Making shoes their sole devotion

WHILE retailers are lamenting their lot, Graeme Hayes says staying in step with his customers has been the secret to his success.

WHILE retailers are lamenting their lot, Graeme Hayes says staying in step with his customers has been the secret to his success.

Mr Hayes and wife, Kerry, have been operating a shoe shop in Benalla for 18 years.

Despite the lingering effects of the global financial downturn, the rise of the internet and consumer hesitancy, their store Sole Step is bucking the trend.

"We try to do things a little differently," he said.

"When you go to a mall in the city all the shoes in the shoe stores look the same to me."

He said people came from far and wide to buy shoes at the Bridge St store, 200km from Melbourne.

He said over the past three years the business had grown 30 per cent, the biggest growth in the year the GFC hit.

As a small independent, Sole Step can't compete on price but it can offer select brands.

"We are just discounting now but the big shops have been discounting since the start of the season," he said.

He said a lot of the niche shoe brands only sold to independents such as Sole Step. I Love Billy, Django & Juliette, Gamin, Naot, Neo and Ziera are among the brands stocked by the shop.

Mr Hayes said getting customer service just right was important.

"When people come into the shop, we don't follow them around," he said.

"We wait to see how they want to be dealt with.

"We make sure anyone who comes into this shop goes out happy."

Mr Hayes said people wanted their shopping to be a good experience.

"If someone wants to try on 10 or 20 pairs of shoes we are happy to help them but at bigger shops you might get a 16-year-old who doesn't want to do that," he said.

Mr Hayes has been named a Small Business Hero as part of this year's Victorian Small Business Festival photographic exhibition. The emphasis on the exhibition, running at Federation Square, is celebrating innovative retailers.

Mr Hayes said his wife was the real hero of the business. He said she had a great eye for styles, trends and buying.

The couple are making the trip to Melbourne tomorrow for the Regional Shopping and Destination Fair.

He said they would be giving away sample bags with discount vouchers and other goodies.

He said although the population of Benalla was just under 9000 many people from the much larger Wangaratta made the 40km trip to shop there.

Mr Hayes said the positioning of the shop in the main street, opposite the post office and near a Target Country, was important.

He said although the shop catered for the whole family the reality was that men did not buy as many shoes as women.

"A man might buy a pair of shoes every 10 years and a woman might buy 10 pairs a year," he said.