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AR NEWS: E&S OPENS EPPING STORE IN NORTHERN MELBOURNE

e&s opens Epping store in northern Melbourne

e&s has opened its 11th store located in the northern suburbs of Melbourne further emphasising the brand’s reach into the Victorian market.

The retailer now has 10 stores in Melbourne and one store in the ACT, with two more stores in Victoria scheduled over the next two years.

According to e&s director, Rob Sinclair the location of the store represents a strategic part of the Melbourne market and accesses a specific customer demographic.

“Epping is located in the north eastern growth corridor of Melbourne. If you look at our Preston store – it is due north of Melbourne and this store is another 25 minutes north east from Preston,” he said.

e&s director Rob Sinclair and JB Hi-Fi CEO Terry Smart shake hands with store staff at the opening of the e&s Epping store.

“This store sits near some older properties that are still being renovated and in recent years the value of these properties has gone up enormously. It is important not to under-estimate the demographic of this area. They are family-oriented people who love to cook and entertain and engage with family – so they are very proud of their home and they invest over what their net household income might warrant as they want to have the best kitchen to work in – and if you move north from here there are new estates being opened, and these people are still wanting a quality fridge, a quality dryer and a quality washing machine. When you walk into an e&s store – you have an elevated experience within the supplier’s range of products and a team of people that can take that customer further up that range than would normally happen in this area.

The open plan design is a signature feature of the e&s Epping store.

“When we open any one of these stores, we stretch the skills of our supplier partners to personalise their displays for our customers. We know our supplier partners invest deeply into our showrooms and we would like to say a massive thank you to them. They help us bring these showrooms to life – there is lots of work, planning, design behind the scenes. There is also lots of pressure that we apply to make sure that what we are delivering for our supplier partners is unique compared to our competitors. Thanks to them for supporting us in our dream because what we have brought together is one of the best ever stores.”

Laundry area within e&s Epping.

Sinclair congratulated the new manager of the store Daniel Ryan – who has worked within e&s for 10 years and most recently was assistant manager at the Blackburn store. Ryan was a tradesman for 16 years as roof plumber and crane operator before joining appliance retailing.

e&s Epping store manager Daniel Ryan.

“Dan is a classic example of our aim to hire as much as possible not from our industry – when you are in a high service and customer-orientated business –attitude is the thing that delivers the finest connection with customer and our job is to connect deeply with customers. I remember when I first met Dan who was incredibly nervous in his interview. He is someone who authentically cares about his customer base so deeply. We are now setting up a team with that same care and Dan has found some great people that have the same attributes.

EPPING IS LOCATED IN THE NORTH EASTERN GROWTH CORRIDOR OF MELBOURNE.
AEG display

“Dan was a strong sales consultant and worked under some of our best managers and it is now his turn to shine and he has brought together an extraordinary group of people. He was telling me about the last session of their training and how they have become so deeply bonded together there were tears everywhere around the excitement of moving into the showroom. That shows how connected they are as a group and connected to the e&s family and of course the infrastructure that JB brings to that.

Bosch display

“To Dan and his team your harmony and unity will show off to the customers what a great experience e&s can provide. You should be so proud of the journey you have been on and thank you for the time and patience for learning what we do at e&s – I am sure there is more to learn – so be patient as it will come. Have fun in this store, as I think we have created something very special – and congratulations on the sales we have made so far.”

Electrolux display

Sinclair has confirmed a small number of ultra premium brands traditionally represented within other e&s retail showrooms have decided not to participate within the new Epping store.

“A few brand partners have decided not to go into this store. We have no issues with our partners, but ultimately they have questioned whether or not the e&s brand stretches for their products into these types of stores that are located on the fringe of the e&s core customer demographic.

Smeg display

“The one thing that people under-estimate when they look at e&s is that we take a normal client and we help them understand their needs so perfectly by letting them know what’s available and then we recommend so succinctly the perfect match for their needs. To us, the demographic is not as important as our ability to showcase great brands and then have absolutely super staff who are experts in product knowledge developing deep relationships with our customers and curating the right products to suit their needs.

Asko display

“I look forward to demonstrating that the e&s brand stretches to this location. Ultimately this is not South Yarra, Brighton, Glen Iris, Malvern or Chadstone – we are sitting in Epping.

Our first customers today were a couple that bought a fridge, a washer, a dryer and a freezer and they said they would have liked to have bought from us previously, but the local store was at least 40 minutes away. They live 20 minutes from here and could see we are a quality retailer and they wanted to shop with us because our experience is going to be better. We are now within a 20 minute radius of a whole bunch of customers who want the e&s experience and they want to see a brand portfolio and how we present quality brands in a nice environment.

Siemens display

“If you think back five or six years ago when our marketing wasn’t as strong and presence of market wasn’t as visible to the consumer, a store like Epping wouldn’t have worked – but now we are in front of people on television every night as well as on the radio more prolifically. As a result we have a much stronger presence as well as the personal nature of advertising – me personally endorsing who we are and standing in people’s living rooms on the television – we have a brand that people want to associate with and there is a demand in locations that wouldn’t have been as obvious.

Neff display

We are standing in a store now wasn’t as obvious seven years ago that we should be here – but it is now bleedingly obvious to me that there are consumers that just want the e&s experience to buy their Bosch dishwasher or a Miele washing machine. What we know is that e&s will elevate the consumers through great product knowledge of customer service up the range of the supplier’s products because they want to buy better products that will service their needs better.”

JB HI-FI CEO TERRY SMART RECONFIRMS VICTORIA FOCUS FOR E&S

JB Hi-Fi CEO Terry Smart has reconfirmed the shortterm focus for e&s will remain in Victoria as the company prepares further expansion in its home state.

In an exclusive interview with Smart at the opening of the 11th e&s store at Epping in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Smart echoed sentiments from JB Hi-Fi COO Nick Wells at the e&s conference earlier this year that there is still further work planned with store rollout in Melbourne before taking on a state by state national expansion.

“The new Epping store is fantastic. This is the 11th store for e&s, but importantly the first under the new ownership structure,” Smart said.

“I think e&s resonates so strongly with Victorians – our job now is to roll out those points of presence across Victoria and this is the start of it – I couldn’t be more excited.”

“We think there is a lot of opportunity right around the state,” Smart said, without indicating in detail the number of stores or the potential locations.

Following the opening of the e&s Epping showroom in North Melbourne last week, the company has nine other showrooms in Melbourne and one showroom in Canberra.

The only other showroom on the northern side of Melbourne is located at Preston – this store was opened in February 2019.

The business has a high concentration of stores in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne with existing locations in Abbotsford, Prahran, Hawthorn, Blackburn and the flagship store in Chadstone that was opened in December 2023.

In the South East of Melbourne, e&s has a store in Moorabbin as well as a Clearance Outlet in Clayton and its warehouse and support centre in Noble Park.

In addition to the Geelong store, that is located an hour to the south from Melbourne, e&s has only one store in the western suburbs of Melbourne – Essendon – which would suggest there is more potential for additional stores in western Melbourne.

E&S PLANS 12TH STORE IN 2026 BEFORE MORNINGTON STORE IN 2027

e&s director Rob Sinclair has confirmed plans for its 12th store to open in Melbourne next year before the new-build Mornington store opens in 2027.

Sinclair has also confirmed that the Mornington store will now be 50 per cent larger than initially planned prior to the purchase of the business by JB Hi-Fi.

“We have already announced that we will be opening a store in Mornington in 2027, but we are planning to open at least one more new store between now and then,” Sinclair said.

“We have all of the infrastructure and processes for the Victorian marketplace already in place so it is easy for us to fill in the gaps in the market geographically in Melbourne.

“With the support of JB Hi-Fi under the new ownership structure, we are in a position where we have a capacity to roll out more stores. We recognise there are gaps in the metropolitan Melbourne market that we are not servicing currently. Those gaps are located both in the west and in the east of Melbourne – and potentially a little bit further from the inner city locations that we already have in place.”

“I have just seen the plans going to council for our standalone Mornington store to be constructed over the next two years. I am pleased to confirm that the JB Hi-Fi team has supported us to grow the size of that store. It was initially only going to be a 1200 square metre boutique store and it will grow to 1800 square metres – making it a major metro store in Mornington. It will have a great corner position with fantastic visibility to a major road and it will be a brilliant store for us when it opens in 2027.

“At e&s we have three store types – we have a flagship store that shows everything that we do – a good example of this is Chadstone that has 600 square metres of commercial space and then another 2500 square metres for the remainder of the retail brands that we have. These flagship stores have offices and we can meet designers and architects and meet builders for commercial and retail projects.

“Our next store type is a major metro store from 1800 square metres like the new Epping store up to 2500 square metres with a store like Preston being an outlier at 3000 square metres. Then we have our inner city boutiques that range from as small as 600 square metres up to 1000 or 1200 square metres.

“As e&s grows its retail footprint nationally around Australia, it is important that we use these three different store formats to deliver our vision.

“Before we are ready to roll out stores into other states we still have systems and processes to be fine-tuned – but that process is well underway. We want to have everything perfect so that when we do open a store in another location around Australia we have our store right, our teams right, our logistics right, our purchasing right so that we can deliver our e&s experience no matter where we are.

“We have a clear vision as a business in terms of how we service our customers. The DNA of e&s remains delightfully intact after eight months of the JB Hi-Fi ownership. That DNA is now supported by a very large business that delivers us significant infrastructure and financial support to be able to more readily and easily open stores.”

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