Meet Philippe Luder of Tivoli Hi-Fi

ADVERTORIAL

The owners of Tivoli Hi-Fi have built their success upon a solid foundation of exceptional customer service and technical expertise. For almost 50 years, the store has been servicing the needs of music lovers and home cinema devotees in the Camberwell area and surrounds. The family-owned business launched in 1973 – stemmed from a longstanding passion for music and a vision to create a store that catered to those seeking an audio experience beyond the ordinary. So, what is it about Tivoli Hi-Fi that keeps generation after generation of loyal customers coming back? Tivoli Hi-Fi’s charismatic Swiss-born owner, Philippe Luder, has a theory. “It’s probably not our good looks,” he said. “I think it’s expertise coupled with honest value. If you want value in terms of spend versus performance, I think that’s what gets people to keep coming back.”

From humble beginnings to success

Travel back in time several decades to the early 1970s, when Mr Luder was a young immigrant from Switzerland who was working as a technician for Philips. Full of passion for the industry, Mr Luder and a friend decided to follow their dream and open a business of their own in 1973. They called it Tivoli Hi-Fi and Stereo Repairs and were initially based on Cotham Rd in Kew. Soon after opening, the store began to sell quality hi-fi equipment in addition to providing repairs – a winning formula to this day. In 1976, they incorporated and became Tivoli Hi-Fi & Home Cinema, and later moved from Kew to Glenferrie Rd in Hawthorn, and eventually into their current location in Camberwell Rd in 1982. “We’re very close to the Camberwell Junction, so it’s a good location,” Mr Luder said. The store stocks all of the latest brands and technologies and offers on-site audio and hi-fi assessments in customers’ homes.

Service with a smile

Over the years, Tivoli Hi-Fi have strived to deliver outstanding customer service, always keeping abreast of the latest industry developments. Mr Luder runs the store with his wife Erica, as well as their team of staff. He rarely ventures on to the sales floor anymore, preferring to work his magic behind the scenes, but Mr Luder has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. “What got me into this from the word go is my love for music, I guess, and training technically in an area that deals with music in terms of its electronic amplification and reproduction,” he said. Mr Luder said they had no plans to move to a bigger outlet, but would grow in other ways. “One is always looking for ways of providing an even better service to the customer, and that’s the way I see us evolving,” he said.