Our Retailer of the Year has demonstrated sales growth year upon year and dedication to the Betta brand,” said Cunningham. “After 23 years of servicing the Rockhampton community with electrical appliances the family has forged a strong reputation for the service, knowledge and experience they offer for customers.
“Betta Home Living is undergoing some exciting changes and enjoying encouraging results and Thomo’s Betta North Rockhampton has made a notable contribution to that success.”
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The company also used the annual conference to announce a new marketing strategy for the recently rebranded Betta Home Living store network, previously known as Betta Electrical. The “That’s Betta” marketing campaign (also the name of this year’s conference) is aimed at drawing consumer attention to Betta’s new focus on the homewares category, according to Cunningham.
“We’ve expanded by 80 new stores over the last year,” he said. “And last year we had 20 stores in furniture and now we have double that, with even more stores set to come on board in the coming months.
“The next step in the program is to invest in the brand while we continue to roll more stores over into Betta Home Living.
“We’ll certainly be looking at other categories and investigating opportunities to further the Betta Home Living brand while we are [in Hong Kong],” he added. “In particular we’ll be concentrating on the cooking market, hence our partnership with ‘Captain of Cooking’ Matt Hayden.”
Cunningham also talked up Betta’s positive results over the past year at the conference, saying increased revenues had allowed for “a greater proportion of income to be returned to retailers”.
“The group’s benchmark “pass-back” indicator is expected to exceed an unprecedented high percentage of total income returned in FY2013,” he said. “We’ve been tracking above what the market has been doing. There’s a more positive feel out in the marketplace and I think the next 12 months will be better than the last.”
From left to right: Graeme Cunningham (CEO Betta Home Living); Garry Thyer (chairman of the board, Betta Home Living); Gary Thomasson (owner/operator, North Rockhampton Betta Home Living); Carmel Thomasson (owner/operator, North Rockhampton Betta Home Living); Matthew Hayden (former Australian test cricketer and “Betta's Captain of Cooking”).