Clark prepares for final bounce

AFTER fifteen years of operation Ballarat’s Clark Rubber store is gearing up to close its doors.

Deciding against renewing his franchise agreement, current owner Steve Pope said it’s an end of an era for Clark Rubber Ballarat as we know it.

“We’re trying to sell and we have a few prospective buyers at the moment, but if they don’t go ahead, we’ll be closing the doors at the end of September,” he said.

“If I was to re-sign, I would have to for a minimum of five years but I think I’m ready to let it go.

“It really is an end of an era for our family.”

After initially opening a Clark Rubber store in Geelong 16 years ago, Mr Pope and his family extended the franchise to commence trade from a Ballarat location in 2005.

Selling the Geelong store in 2016, he said both businesses, especially the Ballarat location, underwent a great deal of development over the decade and a half he managed them.

“Over time, the business has changed a lot, it just grew every year and we just went along with it, did what had to be done,” he said.

“A big change was converting to online and we have a lot of commercial customers now whereas we didn’t have any when we first started.

“Even this year with COVID, April was pretty bad, but since then, every month it’s gotten better and for August we even had a 23 per cent increase from other years.”

While he is personally ready to say goodbye to the business, Mr Pope said he hopes another proprietor will want to take it up and continue the Clark legacy here in Ballarat.

“The clientele that we have through our pools and our commercial work, there’s a lot that a new owner would end up with,” he said.

“I’d love someone to continue it, I do hope someone does because I think it would be a shame for Clark Rubber not to be in Ballarat.”