By James Wells

SYDNEY: Western Australian retail store, Retravision Joondalup, has beaten six other state finalists to win the award for Best Retail Store of the Year at the inaugural Electrical Retailing Awards (ERAs) held in Sydney last week.

Judged by over 100 suppliers from around Australia, Retravision Joondalup joined other state finalists including Retravision – Geelong (Victoria), Clive Anthonys – Mermaid Waters (Queensland) and four Harvey Norman stores – Auburn (New South Wales), Enfield (South Australia), Darwin (Northern Territory) and Hobart (Tasmania).

Retravision Australia chief executive officer, Keith Perkin, accepted the award on behalf of the store’s proprietors – John and Vanessa Davies.

Before opening his first Retravision store 16 years ago, John Davies was a state manager for Philips. During his time at Philips, Davies was known as the Governor’s Representative, reporting directly to the chairman of Philips in Eindhoven on matters relating to the Australian business.

Davies joined Retravision on 1 November, 1990, with a 300 square metre rented store located at 1 Winton Road in Joondalup.

Davies moved to an 800 square property in 1994, which consisted of two factory units. This store won the Breville Award for Best Retail Store in 2001 at the Retravision conference in Cairns.

In June last year Joondalup Retravision, with the assistance of Retravision WA, opened a purpose built 2,000-square metre superstore which generates an estimated turnover of $15 million.

John and Vanessa are assisted in their business by their son Ben who manages various departments within the store and Jasmin who works at the store in between undertaking a business degree at university.

Judges described the Retravision Joondalup store as having “an excellent store layout” that is “visually appealing”. One judge described this store as being “the best store layout” and another described it as “a great looking store”.

Other judges commented that this store’s knowledgeable team, which includes a high representation of both Generation X and Generation Y sales staff, provide excellent customer service.

Judges described Davies as a proactive proprietor who is well known in the local area and generates awareness and store traffic through consistent local marketing initiatives.