Beaumont Tiles heading west as demand grows

There’s greater market share to be had with research indicating 37pc of homeowners plan to renovate in the next 12 months.

Beaumont's Dean Booker: Beaumont Tiles is about to open its first store in Western Australia. Jane Dempster/The Australian.

Beaumont Tiles is poised to open its first store in Western Australia and aims to open another 50 over five years, bolstered by a pandemic tailwind that has delivered a bumper year for the Adelaide-based company.

Dean Booker, the company’s national buyer, said Beaumont currently had 117 stores nationally, with turnover including franchise outlets of about $270m.

“It’s almost doubled in about the past seven years,’’ Mr Booker said.

When Covid hit, the company was prepared for the worst, but like many in the home retail space, after a tough couple of months, business took off.

“When Covid hit we expected a significant decline,’’ he said.

“Fair to say that it’s completely the opposite. The market did go down in the first half of the year ... but from July onwards the market has been buoyant.

“Both from a renovations point of view and a new homes point of view there’s probably enough work in the pipeline to last at least another 18-24 months.’’

The company believes that a desire for easily-cleaned surfaces, where tile excels, has also been a benefit.

On the technology front, the company generates about 4000 leads a month through its online What’s My Style quiz that helps customers select tiles, but it also invested in a new tool called BeVisual Live.

This allows users to simulate what a main floor tile installation would look like by uploading a photograph of their room, with the technology showing what it would look like on completion.

Mr Booker said this technology was crucial during the harsher months of the pandemic, when people could not physically get to stores, but had longevity for consumers who were busy, or who wanted to prepare before they made their way to a physical outlet.

“It would be fair to say when Covid hit we went on a tech journey, and a reference to steroids is a good reference.

“We realised at that point in time we needed to increase the standard of technology. We’ve built internal and bought external.’’

“Last year from a virtual point of view last April we introduced the 24-hour free sampling service.’’

This service sends a full-sized tile to a customer, rather than a smaller chip as competitors do.

“We also introduced an online design consultation process where you could get online advice, and that was really more directed to the tech-savvy customer and those who are time poor.’’

Looking forward, Mr Booker said the outlook was strong.

“From a five-year plan, our strategy is to open 50 new stores and that will get us very close to the market share that we’re after.

“Next month we will have also expanded into the WA market, which makes us the only true, national tile distributor in Australia.

“With the government stimulus package, growth in new homes will be 15-20 per cent over the next two years, and add that to normal growth organically, new footprints of stores, the WA venture, it’s all looking very positive for us as a business.’’

Mr Booker said new research indicated that 37 per cent of homeowners intended to renovate their homes in the next 12 months, with an average spend of about $25,000.

“We think the next year or two is going to be quite positive for our business.”

Beaumont had also significantly increased the amount of Australian-made tile it sourced over the past year, with Mr Booker saying a combination of customers asking for local product and a desire to de-risk the supply chain were behind the move.

“There’s a massive trend of customers who walk into our shops and ask to be shown Australian-made product.’’

Mr Booker said going back a year, it probably accounted for about 35 per cent of production from its manufacturing partner National Ceramics Industries Australia.

“We’ve just gone into an agreement with them a month or two ago where we've committed to taking 50 per cent of their production, and at the same time they’ve increased their production by 10 per cent so that will give you some idea of the commitment to Australian-made,’’ he said.

Beaumont employs 360 people directly and, including the franchise network, that figure increases to about 900.

Mr Booker said the company’s market share was double the next biggest competitor.