Retail News

Kincumber Mitre 10 has won the Mitre 10 National Store of the Year Award for the third year running. Store Franchisee, Murray Vaughan and Store Manager, Peter Steele received the Award at Mitre 10’s 50th Anniversary Dinner in Melbourne last month. The Kincumber store won against competition from some five-hundred franchised stores nationally.

Commenting on their third award, Mr Vaughan said a possible reason was “probably how we do business". “We are retailers and nothing over the years has changed the fundamentals of retailing. The big guys might think they have it worked out but in the end it’s all about customers,” said Mr Vaughan.

Mr Vaughan has been in hardware retailing for forty years, first with the Gosford hardware store and builders’ supplies company, Sterland Bros, and the last twenty-one years as franchisee of Mitre 10 at Kincumber which he opened in 1988 in the Kincumber Shopping Village. General Manager, Steve McCumstie also started his career with Sterland Bros some thirty-five years ago and joined Mr Vaughan when he opened the Kincumber store. In 2003 they moved the store to new purpose-built premises on the corner of Empire Bay Drive and Kerta Road with 2,400 sqm of store space and room for sixty cars to park. Since then their retail trade has grown and so has their trade business.

They are now setting up a new Trade Centre nearby to accommodate the needs of their local building trades customers – particularly with timber and related supplies. “We know how important our customers are to us and so does everyone who works for us,” said Mr Vaughan. “We work on the philosophy that ‘the customer is king’. It’s an old adage but it is as relevant today as it was fifty years ago. We are here to sell our customers what they want. Not what some centralised buying office might think they want. And to do that we need to impart that philosophy to our staff and we never stop with that message. Our staff know that their wages are paid by our customers, not by me as the business owner,” said Mr Vaughan.

“Of course customer service requires that staff need to be happy and helpful as well as having sound product knowledge. They know that they are the ones who will ensure that the customer returns again and again,” Mr Vaughan said. The Kincumber Mitre 10 store employs forty staff of which nineteen are full-time and around half are under the age of thirty. “Most of our employees started with us when they were at school and they have just stayed on. We like young people because they are bright and enthusiastic and then we spend the time training them in all aspects of the retail trade. Having trained them we like to see them stay on and so do the customers,” he said.

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