Happy new year, and may it be a great one.
Belfast Sinks Australia turns 15 years old this year, and it has been our pleasure working with you, learning from you, not only about what sink styles you want, how you are designing, but also how you want the experience to be from point of sale, delivery to after sales.
To be turning 15 means something, and it means so much in so many different ways, so if I may on our 15th birthday share a brief and rare personal insight as a thankyou, before sharing what is my favourite client installation photograph, I thankyou for reading and indeed your support, as without you we would not be here.
From the first sinks we saw come out of the kiln after 14 months of development to the first sale, which I remember so well in Australia being a double fluted apron sink, to a lovely lady in Victoria thrilled to have found her dream style at a genuine $400 dollar saving.
To the never ending hours working with what are now trusted friends and allies understanding how google indexed pages and going against what was the norm of supplying through retail outlets, believing that if we got it right we could reach our market base, one that was being kept in the dark by an old network of retailers we could offer and deliver high quality products that were demanded and made people happy.
Training staff, and seeing the excitement in the eyes of a kitchen and bathroom outsider make their first sale to a client that was genuinely excited about their purchase, understanding that sales in our business was about selling products to clients that they wanted and it was normal to have a happy voice on the phone and seeing the individual relax and grow as a person,
Expanding business and not quite getting it right, working out why and having anouther go and anouther and anouther, siting at the officfe until 3.00 a.m. and having a brain wave, trying it and watching the block remove..
Growing the range, redesigning the business from the bottom up at least 5 times to ensure we remained relevant, product wise, communication wise and price wise.
The constant that's remains is the genuine thrill I get when occasionally able to sneak back onto the phones and speak to Lola from Melbourne , Pru in Sydney , John in Forrestfiekd , Mike in Brizzy or Sarah in Adelaide, is the chat , I never tire of hearing about the renovation vision or new build plans, and everything else we talk about whilst discussing sinks, it's great.
It's been a pleasure to be able to build a great business based on manufacturing high quality fireclay sinks, with a lot of technical hard work in the back ground, but solidified by sharing a vision and having a damm good chat!
So thanks for your support , and as always look forward to working with you as your chosen new sink supplier.
Andrew Shaw
CEO
Okab Group