John Winning has spoken openly about why he and the other key decision makers at Winning Appliances chose to open a new, full service showroom in Brisbane.
Traditionally a New South Wales-only appliance specialist, Winning Appliances has expanded both into cyberspace with Appliances Online and north of the Tweed. Winning said the warehouses to service Appliances Online acted as a beachhead for the Narta member.
“Winning Appliances as a destination shop had a pretty good reach of the Sydney and greater Sydney area,” he said. “We had the ability to deliver in Brisbane with warehouse facilities that we’d already set up for our online business, Appliances Online, so it was quite an easy transition to a broader market being Brisbane.
“We already could utilise the cost that we’d spent on warehousing and distribution, and we had the trucks there, so to drop one store in Brisbane made more sense than to drop another one in Sydney.”
Winning brimmed with confidence when asked if he thought the new Brisbane store would be as immediately well-received as the latest Sydney showroom, in Narellan. That said, Winning acknowledges that it is a challenge.
“It’s always nice to know you can do something and find out pretty quickly if you sink or swim…and we’ve proven that with our new store in Narellan, however, to do a new store in a new state where we don’t have the name that we have as strong in Sydney, I thought it would be a good challenge.”
Despite the predicted success of this new showroom, Winning said there were no plans to expand into Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia.