Business built on familiar jingle

John Williamson, owner of John's Furniture Warehouse, in the shop in Stafford St, Dunedin. Photo...
John Williamson, owner of John's Furniture Warehouse, in the shop in Stafford St, Dunedin. Photo by Craig Baxter.
For 20 years, the "My mate John" radio jingle has been one of those tunes that is hard to escape.

Created by former Radio Network copywriter and Channel 9 manager Keith Collins, now of Wellington, it was sung by the late Kevin Lynch, and was for John Williamson, owner of John's Furniture Warehouse in Stafford St, Dunedin.

"It was a bit of an off-the-wall suggestion," Mr Williamson told the Otago Daily Times this week.

"We went with it and I've been eternally grateful to him."

Mr Williamson said he built the business around the "my mate John" thing "not because I'm an egotist, but because that was the bit that people remembered".

Proof of Mr Williamson's marketing success will be celebrations next month to mark 20 years in business.

He describes himself as an entrepreneur, a marketer and a promoter who is big on advertising.

His annual spending on newspaper, radio and television is $400,000.

While it was "extremely hard" to quantify the benefits from advertising, "we know if we don't, we suffer".

Mr Williamson (61) started in retail when he left Otago Boys' High School and worked for various companies, including Arthur Barnett, Smith and Brown, and Smith and Smith.

He was given the chance to set up and run Nees Furniture's discount furniture warehouse, in Rattray St, and shortly before the long-standing Dunedin firm went "belly up", he went out on his own.

Mr Williamson said he put all his assets on the line to lease a building in Stafford St and stock it with furniture.

He now owns the building, and others besides, and, with 7200sq m, has more floor space devoted to furniture than any other Dunedin retailer.

He also sells more Sleepyhead mattresses and bases each year than any other outlet in Dunedin - $2.5 million worth, last year.

Mr Williamson said it was rare for a locally owned company to be so dominant in a town but as a "direct importer", his company had the advantage over chain stores of not having to pay "a whole extra tier" of costs such as separate warehousing and distribution.

It also did not have "overseas interests" or shareholders to pay.

Asked if he had ever considered creating a chain of stores himself, Mr Williamson said that would have meant creating a wholesale division to supply the retail part.

"I could have had a chain of shops if I wanted to, but I have chosen not to, because it is a much less efficient model."

"We are unusual. We are a very large business.

"We carry as much furniture here as the rest of the furniture industry in Dunedin put together. Probably a lot more."

 

 Mr Williamson said he was a "natural gambler" prepared to put everything on the line, and he still had everything on the line.

"A lot of people are not prepared to take the risk ..."

He believed one of his strengths, besides his enthusiasm for promotion, was his experience in the furniture trade.

By the time he started his own business, he said, he was already the most experienced furniture retailer in the city.

"If you want to get into a business, you have got to know it first.

And I'm not talking about going to university and getting a business degree, because you still don't know the actual business.

"Do your homework first ..."

The route he had taken had been to specialise in "good, ordinary, honest furniture" that appealed to a broad market.

Mr Williamson likened his business to a supermarket operating on low mark-ups and high volumes.

Furniture had become much cheaper, he said, and was now more likely to be imported than it was when he began.

He cited reclining armchairs and leather lounge suites as examples.

One thing that had not changed was the time it took for new trends to reach Dunedin.

"Normally, it goes Europe, America and then it goes to Australia and then it comes to New Zealand and eventually it gets to Dunedin.

"Our trends tend to lag several years behind the trends overseas."

- mark.price@odt.co.nz

John Williamson
Age:
61.
Educated: Otago Boys' High School.
Employment: Arthur Barnett, Smith and Brown, Smith and Smith, Nees Furniture, John's Furniture Warehouse.

 

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