Dealer profile Noel Leeming Video Centres

Press, 18 March 1986, Page 22

Dealer profile Noel Leeming Video Centres

By

GRAHAM PARKER

Everyone knows the Noel Leeming TV Video and Appliance Centres. . They are part of the largest appliance retailing chain in the South Island, which has always had an aggressive marketing policy and believed in buying right to stay at the top.

The managing director, Mr Noel Leeming, believes the video market will increasingly be serviced by the large companies with the ability to buy in bulk, thus passing the savings on to the public.

The Noel Leeming chain belongs in this category. It is the largest seller of video equipment in New Zealand even though its market is only in the South Island. The company turned over $lO million of video equipment last year. It maintains a stock of more than 1500 units, with a turnover of more than 1000 units a month.

The Noel Leeming chain is committed to the video market, with a range of 35 models on display. Although not all the models on display are recommended the company believes that the public should have as wide a choice as possible. The trained staff will give as much assistance as possible and will recommend a model to suit a buyer’s needs. With the buying power the company has, it always has a special deal at unbeatable prices — it now has excellent deals on models in the Hitachi, JVC and Sharp ranges. Expansion is the name of the game. Noel Leeming already has stores in Nelson, Blenheim, Timaru, Dunedin, Oamaru, and Rangiora, as

well as Christchurch. The next move is north to Auckland and Manakau City where the company already has sites, and several other North Island sites are being looked at. The company also offers an excellent backup service, the largest in New Zealand. If Leemings sell it Leemings backs it.

The video section in the largest shop, the Discount Warehouse, in Colombo Street, is being redeveloped to provide New Zealand’s best display of video equipment and accessories. The group is careful when buying, checking products out before displaying them.

The Discount Warehouse’s resident video specialist, Bob Greeson, finds the market a changing one. "It’s hard to predict market changes even only a month ahead.” He believes that the future of video is in hi-fi stereo or digital audio on pre-recorded movies.

Rick Anderson controls the video libraiy, which is the largest in Christchurch, with a membership of 13,000, and a choice of more than 3500 titles. He believes in person service. With a library this size it would be easy to just process members, but, today, personal service is one of the keynotes of success and Anderson is installing a computer to record members’ preferences and other data that will help library staff give service, second to none.

Security is a problem and he has gone to great pains to ensure that all information given on

i membership applications is kept strictly secure and confidential. Only two people have access to the information — the specially coded computer operator and Anderson himself.

He feels the same as other successful library operators about new releases — the material that has been released since late last year is absolutely top grade. He can see the small distributors pulling out of the game because the days of the B or C grade movie are gone. The public are becoming very choosy and are now sticking to movies that are well-known or have wellknown actors. This is where the future lies.