Darren & Jess Wood

Our “Coffee With” this month is with local business owners Darren and Jess Wood who own Albany Eco House and Solahart Albany & Great Southern. Since taking over the Albany Solahart branch 5 years ago they have expanded the business significantly and extended their offerings into other areas of environmentally friendly product options. We sat down with them to discuss their successes and passion for their business.

History

Darren grew up in the Margaret River area and started his plumbing trade at just 15. His Dad had the installation contract for the South-West area of WA for Solahart and so he has a long history with the company.

Jess remembers Darren telling her only a week after they met that he wanted to own and run his own Solahart business one day. That opportunity came up a few years later while they were living and running a plumbing business in Woodanilling. The Albany Solahart branch had come up for sale and they knew this was the time to make their dream a reality. It worked out so well too as Jess had grown up in Albany and her family was here, so it was easy for them to move down and take over the business.

When they took over the business the branch ran like most Solahart branches do where it focused mainly on solar hot water and power and dabbled a little in woodfire sales. Their plan was always to expand the business to offer a wider range of products and services and they started this as soon as they took over. The Solahart business can only sell Solahart products and so this is where the second part of their business – Albany Eco House was born.

Albany Eco House

Moving down from the farm where they mostly bought in bulk and had to remove their own rubbish, they found that living in town where your rubbish is collected weekly you can quickly become complacent and not consider the amount of additional waste you are creating.

With this kind of background Darren and Jess knew they wanted to offer a range of products and services that were environmentally friendly and sustainable. They implemented this in two ways – by offering a full range of energy and heating options for the home including solar energy, solar water heating and woodfire options as well as starting to offer their range of eco-friendly home and living products to assist people to live more sustainably with less waste!

While the eco-friendly product offering started small and was driven by a personal passion they also found that this was a great way to increase foot traffic in to the store particularly during the “off-season” for people looking at solar and heating. This portion of the business has grown significantly with a wide range of products now offered from self-refill products such as laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid, to natural cleaning products and utensils and a wide range of locally made offerings such as soaps and waxi wraps.

Running the Business

When I asked Darren and Jess what their plan was for the business their idea is to “sacrifice today for a better tomorrow”. They had a clear plan - work really hard in the first 10 years of owning the business, continue to grow and build a solid team to back you up to allow you to step back from time-to-time.  When you visit the business, you can see this plan in motion. The whole team works together and everyone has their role.  One example of this is Tess who has taken over the sourcing and product range for their Eco products. With attention being required in other areas of the business Darren and Jess realised they needed someone who could manage that area of the business and Tess was the perfect fit as she was really passionate about that way of living and ensures when researching products that they are not only eco-friendly but are responsibly sourced with as little packaging and waste as possible in the production line.

In addition to this, with Darren’s 30 years of experience they have developed systems which means that their quoting and service offering is accurate 99% of the time. They are able to set pricing and deliver that pricing by really understanding what is required and how long it will all take. This has meant customers may come in to just purchase a woodfire but instead are able to decide on what they want and have it delivered and installed all by the same business because they have been told upfront how much it will all be.

This has led to them developing a strong reputation with customers but also other local businesses. While their business is predominantly established housing they have been able to expand in to new housing by building relationships with local builders and helping them out with queries they may have which can lead to future work.

Reflection & Looking Forward

As we were nearing the end of our interview I asked whether they would do anything differently if they did it all again and their response was perfect – not really! With the business growing as fast as it is they did the best with the information they had at the time and implemented processes based on this. The issue with that level of growth means that processes that may have worked 6 months ago are now redundant. They did the best they could as they went along.

They got help along the way by external consultants if they needed it which assisted greatly. One area in particular for this was branding & marketing. Establishing a brand and style guide for the business has meant that across their platforms they have established a strong presence and the business is recognisable across its different areas. Social media has been another big learning curve but they said its such a vital part to their business now as it’s a free tool to advertise as long you are willing to put in the time. All of this work has meant that they have caught the eye of Solahart at a national level who are interested in their business model and has led to them winning awards and being asked to join expert forums to share their experiences.

Looking to the future they plan to continue working hard and expanding the business. Their son is nearing the end of high school and will start his apprenticeship with them soon making him the third generation working for Solahart. They also hope to grow their product range and are always open to customer suggestions and requests!

Visit

If you’d like to go and check out their amazing product range then head to their premises at
9 Minna Street, Centennial Park or check out their online store at www.albanyecohouse.com.au