| Gibbo's Auto Spares |
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 Gibbo's has been providing quality service for more than 20 years now and it's not hard to understand why when you listen to the owner Garry and his business philosophy. Garry, the tall good looking one, and some of the Lismore team  : Tell me how Gibbo's started?Garry: On the 1 July 1986 we bought an existing business and had two employees and the guy I bought it from told me that we'd never turn over a million dollars. But I proud to say we've kind of done that a few times over.  :So how many people work with you here at Gibbo's? Garry: We just employed a new person yesterday, which was the first anniversary of our shop in Mullumbimby, making it our third employee there. So that makes a total of twenty five. Four in Ballina, three in Casino, three in Mullum, that makes fifteen here in Lismore.  : Wow! From a business that employed a couple of people to supporting a lot of local families, that's a big deal?Garry: It's really quite a lot of responsibility, in that I'm responsible for so many people and their dependents.  : So have you always been into cars, auto spares?Garry: No. I was a milko. I was retrenched from a business when I was 24 and I'd just bought a house about three or four months beforehand so we had to sell that and I bought a milk run in Casino. I was a milko for 9 years and then I bought two bus runs, school bus runs. One into Eureka school and one into Clunes school. We had three buses, three small buses on the go and had that for about three or four years and then this business came up. My real aim was to plant macadamias on our land, but the buses weren't big enough to give me capital to plant the macadamias even though I had the time and this business on paper showed that it was going to make money. So I thought I'd be able to plant the maccas and guess what, twenty years later I still haven't got them!  : So what made you go into this business, into autos? Did you have a love of cars or was it just a good opportunity?Garry: I didn't know what a ball joint was. When I left school I worked for 18 months at a tractor dealership and tractors don't have ball joints or strut inserts or shock absorbers and I vowed and declared I'd never do that again because I thought it was kind of degrading when all my peers from school were going off to Uni and Teachers College and stuff like that. I fell ill just at the time when I got a scholarship to go teaching but I didn't want to do that. So I just kept working and just stayed here. Haven't moved since.  Wide range of products  : So starting in 1986, you have just celebrated 20 years. Did you have a bit of a party?Garry: No, just another day. Another day at the office.  : But to go from such small beginnings, you must be proud to be supporting a lot of local employees, you know, really looking after them.Garry: Yes. The other thing is my eldest son is now working the business and he's responsible for the bulk oil side of the business. He spent time in the corporate world in Coles, so he moved away then he came back in, which is a good idea because he brings in new ideas and different ways of thinking on running the business and looking at new areas.  : A different perspective is always good for business, keeps it fresh. But good to see it in family hands. You may get to plant those maccas one day? Garry: No, I'm too old now. Farming is my relief now. I work five days here then I switch off on the weekend. It's marvellous how many problems you can solve by driving a tractor or using a chain-saw.  : You must be very proud that Gibbo's is still thriving, still getting support from locals, despite having big chain stores in town?Garry: It does make you feel good. I never lose sight of the fact that our customers and our employees are the business. It's not me. I just pay the cheques and the wages and stuff like that. It's the staff that keep it successful, like the delivery person because. They are at the coal face talking to the customers. Gibbo's is not run from the top down, it's from the bottom up which is the way it a good business should work.  : Great philosophy. And working well. With such a fantastic range of products here, you would be keen to grow the retail side, getting people to support a local business rather than go to a big department store?Garry: Yes, we are a little disadvantaged in two of our shops; this one and in Mullumbimby because we're kind of in the industrial area. But we do know that people who come here or there in Mullum are potential customers; they're not just lookers filling in time, they're there for a purpose and mostly we fulfil their needs. A lot more people walk out happy then disappointed because we can't help them.  : So what do you see in the next ten, twenty years for Gibbos? Obviously you'd like to still be here?Garry: Yeah, when I get sick of talking with people and doing the job I'm doing, I've got other avenues to go to. But at the moment I'm quite happy and with my son we're strategising into other areas. The way I see it, we have this broad group of people who know us and deal with us and we don't actually have to sell them cars parts. There's other things, that if we have space and money to fund it, we could probably branch into and we've got a ready market because they know us and trust us.  : Using your best asset which is your people, the service?Garry: Yes, nearly every day we have people come here who have a bad experience at one of our opposition and when the questions get a bit tough. When you've got a lot of product knowledge, and can answer their questions. They are the customers we pick up.  : And once they come here they keep coming back?Garry: Well hopefully, that's what we like to think. So far it seems to be working!
57 Wyrallah Road |
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