TAPPING INTO RIGHT MARKET KEY TO SUCCESS
JAMES Sinclair looks back at his family’s bathroom products business journey over the past 18 years with a certain awe.
From a small outlet opened on the Gold Coast in 2004 by his father Lindsay, Highgrove Bathrooms now has 50 stores around Australia and last financial year recorded annual revenue of about $140m.
Managing director Mr Sinclair said the company had seen some “crazy exponential growth”.
“Year-on-year, we’ve recorded 20-40 per cent growth and we opened our 50th store in Rockhampton earlier this year,” he said.
“One of our biggest challenges is being able to manage that sort of growth year-on-year and being able to expand the business and the infrastructure that goes with it.”
Mr Sinclair said Highgrove had tapped into the homeowner renovator market, including DIY-ers as well as tradies and new home builders. “There are a lot of companies that incorporate bathrooms, but there aren’t many national companies that specialise only in bathrooms. That’s the big point of difference for us,” he said.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows retail sales volumes rose for a third consecutive quarter to a new record peak in June.
Sales volumes were 1.4 per cent higher in the June quarter to $94.3bn, which follows a 1 per cent rise in March and a 7.7 per cent jump n the December quarter.
ABS head of retail statistics Ben Dorber said cost-of-living pressures and increasing interest rates were weighing more on household goods sales volumes, which fell 1.8 per cent in the quarter.
“Much of the growth in the June quarter sales volumes came from cafes, restaurants, and takeaway foods services, which rose 8.6 per cent over the quarter and continued their post-lockdown resurgence,” he said.