The team at the Margaret River Home Timber and Hardware store are celebrating yet another victory at the hardware group’s national awards, where store manager Paul Brown collected the trophy for Western Australian Store of the Year (over 1000sqm).
The win was the latest in a line of successes for the store, which Mr Brown puts down to a solid group of employees working together as a team, with a genuine passion for helping locals.
“We have people coming into the shop who have been coming in for twenty years, they come to know the faces and the expertise of the people who work here and rely on their advice,” he said.
The store focuses heavily on local involvement in community groups, proudly displaying a banner above the retail counter listing the various associations and clubs they support.
Joined by Shepherdson Group general manager Noelene Willcox last week, business owners Lloyd and Anne Shepherdson said the community support is reciprocated and represents how the business is run.
“I think it’s the culture of the organisation that is important,” Mrs Shepherdson said.
“It is what we hear consistently, that the organisation is well known for having such a strong culture and that’s why people keep coming back.
“This is where Paul has been fantastic, he certainly has been a great team leader and together with Noelene we have a great leadership team here.”
Mr Shepherdson said customer loyalty was a key factor in the store’s success and thanked the Margaret River community for continuing to frequent the Station Road business.
“We have customers who have been coming here for so long; there was a great story recently with an elderly customer who came in to see Paul and had been a customer since he was a tradie,” Mr Shepherdson said.
“He comes back in specifically to see Paul, and he said to him ‘I get the greatest buzz when I come in here, the girls are smiling and everybody knows their product and they just help me so much.
“For this gent to say he really loves shopping when he comes here is the best compliment we could hope for.”
The store will host their next event, a visit from the Makita Power Garden truck on Tuesday March 7.
Mr Brown said the truck visit will offer demonstrations and the chance to try some impressive power tools, and will also feature a sausage sizzle with proceeds destined for local cancer charity, River Angels.
The Makita truck will be onsite from 8am to 1pm on Tuesday March 7.
For more information visit www.facebook.com/MargaretRiverHOMETimberHardware