Award finalists support buy local for Christmas campaign

THE three finalists in the retail business category of the Stockland Wendouree Retail Business Award as part of the 2018 Federation Business School Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Award sell fashion, timber and lighting.

Yet they all have two things in common – praise for the award application process and support for the Commerce Ballarat’s b2b Business to Ballarat Christmas campaign.

The Awards, run by Commerce Ballarat, have been celebrating the achievements of local business for the past 30 years.

For the 2018 awards, applications were called for 16 award categories ranging from innovation, professional services, new and emerging business, to events and attractions, manufacturing, customer service and paddock to plate and many more.

Studio g.a.s. Ballarat, a store hailed as Ballarat’s one stop destination for women’s fashion with a café snuggled in the corner of an historic building, took first prize at the awards ceremony.

Owner Rachel Sheehan – very surprised and excited to receive the award – said the application process was long but worth the time and effort to complete.

It was the second time Studio g.a.s. has entered.

Ms Sheehan said, “It makes you sit down and look at your business, where you’ve been, where you are and especially where you want to go.”

She runs a bricks and mortar store using social media as the major way of driving business and connecting with the locals.

Ms Sheehan said, “We are a destination store and have to generate our own traffic so Instagram and Facebook are a fabulous way to do that.”

“We don’t offer online shopping, we want our customers to come into the store.”

With 80 per cent of business coming from local customers Ms Sheehan said she works closely with Visit Ballarat to drive the out of towners as well to her store.

Whiteheads Timber Sales is an Australian owned family company operating a sawmill located at Mount Gambier, South Australia and a retail outlet in Ballarat.

General manager Wayne Dennett said reaching the finals of the retail business awards gave him the opportunity to conduct an in-depth review of Whiteheads.

Mr Dennett said because they are a family owned business, they tend to offer that extra level of service which the locals actually know about.

“70 per cent of our customers we would greet on a first name basis and all our employees live locally,” said Mr Dennett.

“However, this Christmas campaign is a reminder to people just how important it is to buy local.”

Mr Dennett said in a two-way approach he looked at what they are buying as a company, making sure they are buying locally where possible and supporting the campaign in both directions.

“We have written into our sales and buying procedure that we have a certain percentage we would sacrifice to use a local contractor or supplier where possible.”

Beacon Lighting franchisee Justin Haupt said filling in the awards application was an excellent way to reflect on the business.

Mr Haupt said having been a finalist over the past five years is an achievement his staff like to talk about with their customers.

“Sales to local area customers account for 70 to 80 per cent of our business,” said Mr Haupt.

While 25 percent of Beacon’s sales are with local builders and electricians.

“We encourage them to do business with us through our trade loyalty program,” said Mr Haupt

“Our local trade customers get discounts and if they send their customers into Beacon, they will get a discount at the store as well.”

Nominations for the 2019 Federation Business School Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Award open Thursday, 14 March.