eKourier April 2009

Kourier Kennards r

April 2009

KSS Opens its Doors to Chatswood

January this year saw the opening of our 69th Kennards Self Storage Centre located at 1-7 Mann Street Chatswood. In the making since 2007, with Stage 1 and 2 boasting 484 units and potential for a further 250, and upward of 20 outdoor and undercover parking areas for boat and automobile, this centre is equipped for every storers need. With driveway access that runs completely through the building with high ceiling height allowing large container trucks to drive in with ease. This new purpose built storage facility can only be a positive addition to our portfolio. Artarmon – Frederick St. I welcomed my move to Manager of Chatswood on the 5th of January this year. Matt Lees joined the Kennards Team last year welcoming his move from Artarmon - Frederick St as well, to Assistant Manager at Chatswood. This move came with many new opportunities and challenges for Matt and myself. The skills and habits we acquired in our previous jobs with KSS enabled us to take advantage of these. The first things I noticed working here was the location of the building. Besides the continuing construction, it was quiet, and not a lot of attention had been paid to our opening. The momentum of an established facility didn’t exist. This was one of the challenges we faced coming into the job, as the facility was always considered a “destination location”. The facility is not visible from a main road, yet is centrally located, close to the Chatswood CBD. Simply put, we weren’t on the map yet. We had the right postcode, but had to generate the interest ourselves. The feeling was that we really had to get out and push to get this thing going, and that’s what we’ve been doing. The marketing campaign began with 42,000 residential and 8,000 business mail outs to the surrounding suburbs. In conjunction with this, we have been getting out as much as possible with brochures and postcards to the small businesses, large residential apartment The task of opening our new Chatswood centre began as I was still managing

In this issue KSS Opens its Doors to Chatswood New Team Member Profiles Spotlight on... KSS BLOG Goes Live Improving Our Customer Intimacy Through E-mail Victorian Bush Fire Relief Helping HUG The Footpath Library The Significance of Online Presence Customer Feedback EMU has Arrived Habit 7 - Sharpen The Saw Property Development Pipeline Springvale’s New Chevy! Kennards Exposed Congratulations Next issue Deadline: 3rd July 2009 Please send contributions to the editor Editor: Sharon Dux email: sharon@kss.com.au Ph: 02 9764 9801 Distribution: 17th July 2009 Upcoming events 25/04 - ANZAC Day KSS closed 5/05 - Labour Day (QLD) PH hours 1/06 - Queens Birthday (NZ) KSS closed 8/06 - Queens Birthday ( NSW, VIC, QLD, ACT,SA) PH hours 8-22/07 - Performance Appraisals - all regions

buildings, retirement homes, and competitors!

Raising awareness in a proactive way led to the idea of a sausage sizzle and open day in league with the Rotary Club of Chatswood. We invited every recommended removalist on our list to visit the facility on this occasion. It was also an important gesture to our neighbours and the community. It gave the business a more personal face, not just another good looking building façade. This really has been a vital part of the process. Having donated a small storage space to the Rotary Club, we are now sponsors for every BBQ they do in the community. We have aligned ourselves with The Chamber of Commerce, increased our relevance to online search engines, and relabelled the trailer with directional signage. The huge banner on our Artarmon - Pacific Hwy facility is up, the picket signs and trailer are out on the roadside and we are hitting a solid pace with enquiries. Not just people with current storage needs are coming in; we are also a drop off point at the moment fo r the collection of cook books for the Victorian bush fire victims. The next item of the agenda is to donate space for local school P+F committees, as a drop off point for their fundraising endeavours. This idea came from Brookvale, and will be an important way to get our face and place on the map. Matt and I are enjoying the new centre and its challenges. It is a rewarding feeling to watch the centre start to grow and we look forward to a positive future at Kennards self Storage Chatswood. Jim Kennard

(L to R) Chatswood Rotary, Jim Kennard and Matt Lees at the opening of KSS Chatswood. KSS and Rotary raised $500 in donations

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Team Member Profiles

Rachel Prudden Centre Manager Three Kings NZ

Carina Morrison Accounts Payable THQ Career background: Accounts,

Career background: Hospitality Industry, managed 2 restaurants and worked in New

Accounts Clerk/Receptionist Marital status: Boyfriend Any children? Not yet Hobbies/interests: Play snooker, watch soccer, gardening and I love cooking Do you play any sport or have any special talents? Enjoy doing my scrap-booking with photos Favourite book: The Secret Favourite movie: Alpacino - Scarface Favourite restaurant/food: Italian, Thai, fried chicken and homemade dishes Where did you grow up? Edensor Park - out West Any pets? One dog named Shorty Favourite holiday: South America - Peru. Loved the food and the people, also very cheap! I will be back soon!

York for three years in a bar/restaurant Marital status: Long term relationship Any children? Joshua who is 6. Very good at playing rough and tumbles! Hobbies/interests: Spending time with my family, music, singing and dining out Do you play any sport or have any special talents? I don’t play sport, but my son keeps me active and I do try to get to the gym Favourite book: Anne Rice - Mayfair Witches Favourite movie: Favourite restaurant/food: Fish of the Day Where did you grow up? Tauranga, with my Mum and 2 sisters Any pets? No Favourite holiday destination: New York, Corromandel and Spain

Spotlight on... Kirrawee

History KSS Kirrawee is located deep in the heart of Sutherland Shire. (Known to the locals as “The Shire”). Just 18kms south of Sydney Airport, 8kms to Cronulla and the beaches and 3kms to the Royal National Park, the second oldest national park in the world. The Shire is at the end of the Southern Suburbs of Sydney and the gateway to Illawara South Coast and Wollongong. Kirrawee is a green and leafy suburb and we are privileged to be surrounded by large native trees of all kinds. We are located in an industrial/residential area. The premises in Bath Road was previously a frozen fruit and vegetable business known as Chefs Pride. Kennards acquired this property and it was converted to storage in stages from October 1993. A further 156 units were added in 2003 giving over 4,200 square metres of storage space.

The Team The Team comprises of Myself, Mike Howard as Centre Manager since July 1997 and David Courtney (Assistant Manger) who moved from Camperdown KSS in June 2008. We are proud to be a training hub for new entrants to KSS and help provide them with a sound start to their new careers.

the addition of some new neighbours like an Auto Carwash and Truck Rental business we are now on a busy road. Bunnings are also erecting one of their largest hardware sites on our corner. Site Features We have an occupancy of 92% and have maintained a high occupancy for years, with our customers enjoying great features like our store presentation, 24 hour access, large loading areas and our tea and coffee lounge.

We have one competitor only in the area. We have a friendly mix of both commercial and domestic customers here. The high number of commercial customers sees us very busy with receipt and dispatch every day. We are also kept on our toes with a daily regime of cleaning/maintenance to keep up the high standard of presentation.

(L to R) David Courtney (Assistant Manager) and Mike Howard (Centre Manager)

This used to be a quiet area but with

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KSS BLOG Goes Live!

“In pursuit of our 3 Year Plan - we identified that we needed to generate more relevant and new ways to attract people to our web site” web site more appealing to internet search engines and improves our ranking. The Blog already holds a great deal of new information about how we have assisted in helping people effected by the Victorian bush fires, about the opening of our new sites at Chatswood and Hoxton Park as well as more detailed stories on things such as wine storage and industry fact sheets. Have a look at this link to see the latest information right now: http://www.kss. com.au/blog/ Stay tuned and up to date on what is happening at KSS through our Blog. As different media become more prevalent on the web you never know what might appear to help anyone interested in storage or KSS. How easy could it be for our customers to view a short video on what self storage is all about? We see some potentially powerful ideas and great advantages with an effective email communication strategy. The dynamic, flexible and interactive nature of e-mail is very strong. Latest e-mail capture ratios show the company average was 64% in June ’08, grew to 68% in January ’09 and February has slipped to 63%. Your centre e-mail capture ratio is now visible every month on page 6 of the End of Month Report. We would like to see this exceed 70% and even 80% on a regular basis, and appreciate your support in this endeavour. Sam Kennard WHAT WILL THE BLOG CONTAIN? WHAT COULD THE FUTURE HOLD?

KBL G

the term weblog) is a type of web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse- chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

At the beginning of the year you will have noticed the launch of the KSS Blog. A new feature on our web site containing information (posts) about KSS, what we are doing or are involved in and what is happening to our business and our sites.

WHAT IS A BLOG?

WHY HAVE A BLOG AT KSS?

According to Wikipedia, a reliable and incontrovertible source on the internet (sic) - A blog (a contraction of

In pursuit of our 3 Year Plan - we identified that we needed to generate

more relevant and new ways to attract people to our web site. As good as any web site is (especially a commercial one such as our own) they don’t always have up to the minute information and news that can generate extra traffic on search engines such as Google. As more and more people shift their news and information gathering habits over to the internet the more relevant it is to have this current information immediately available for them. The Blog is an ideal place to put these press releases and information so that they are easily found.

The fresh content makes our

Darryl Hodgson

Improving Our Customer Intimacy Through Email

We are growing quite excited about the possibilities available to us with building stronger relationships with our customers through e-mail. There have been some recent initiatives in cross promoting that have had some modest success. We will continue to learn how to execute these better as a business. It is apparent that our success in this space depends on how we operate in the entire customer interaction chain. Firstly, obtaining an e-mail address in the first place is essential.

Secondly, data quality is vital. We need an active e-mail address that is accurately entered in to StorMan. Thirdly, arranging effective, meaningful and engaging messages will make the relationship with the customers much more intimate. This will improve repeat and referral business and help us to grow occupancy. Finally, maintaining an ongoing relationship after people leave us will further assist our brand. Equally, we need to be respectful of peoples desire to opt out and cease being contacted by us.

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Spotlight on... Browns Plains History

convenience. We also installed eco friendly under ground water tanks for watering gardens and window washing. The Team Our team consists of myself; Sandra Shaw (Manager) formally from Chermside & Milton and Sue Jones (Assistant Manager) formally from West End. We both enjoy the surroundings of the new centre, with a spacious office and plenty of merchandise and packing material on display. Sandra Shaw

with new commercial and residential areas presently being built which is evident as Browns Plains opened in late May 2008, and our occupancy rate

Early in the 1960’s the Browns Plains site was the only general store in the area, you would drive your tractor, truck or old valiant down to get your petrol, milk and paper, and it was the only place to collect your mail. In the late 1980’s Neville Kennard purchased several blocks of land and after years of seeking a rezoning, in January 2007 Sam Kennard was finally permitted to develop the land into a self storage centre. Kennards Self Storage at Browns Plains is situated at 3447 Mt Lindesay Highway which gives the centre great exposure sitting adjacent to some of the top businesses in the area; such as the Greenbank RSL, Holden Dealership and the main Grand Plaza Shopping Centre. KSS offered community support with twelve months free storage, Kennards Boxes and accessories to victims of the recent Victorian bush fires. In excess of 2000 boxes were donated to victims directly, Pet Associations and other people and businesses donating their time to gather donated goods to send to Victorian bush fire victims. 25 storage units with up to 12 months storage have also been donated to victims to store their personal belongings and donated goods in until they can rebuild their homes. Over the next 12 months, in excess of $90,000 will be donated in boxes and storage space. Positive feedback thanking Kennards for their generosity and kindness has been received. Thank you to all the centres that went out of their way to help these people start to rebuild their lives again. Browns Plains is a fast expanding area

is presently 37%. Site Features

We are a purpose built centre with three buildings, the first consisting of an office/ showroom with units upstairs. The two other buildings have great driveway access and units on both ground and upper levels. In total we have 497 Units, with room to expand further to approximately 800 units. Our site also offers outdoor storage for boats, RV’s, cars and trailers. The centre has a complete drive around circuit with access points to all areas, with under cover canopy’s for customers unloading their goods. Browns Plains has 24 hr 7days a week access, for our customer’s

Sandra Shaw Manager of Browns Plains KSS

KSS Supports The Victorian Bush Fire Relief

Connie Fehlau from Equestherapy gives thanks to KSS for their donation of boxes and tape to get donated pet products to their destination in Victoria safely. “Bob and David form Narabeen were lovely and supportive,” Connie says. There were 107 boxes packed for 4 Paws and Triple R Equine Wellfare and more, filled with pet food, animal first aid, rugs and halters, plus many other pet products. Connie has been asked to do this again in the future and KSS will happily help out.

Nigel Spragg from Vermont donated a unit to an aged couple who lost their home to the fires in Marysville and needed space to store clothes and goods that had been donated to them. They were very grateful. Mr Jones a Pastor of St Peters, which was a church in Marysville, wanted to thank Sam for his wonderful offer of assistance.

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Helping the Community

Cate Altamura Founder and Director of HUG (Helping Ugandan Generations) recently contacted KSS for help. HUG collects books, toys, and clothing for families in Uganda. KSS have helped Cate at HUG before with the supply of boxes and tape and were happy to help out again. Cate says “ On behalf of HUG we would like to thank KSS for their kind donation of boxes and tape”.

Reverend Stephen Holmes of the Whittlesea and Kinglake Anglican Church would like to thank Kennards for their support of the Victorian bush fires. “Thank you for your generous support of our efforts to respond to the bushfire tragedy and rebuild our Kingslake Parish and community,” Reverend Stephen says. “We are working hard to help our friends, neighbours and community members who’ve been so terribly impacted by this disaster.”

Sarah Garnett from the Footpath Library came to Kennards in February asking for further support of her charity. We currently give storage space to the Footpath Library at our Brookvale centre where they store all their donated books which go towards a library for the homeless. Sarah told us she also wanted to help out the victims of the Victorian bush fires by supplying books to them. Sarahs plan is to send over 1000 books to Victoria and in the long run help to rebuild a Primary School Library.

The Significance of Online Presence During Momentum 08’ it became clear that KSS needed to harness and tap into the emerging online opportunities by innovating the customer experience and adapting to the preferences for the growing number of online customers. Marketing on the Internet is not really a choice anymore, but has almost become a necessity in today’s marketplace. More than 300 million people worldwide are online today, making choices and decisions around the clock on products and services in a market that is open 24 hours a day. Today, more and more customers are making purchases through the internet, consumers are snapping up the convenience factor and the ability to make quick informed decisions, favouring the web over traditional touch points. With this in mind, we have and will continue to strategically position KSS online, tuning, exploring, expanding our brand, our presence and most importantly the customer experience. 1. Development of the KSS web site - enhancing the visual appeal and positive first impression 2. Online Interactivity - personalising the customer experience by integrating communication and account tools 3. Recognising that Customers want options - expectations have changed, and customers expect the businesses they deal with to provide them with online options 4. Electronic Commerce - Internet commerce trends are compelling, the ability to complete a transaction end to end is now a requirement 5. Online Marketing - The most pervasive online marketing techniques being used today are online advertising 6. Customer Service - delivering superior Internet customer service delivers competitive edge 7. Search Engine Optimisation - although considered a science its really quite simple, the higher your rank in a search engine the greater the competitive edge Recognising and harnessing these opportunities ensures competitive edge and point of difference, their development offers an exciting new age and direction, all whilst bringing us closer to our customers and streamlining our operation. Jeff Xanthos How do we do this and what will shape the direction we take?

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EMU has Arrived

Customer Feedback “Our experience was excellent. Trying to get good service during our move was a disaster. The Kennards Self Storage experience was a shock as your staff were friendly, accommodating and very helpful. Thank you Vermont, for an excellent service.” “Staff at Virginia were very courteous, helpful and efficient. Making our storage solution happen very easily. Reasonable rates and excellent storage and centre layout. We would highly recommend!” “Very friendly staff at Chermside, we got a great price. It was a convenient location and we were able to buy boxes there and borrow a trailer. It was great that we could start and end our contract at any time. It was a secure centre and the spaces were clean. Thanks.” “5 stars - excellent service, great atmosphere with music in the background, whilst struggling to unload boxes! The staff were absolute gems.”

At Kennards we constantly strive to search for innovations that will enhance the customers self storage experience and create a point of difference that will keep us ahead of our competitors.

Covey’s final habit in a series of seven brings us back to each of the previous six unifying them into the synergetic whole. In this way, it continually reinvigorates us with the idea of balance and synergy. We can follow the thread of this thought from the beginning when he introduces the idea of a P/PC balance. This is where it becomes fully realised. I think in a way this is where he wants us to be, always “with the end in mind”. This time, instead of a lawn mower, we’re given the image of a man sawing a tree in the woods. He probably doesn’t have the end in mind, because he’s so caught up in trying to chop down the tree that he forgets to sharpen the saw. He is too busy to find the time to even remember what his greatest asset is. That is, he loses himself in the work, and not in a good way. Covey’s calling for us to take the time, to step back once in a while and think The EMU – “Easy Moving Unit” is an oversized moving van available for customers to use when moving in and out of storage, or as an added value service during their stay with us. The EMU is purposely designed to make moving easy, with features like automatic drive, large load capacity, low base with side and rear access to name just a few. The van is available to rent by the hour

for those customers who would like to avoid the 4hr minimum hire by most vehicle hire companies, making the EMU very cost effective for those short trips. The EMU innovation is on trial at Warriewood, Marrickville and Miranda. Darren Marshall about what we’re doing. He also wants us to recognise what we have and the things that make us who we are. These things can be broken down into four categories and we can cultivate them with the seven habits. The seventh habit brings us back to each, affirming these with equal balance to find renewed strength in life. In terms of the physical, he recommends that we exercise properly for 30 minutes, every other day, no matter what. This will help strengthen our Habit 1 muscles of proactivity, and help us in every other pursuit by simply feeling better. The spiritual dimension is an important aspect to recognise, especially in today’s world. It is recommended we take some time to invest in ourselves. This is the domain of the private victory. These battles do rage silently within, and often without our knowing. Here we must set ourselves up for

Habit 7 – Sharpen The Saw

success before we can find it in the world.

The mental dimension again can also suffer if we don’t look after it. Here, the question needs to be asked: “What do we reflect to others about themselves? And how much does that reflection influence there lives?” Then we’re able to sharpen the saw . Jim Kennard

Customer Feedback “This is just a quick note to thank

Andrea from your Customer Care Centre for her excellent service and diligence in finding a storage solution that suited my needs. Andrea was polite, helpful and efficient and having called other storage providers I really appreciate that the process was so quick and easy. Andrea should be commended for her excellent customer service.”

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Property Development Pipeline Upgrades, Expansions and New Development Chatswood - We have now transformed Chatswood from a crusty old bread factory into a shiny new state of the art self storage centre. Stage 1 is now complete and fully operational. Stage 2 is also complete however we have only fitted out the ground floor and left the two top floors for future storage fitout.

Before

After

Newcastle - The transformation for Newcastle is now complete. We have gone from front door access at the rear lane to now having a genuine retail shop front on the main road into the Newcastle CBD.

Before

After

Springvale’s New Chevy!

Purchased by KSS Springvale site owners John and Richard Stevens this classic 1929 4 litre Chevrolet has adopted the Kennards branding as a marketing concept. Not for customer use but purely to be utilised as an advertising tool, placed at the front entrance of KSS Springvale. When Springvale is fully developed the Chevy will treat customers to site tours around the centre!

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Congratulations!

In memory of Matoa Bell’s (CCC) little boy Jackson Bell.

22 November 2005 - 4 March 2008

It only takes a second to lose someone, but an eternity to forget them, JakJak you will be in our hearts and memories forever. xoxo

Congratulations to Adam (Miranda KSS) and Mel Snowdon on their marriage. Adam and Mel where married at Scots College War Memorial Chapel on the 21st March.

We find Kennards everywhere!

(Left) Trent Randel form Fortitude Valley’s first born son on his first day of school. Note the school colours, familiar!!!

Congratulations to Sathish (THQ) and Geetha Gopinath on the birth of their new born baby Krishna. Krishna was born on Friday 31st October 2008, weighing 3.2kg and being 51cm long.

(Right) Kennards Panorama recently had “The Tour Down Under” cycle past their front door on the 21st January. This is the only Cycling Pro Tour event held outside of Europe .

Congratulations to Neil Mason (Hoxton Park KSS) and Catherine Leet on the birth of their daughter. Born Sunday the 29th April, mother and baby are doing well.

Andrew Kirkham - NZ Operations Manager, Hard at work!

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do” John Wooden

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