Burleigh Heads’ Verto Kitchens, run by Tim Banks, capitalises on growing consumer spend on new kitchens

A Gold Coast business is planning for growth, outlining plans for bigger showrooms and cutting the time it takes to install benchtops.

Verto Kitchens has been operating on the Gold Coast since 2005.

GOLD Coast business Verto Kitchens is setting the benchmark for industry growth, outlining plans for bigger showrooms and cutting the time it takes to install benchtops.

The company was founded by Tim Banks in 2005 after he moved from Adelaide to the Gold Coast.

The University of Adelaide science graduate parlayed a side gig trading shares into a career very different from what he studied.

“I made some money out of shares and did a property course and started to buy, sell and renovate property,” he said.

“That’s how it started.”

He renovated a dozen houses and units in Adelaide over four years and then made the decision, after obtaining his builder’s licence, to move to the Gold Coast.

Tim Banks has worked hard to build up Verto Kitchens in Burleigh, founded in 2005, from humble beginnings to today’s sizeable operation. Picture: JASON O’BRIEN

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Mr Banks said his first job was renovating a home in Palm Beach.

“That went well but it was quite a lot to take on for one person so then I thought let’s just do kitchens.”

He started working from his Burleigh home before finding a small factory and moving in and camping out in the attached office.

He toyed with calling the business Ferrari Kitchens, but after trouble securing the IP for the business name, Mr Banks decided to opt for Verto Kitchens.

Verto means “to turn” in Latin and it seemed an apt word for a business that aimed to “turnaround” the home kitchen into something special.

The average kitchen spend has grown to $15,000 according to Verto Kitchens’ Tim Banks.

MOMENT COAST'S NEWEST BRIDGE FINISHED

“I wanted something completely different. At that stage the name wasn’t around.”

Mr Banks said the first three or four years were difficult as he struggled to complete the ordering, quoting, assembly and installation virtually on his own. At that point it was just partial, not full, renovations of kitchens.

It wasn’t until four years later that he was able to put on his first full-time staff.

“We started doing full kitchens. We were probably doing one a week. We had one guy in the factory assembling and I would go out and install.”

The business grew to the point where five years on the business was installing four kitchens a week.

Mr Banks said they had outgrown the 220sq m factory and rented another one to do the assembly work.

He then eyed an opportunity to expand again.

“I thought I’m not getting much work up the other end of the Coast so I got a factory in Labrador for the assembly and got rid of the second Burleigh factory.”

The most recent expansion was three years ago when he opened his Bundall showroom.

“Clients come in here (to Burleigh) and say, where is your showroom? I have to say, you’re standing in it.”

Mr Banks said the plan is to increase the number of display kitchens from three to 13 at the Bundall site.

He said the biggest challenge since starting the business has been letting go of certain tasks, leaving them to staff.

“I worked myself into a position where I had to keep feeding the machine. I had all these staff but I was doing six orders a week all by myself. I did not have time to train anyone else so no one could help me. I was that proficient at what I was doing but I was working 65 hours a week. That was for the first 12 years.”

He said the lesson was to write down procedures first so as the business grows, new staff can take the pressure off. That helps when his business is now doing nine kitchen installations every week.

Kitchens have changed a lot since Mr Banks began his company.

Firstly, the amount clients spend has doubled to $15,000 and, secondly, the materials are different. Laminate benchtops are gone, replaced by stone and marble, and melamine drawers have given way to two-pac.

Mr Banks recently acquired a stone and marble cutting business, a move he hopes will cut the time it takes to install kitchens. He puts the increased focus on the kitchen down to one factor.

“I think it is all the television shows. It is about keeping up with Joneses. Clients will say, can I have the same as my friend but just a little bit bigger.”