By Carolyn Webb
He’s just six years old, but Lachlan Tratt has been excited about going to school for years, says his father, David Tratt.
Each time they pass Kew East Primary, “he’ll point to it and say, ‘I’m going there’,” David says.
Lachlan Tratt, 6, in his Kew East Primary School uniform, pictured with proprietor Francis Stewart at the Bob Stewart store in Kew.Credit: Wayne Taylor
But before starting prep on January 29, Lachlan recently experienced another rite of passage: trying on his first school uniform at the Bob Stewart Kew store.
Lachlan’s parents, David and Monica, got uniforms at Bob Stewart as children.
“It’s an institution,” David says of the store, which is celebrating 100 years in business, owned by one family.
The eponymous Bob Stewart founded it as a menswear store in 1925, in one room in High Street, Kew.
Monica Tratt holding photos of herself as a child in Korowa Anglican Girls’ School and Kew East Primary School uniforms bought at Bob Stewart stores, pictured with her son Lachlan, 6.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The business has sprawled across two floors and into a chain of 25 shops under the Bob Stewart and recently acquired Noone brands, which stock uniforms for 400 schools.
Times are good, but the current boss, Stewart’s grandson Francis Stewart, said the business nearly folded during the COVID-19 pandemic, when sales plunged during lockdowns and it was running out of funds to buy stock.
Inspired by his ancestors’ resilience, Francis hung on.
His grandmother, Annie Stewart, ran the store after her husband, founder Bob, died in 1933.
Annie Stewart, who took over after her husband died, and her son, Bob jnr, pictured in 1947 in the Kew store.
Annie’s sister, Mary Flynn, helped raise the Stewarts’ son, Bob jnr, then aged two.
Not only was it the Depression, but some suppliers wouldn’t work with Annie because she was a woman.
But Annie was astute, determined and tough, Francis says. Annie, Mary and Bob jnr lived in a two-bedroom flat above the shop. Young Bob slept on the balcony.
Bob jnr worked in the store from age 14, and the business flourished.
Bob Stewart jnr with customers at the Kew store in the 1980s.
The switch from menswear to uniforms began by chance in the early 1960s, when a retiring Kew retailer offered the Stewarts his stock for four schools.
It proved a boon: uniforms now comprise 90 per cent of sales, with the rest being menswear and women’s casual wear.
When asked how the business has survived for 100 years, Francis says: “By constantly changing.”
“You’ve got to keep evolving, keep growing. If you stay the same, you are dead,” he says.
Francis Stewart, now the proprietor of Bob Stewart, pictured in the shop in 2000.Credit: Dominic O’Brien
About 15 years ago, the business switched from local to mostly overseas manufacturing, with some items still made in Australia.
About 10 per cent of sales are online, although in-store sales are paramount. Bob jnr, who died in 2021 at the age of 90, believed good customer service was crucial for success.
“Dad would say: ‘If customers have a good experience, they’ll come back,’” Francis says.
For the store’s centenary, there will be a staff dinner. Special ties, socks, scarves and hats will also be made.
Members of Kew Football Club pictured outside the Bob Stewart shop in Kew in 1926, the year after it opened as a menswear shop. Shop founder Bob Stewart snr is at far right, holding his hat.
Francis, who has four children, inherited a strong work ethic and had just one week off over Christmas.
“We need to find schools that start in June,” he jokes.
The Kew store’s biggest day of 2025 will be January 28, just before school starts, when staffing numbers rise from 10 to 35.
“It will be packed. It’s organised chaos,” Francis says.
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