eKourier Oct 2014

Kennards Kourier THQ Gets a New Home

October 2014

informally gather and accidentally meet up. This is where ideas emerge and problems are solved. The new office puts these two places together, similar to our previous office. We have deliberately made the office a bit raw, exposed yet refined. It borrows the ‘industrial’ feel of many of our storage properties. The colour palette uses our Brand colours in accent and feature only, which is ample for context. The open space encourages Team collabo- ration, promoting innovation and fun in the work place. We have room to grow and the space is able to accommodate more people in the future without compromising the feel of the space. In addition, at Macquarie Park we have developed a new storage centre which is a flagship for our business. We have embraced new design ideas and elevated the presentation at the centre. The move has been a success with everyone enjoying the new space and the improved environment. Visitors are always welcome too! Sam Kennard Managing Director

We have now moved THQ to our new home at Macquarie Park, which is intended to serve our needs for many decades to come. The building was originally owned and occupied by Brother International for its Australian Headquarters. We have completely remodelled the original space from its cluttered maze of enclosed office space to create a contemporary, open and vibrant office.

managed) worth over $1 billion.

The new office very much reflects our current reputation and standing, not just in our industry but the wider consumer market place too. It speaks to people and outsiders about what we are about. We are proud to be a family business and the environment intends to reflect the candour, openness and warmth of a family. We are also a market leading innovator in our industry. The design

“ The open space encourages Team collaboration, promoting innovation and fun in the workplace. ”

Our business has changed dramatically since we originally moved into Homebush in 1996. Then, we had only 16 locations and THQ consisted of just a handful of people. We now have 83 storage centres spanning the Tasman, employ over 230 people, invest $20 – $30 million a year in expansion and have assets (owned and

captures a certain professionalism but says it with a fresh, uncomplicated and creative feel. The heart of the home is the kitchen, and often the heart of any workplace is the photocopier, coffee station or water cooler. It is these places where people

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WHO’S WHO

Team Member Profiles

In this issue THQ Gets a New Home

1

Peter Backo Centre Manager - Vermont

Team Member Profiles

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10 Questions with...

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Career background: 4 years as a Courier Driver, 5 years in Sales and 13 years with Assemblies of God as a Pastor and Creative Arts Director. Any children? I have 4; Sarah 28, David 26, Bethany 22 and Jonathan 20. They all share my love of music and play a variety of instruments. Hobbies/interests: I like Golf and Fishing. I also love reading Biographies. Do you play any sport or have any special talents? I am a guitarist and played Melbournes Pubs and Clubs in my early twenties. Favourite Book: Lord of the Rings Favourite movie: Spiderman Favourite restaurant/food: Italian

Understanding DISC

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Momentum Initiatives

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Customer Feedback

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The Newest Initiative at KSS

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Be Careful What You Click

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Data Dive...

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Customer Feedback 7 NZ Expansion and Conversion 8 More Space for Fyshwick 8 Kennards Wine Storage Special Event 9 Achievement Dinner 2014 10/11 The Feeling of Good Customer Service 12 No Margin for Error... 12/13 Achievement Dinner 2014 14/15 Skillbuilder NSW 15 Spotlight on... 16 Pymble - The Next Doors to Open 17 Enriching Lives by Giving Books 18 Footys4all 18 Nevs Notes 19 Kennards Community 20 Next issue Deadline: December 5th, 2014 Please send contributions to the editor Editor: Sharon Dux Email: sharon@kss.com.au Distribution: January 16, 2015 Upcoming events 24/10 - Hawkes Bay Anniversary Day (Napier/ Onekawa /Hastings NZ) Closed 27/10 - Labour Day (NZ) Closed 4/11 - Melbourne Cup (VIC) PH Hours 6-7/11 - NET Training

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Broadmeadows, very industrial. Any pets? We have always had a dog that I can remember. Favourite holiday destinations: Anywhere there is a beach and somewhere to dangle a fishing line!

Shirley Wang Accounts Payable Officer - THQ

Career background: Payroll, HR, Business Unit Manager and Accounts Clerk. Marital Status: Single Any children? No Hobbies/interests: Relaxing at home, spending time with girlfriends, shopping with friends, day trips. Do you play any sport or have any special talents? I like to walk (especially to shop!) Flower Arranging.

Favourite Book: No particular book but look at life as a “book” that I read everyday. Favourite movie: Comic or Horror Movies. Favourite restaurant/ food: Anything that’s tasty. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Beijing, its centuried but modern with a large population, around the same as the whole of Australia. Any pets? A long time ago... Favourite holiday destinations: I like cultural places with historic stories and cultural heritage.

20/11 - SA Christmas Party 21/11 - VIC Christmas Party 28/11 - QLD Christmas Party

5/12 - Sydney/ACT Christmas Party 25/12 - Christmas Day - KSS Closed 26/12 Boxing Day - KSS Closed 1/1 - New Years Day - KSS Closed 2/1 - New Years Day Public Holiday (NZ) Closed

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WHO’S WHO

10 Questions... With Tony Vuong - NSW Operations Manager

What challenges have you come across within your life that your KSS training has helped with? Becoming a dad in January this year. Time management and multitasking has been a crucial asset at home. Understanding the circumplex…moving out of avoidance when I have to change a nappy! Does the Kennards culture and FREEDOM values make working within the Team a rewarding one? Yes definitely, a big part of our week is spent at work, when Team Members embrace the culture and values this forms an extremely positive work place to be surrounded in. Which FREEDOM value do you relate best to? I have been married for three years to my wife Lauren and we have a cheeky eight month old daughter Selena. I come from a family of three kids;brother, sister then me. We migrated to Australia 31 years ago, originally from Hong Kong, then spent a bit of time in Vietnam with dad’s business and finally moving to Oz. Mum and dad are retired (Yes free baby sitters), brother is a doctor and sister stay at home mum. We love getting together every Sunday for a feast, so we take turns cooking. The doc comes in handy to monitor our cholesterol when it starts moving north hehe… “FUN”, say no more. Tell us about your family? What are your passions outside of work? Love cooking and exploring different cuisines, Tennis and Gran Turismo when Selena and Lauren are asleep. And finally to sum up Kennards in one word?

PEP was fantastic! The highlight for me included knowing that any changes that I had to make started with myself first.

How many centres do you oversee?

15 centres in total including Pymble.

How long have you been with KSS and what role do you have within the Team? I have been with KSS for three years this November. My role is Operations Manager in NSW. Could you tell us of significant takeaways from attending the KSS courses like “PEP”?

What challenges do you face as an Operations Manager? Water, is my biggest challenge and fear at the moment. When it rains I cross my fingers and toes that there are no leaks out there and damage to our customers units. I use to love rain when I was working in the food industry it meant we would be busy, not in storage I’m scared of rain now.

Ethical.

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FEATURES Understanding DISC - ‘ I ’ Behavioural Style What are the general characteristics of the I Personality Style? solvers who can think outside of the box. They are great encouragers and motivators of others. They keep environ- ments positive with their enthusiasm and positive sense of humour.

The I Personality Style is not afraid to be the centre of attention. They are enthusi- astic, optimistic, talkative, persuasive, impulsive and emotional. This personality type will trust others naturally, truly enjoys being around others and functions best when around people and working in teams.

What motivates the I Personality Style? The I DISC Style is motivated by the approval, praise, popularity or accept- ance by others. They enjoy freedom from too many rules or regulations and gravitate towards a friendly and fun environment. What should one remember to do when working with I Personality Types? When working with an I Personality Type, it’s important to build rapport and be friendly. Approach them in a favour- able and friendly environment. Give them plenty of opportunity to verbalise their ideas, as they usually have very creative thoughts and are great problem solvers. Lynda Walsh Operations Manager (NSW)

“ The I Disc Style is motivated by the approval, praise, popularity or acceptance by others. ”

T he I personality is possibly the most misunderstood DISC style. If you have ever worked with an I style personality you will know they have an amazing ability to connect with customers and convert it to a sale, but they aren’t always on top of their paperwork and often skip the detail. I’s can be identified by their creative problem-solving ability, their positive sense of humour and placing a high value on being a team-player. They’re often good at negotiating conflict and articulating themselves verbally.

What does the I Personality Type contribute to a team?

The I style are naturally creative problem

People you may know that are an Influential (I) Behavioural Style

Andrea Agassi

Sam Kennard

Oprah Winfrey

Jim Carrey

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FEATURES

Momentum initiatives – An Innovation Update

Customer Feedback “It is very rare that I take the time to put together an email regarding service however my experience this morning at Kennards Artarmon was above and beyond and I felt compelled to seek out your details and let you know. I was closing my account due to reloca- tion and am undergoing chemotherapy so as you can imagine was not feeling exceptionally well. Ashley, without even knowing this greeted me with a positive attitude, was highly informative about the process of closing my account and assisted me with my trolleys (that I was clearly struggling with). All the while displaying an excellent, positive attitude and discussing the benefits of storing here! As a Recruitment Manager I know talent when I see it and Ashley displays a passion for her job that is sadly rare to see these days. I just wanted to commend her for her efforts and let you know as a result I will be recommending this facility to friends and family.” “Sam, could not fault any aspect of the last nine months with your company, just excellent. Sandra at Preston was wonderful, I will recommend far and wide.” “ Great storage company! I have stored my household goods with you. Being very central in Wanganui, they are perfect for me. When I made the arrange- ments online from Hamilton, I didn’t know whereabouts in Wanganui I would end up purchasing my home. Turns out I’ve purchased in Wanganui East and KENNARDS are perfect from a transport and accessibility point-of-view.” “Finding a suitable storage room, friendly staff, professionalism at all times and assisting us with advice on the best storage room size. Thank you to everyone at Kennards Castle Hill, especially Mick.” “Everything from the time I enquired to the time I checked out was an amazing experience at Mt Eden and I have already passed on your details to people that may be interested.”

B ehind the scenes, we are systems, experiences and of course simple little things that make our day to day experience better, both for Teams and customers. Whilst not everything ‘innovative’ relates to technology, a good chunk does and whenever the goals and initiatives of our pillared strate- gies cross over our role is of most importance. Ideas and strategies require a lot of support, collaboration, planning and nurturing. Without these ingredients the recipe rarely comes off! It’s easy to mistake silence with inactivity. However this couldn’t be further from the truth. You can expect a dozen ideas and strategies to be brewing in the background at any one time. In the context of Momentum 2012 Goals and Strategies here is a progressive update and summary of milestones: To become a Famous Household Name: Continued and ongoing development of web marketing strate- gies with a current focus on NZ. constantly figuring out what’s next, what’s feasible. How we design, build and deliver To Achieve 40,000 customers by June 2013: Ongoing revenue management refinements, enhance- ments to our websites with a focus on increasing our customers’ ability

to transact almost anything online through the development of ‘rent now’ and ‘customer portal’. 2013 will be our 40 Year Anniversary - 40,000 in 40 years! Conceptualisation and implementation of promotions like our October 40 Day Free special. Create Exceptional Customer Experience: Unpacking touch points and forging long term strategies to improve them, ranging from customer facing emails, website usability, integrated surveys, online sign ups and well executed confirmation pages to name a few. Find, Retain the Best People: Assisting with the implementation of the new recruitment portal and better demonstrating careers online. Continuous Innovation: All of the above by supporting planned outcomes, providing meaningful data to drive decisions and ongoing development. Grow and strengthen our Brand Profile: Our focus has been online predominantly, with continued changes to how customers interact with our websites, broader engage- ment of social media and marketing. Stay tuned for further developments and updates.

Jeff Xanthos Chief Information Officer

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FEATURES The Newest Initiative at KSS!

The bike creates another point of differ- ence at Kennards, a first in the storage industry. The bike is free to use for all our storage customers. Moore Park is surrounded by dense apartment living and the Cargo Bike is ideal for storers looking to move small items to and from the centre. The Moore Park Team have been riding the bike around the local area and have received quite a few toots from drivers passing by. The unique looking design of the bike has been a fantastic way to strengthen the Kennards Brand in the area. We look forward to sharing our storers experiences with everyone as time progresses. use a commonly used business name to camouflage their link in an email that looks normal and would easily be clicked on. Regardless of how good our virus protection software is, IT advised me that once you click these links, all bets are off and havoc reins supreme. Thanks to Brett and Jeff for recovery of my computer, not without considerable resources used. I cannot stress enough to be careful what you click! If you are infected with Cryptolocker, the first thing you should do is disconnect the infected computer from the internet and contact the IT Team. If you are not sure, it is always best to refer the email to IT, as even the best virus protection we use is not invincible! Andrew Kirkham NZ Operations Manager Tony Vuong NSW Operations Manager

R ecently, an innocent click on an email introduced me to CryptoLocker a Ransomware Trojan! This nasty piece of work encrypted all of my files on my computer, but for a nice ransom of $600 AUD, I would be supplied with the key to unlock my files. If I waited 48 hours, the price W ith Australians embracing cycling in droves in recent years, Kennards Self Storage has joined the ride and we are now offering a Cargo Bike for customers to move goods in and out of storage.

The bike is a Christianiabike, from Denmark, where this sort of transport is an everyday occurrence. Kennards Self Storage has put its first Cargo Bike in the Sydney centre Moore Park, for its first trial.

Be Careful What You Click! would double to $1,200 AUD. Not my proudest moment…

The big lesson is to be careful with anything that asks you to click here or go to this link from an unknown or non verifiable source.

The CryptoLocker guys are smart, they

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FEATURES Data Dive - how long do our customers stay? What are they worth? T ypically a customer moves into storage expecting to stay for a reasonably short period of time. We all know the reality is they almost always overstay, many by some months. insight into the value of a typical customer. A helpful reminder of their importance. Obviously, the age of the property will greatly influence the results. The average unit size rented for KSS is rented for $279 per month which means the median value of a customer is $5,022.

Analysis of length of stay can be done in two ways. Firstly, there is the average length of stay of all existing customers (exclude past customers). Secondary, an alternative measure is the median length of stay. Median is the middle of the group by number and can be helpful if outlying data distorts the average. The current average length of stay of all current KSS customers is 36 months. While the median is much lower at 18 months.

This is a significant amount and reminds us of the importance of our sales and follow-up performance. For KSS as a group every potential customer contact is a doorway to $5,022 of revenue over the duration of their stay. You can see the state by state breakdown in the table. Sam Kennard Managing Director

In the past we have looked at the length of stay of all ex-customers, (Those that have moved-out). On this occasion, lets look at our current in-place customers. Both data sets have imperfections but neither is wrong.

Recent analysis of the length of stay of all our existing customers offers a powerful

Length of Stay and Customer Value (existing customers)

Customer Feedback North Lakes “I just wanted to thank you for the excellent service and co-operation that you provided for us during the period that our personal effects and furniture was stored at the Kennards Self Storage facility in North Lakes - Queensland. In addition, your co-operation and assistance when we eventu- ally needed to pack our possessions into a container for onward shipment was fantastic and very much appreciated. The packing of the container was smooth and without incident, similar to what we experienced when Kennards took over the Self Storage facility in North Lakes from the previous owners earlier this year. It was a smooth transition that could not have

been any better. Overall we were very impressed with every part of the service and the facility in North Lakes. We would have no hesitation in recommending both Glen D'Souza and the Kennards Self Storage facility in North Lakes to anyone that required these services.” Maroochydore “Just a quick email to thank you gentleman for your first class service at Kennards Storage Maroochydore. From the first contact via phone till the final invoice on leaving, the service was amazing, friendly, informative and efficient.

From our experience the storage was immaculate on all levels. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to other clients.”

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FEATURES NZ Expansion and Conversion

rented up well in the past. Completion of the additional units is expected early November. Mt Eden is situated on the fringe of the Auckland CBD and became attractive to many commercial customers who are staying long term and are heavy users of the parcel pick up / drop off delivery service. WELLINGTON (Below right) We are finally heading into the home straight with building compliance remedial work required now complete. When we first took over this site, we knew the unit mix needed improving and we are pleased that our first lot of unit conversions have now all rented up.

a building consent to first strengthen and then fit out four levels of storage. This will create approximately 142 new units with the majority of spaces larger than nine square metres and some in the Enterprise Space range. The Wellington site has experienced success in renting this size which no other competitor has been able to provide. We look forward to both Mt Eden and Wellington renting up the new space as it comes online over the summer. Andrew Kirkham NZ Operations Manager

MT EDEN (Above) We continue to invest in our Mt

Eden site with the conversion of the basement car park into storage units. The basement will accommodate an additional 76 spaces in the larger

size range to compliment the unit mix where demand for larger sizes has More Space for Fyshwick While we continue to look for other opportunities, we are now moving onto the vacant third building of this site with

As luck would have it the section available for us to occupy joins our property via a large roller door. When was the last time your neighbour had a garage that opened into your back yard! The space available has good height clearance, ideal for Enterprise Spaces. Exactly what Darryl and Colin at Fyshwick have been crying out for. Darryl Hodgson NSW Operations Manager

T he Team are excited to Canberra. We've been on the hunt for additional space and properties in the ACT for some time. announce the acquisition of the building next door to us on Gladstone Street, Fyshwick in

This will be an unusual acquisition in several ways, starting with the two tenants currently occupying around 75% of the building. They're both good tenants, one is a Church and the other a Gas Pipeline Company; with some years left on their leases.

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FEATURES

Kennards Wine Storage Special Event “An evening with James Halliday and Wine Companion Winners”

K WS hosted an exclusive wine tasting for our customers, following the release of the 2015 Australian Wine Companion. James Halliday was our special guest for the evening and during the event he talked about this newly released book and shared some wine buying and cellaring tips. We were also lucky enough to have Wineries present show casing their wines for tasting on the evening. They included past and present Wine Companion winners; Killikanoon, Rob Dolan, Flowstone, Accolade and Hardies. Who is James Halliday? Respected wine critic, vigneron and wine judge James Halliday has a career that

spans over forty years, but he’s most widely known for his informative writing about wine. He has been wine writer for The Weekend Australian since 1984 and regularly writes for food and wine magazines such as Decanter, Gourmet, and Epicurean. James has won 10 major Australian and International Awards including the most prestigious Australian recognition, the Maurice O’Shea Award for his wine writing. In 2010 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his contribution to wine. James is an unmatched authority on every aspect of the wine industry, and is constantly in demand as a Wine Judge in Australia and overseas Lynda Walsh

Wine Cellaring Business Development Manager

James Halliday with Lynda Walsh, Wine Cellaring Business Development Manager

(Above & below) James Halliday with Managing Director, Sam Kennard

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FEATURES Another Night of Splendour and Fun - 2014 A E very year, the night seems to get better and better with something new and interesting happening. This usually comes from the initiative of our Team Members. This year Wayne Birch Operations

Manager for Victoria and South Australia asked to open the night. Wayne made a heartfelt speech about his time and experience with Kennards; reflecting on the many achievements of KSS, experi- enced throughout his long career with the business. Another first for the night was having Chris Radburn a professional comedian as MC for the evening. Chris created a lot of laughs, adding a whole new dimension to the night. Chris seemed to have intimate knowledge of Darryl's personal life and Darryl graciously accepted the brunt of many of his jokes. Above all, the night remained true to it's purpose, that is to acknowledge and recognise the achievements of our people, and to say thank you for the contribution and efforts put in by everybody over the last 12 months. So congratulations to all the Length of Service, Adding Value, Sales Excellence and Achievement Award recipients on the night and to every Team who achieved Gold, Silver and Bronze recognition. Thank you also to the Team Members who shared their own experiences with everyone while up on stage accepting their Awards during the night. I'll echo Sam's comments on the night, "The night doesn't just happen on its own". There is a lot of planning and hard work that goes into a night like this, so a big thank you to our organisers, Sharon and Jo who do a fantastic job putting it all together every year. I look forward to seeing everyone again next year! Darren Marshall General Manager

L to R: Sam Kennard presents Steve Chidgey (Springvale), Anne Newman (CCC), Brad Hampson (Brookvale) and Kevin Mouatt (Newstead) with their 10 Years Service Awards: (Absent: Stephan W (Maroochydore), Richard Pope (Artarmon2), John Young (Newcastle).

15 years Service Awards: L to R photos: Bob Dutfield (Warriewood), Phyllis Jallais (North Melbourne), (Absent: Jeff Xanthos (THQ), Gary Longmire (Auburn).

Sam Kennard prese with his 30 Years Se

Adding Value Cer Kennard presents Kings), Britt Plum Shepherd (Belm

Phone Sales Excellence Awards

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Kennards Kourier October 2014

FEATURES Achievement Night for KSS a Huge Success

n Wandl

5 Years Service Awards: L to R: Eric Conliffe (Artarmon), Grant Lynch (Yeerongpilly), Trudy Iacobucci (Flemington), Charles Shepherd (Maribyrnong), (Darren Marshall) Kylie Rangi (Browns Plains), Sue Solly (Wellington), Peter Reid (Waterloo), Mazon Trabolsi (Macquarie Park), Matthew O’Brien (Parramatta) and Karina Gardiner (Wanganui). (Absent - Samantha Heneghan (Hoxton Park), Kim Connolly (Thornleigh), Sheridan Aylmer- Svetkoff (Marrickville), Emily Fiala (TSM NSW ACT).

SCOTY Gold Awards

enting HK Tung ervice Award.

Darryl Hodgson (below) and Sam Kennard present Debbie Jones (Parramatta), Maria Katselas (Camperdown) and Dennis Flack (Rydalmere) with their Adding Value Award.

Darryl Hodgson (far left) and Sam Kennard (far right) present Glen D’Souza (North Lakes) with his Adding Value Award.

rtificates: L to R: Sam s to Leon Sathiasothy (Three mmer (Caringbah), Mark mont).

Con’t Page 14

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FEATURES

No Margin F

The Feeling of Good Customer Service I t’s not every day we experience exceptional service. Unfortunately for some businesses just meeting status quo gets them by.

we have an opportunity to build trust. Every customer who interacts with Kennards should be followed up as regularly as it takes to convert them. During the prospecting and qualifying stages for new National Account customers we follow up anywhere between 5 and 50 times through various forms and at different times. Each contact allows us to communicate something different or learn something new, getting to know them and build trust. By the time they join the programme they are well informed and excited about the conversion. “ Take the time to enjoy the customer journey and follow up more than once. Both you and our customer won’t be disappointed ” If we apply the same finesse to all our customers we have a great opportunity to improve our relationships. Each time you pick up the phone to make a follow up call think about these five things: • Are you calling at an appropriate time? • What do you need to know from the customer? • What are the next steps? Take the time to enjoy the customer journey and follow up more than once. Both you and our customers won’t be disappointed. Fiona Harding Business Development Manager • What is the purpose of the call? • What do you want to achieve?

As a consumer when we come by good customer service something happens to us. It’s infectious and our mood changes, we become open to conver- sation and we start to Tweet, Facebook and share our experience with the people around us. More importantly we return! After a recent visit to America the differ- ence in their standards of customer service compared to Australia was a stark contrast. Shop assistants introduced themselves, when my hands were full they handed me a shopping basket. Taxi drivers provided compli- mentary guided tours pointing out were the best eats were and when dining my water glass was never empty. Great customer service is embedded in their culture. They were engaged, genuine and definitely profitable, after all the better the service the greater the tip. Thankfully this was a nice Aussie parallel to our service at KSS, but we should not let ourselves become complacent. As Aussies are we sometimes too relaxed about engaging with consumers for fear of being “pushy”. Consumers do business with people they know, like and trust. If as sales people we don’t contin- ually engage with our consumers the results can be detrimental. The relationship begins when the customer is first aware of your existence. If the value we provide is “Store With People Who Care” that first encounter “Hello, Good Morning, I can certainly help” immediately starts the customer journey. Regardless of whether we think a customer is going to rent a space today or in two years; engagement, persis- tence and follow up of these customers is a critical part of the customer journey. Each time we engage with a customer

I n the previous editions the analogy between merchandise and cash and what this means to our business, the distinction between inventory controls and inventory management and the features of an inventory control system were discussed. Physical inventory counts are a prominent feature of any effective inventory control system and let us discuss why it is so. An inventory count is a process that involves a physical count of each item in stock. The objective of the inventory count is to ensure that all inventory records are accurate. Should the physical count and the records not agree, the differences need to be examined and variances reconciled in accordance with company’s Best Practice. Accurate and timely physical inventories are one of the most important responsibilities in assuring profitability and success for any business. It can be the difference between profit and loss and can have many far-reaching consequences. An inaccurate physical inventory which overstates the total amount of merchandise will result in overstated Gross Profit and Net Profit for the current year which, in turn, can result in the paying of excess income taxes. On the other hand, an understatement will result in reduced profits and overstated expenses.

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FEATURES

For Error... (Part 3) Inaccurate inventory counts can also

held etc. and can vary between centres. The best way to reduce the amount of time spent taking a physical count is to make the physical inventory and every transaction every day as accurate as possible. While accuracy in physical counts assists in identifying demand, product-mix etc. the timeliness and frequency of physical counts can be even more important. Simply by increasing the frequency of counts, recent trends or changes are promptly recognised and appropriate actions can be taken. For example, slow and fast moving stocks, obsolete items, to discontinue/introduce a particular product line - knowing these in a few months can save thousands of dollars as opposed to identifying it a year later. Key decisions to make before conducting an Inventory Count: • Why are you counting your inventory? • What are you going to count? • When are you going to count? • Who is going to be doing the counting? We already have a good reason for counting our inventory. But this is a good time to consider other benefits to keeping track of our inventory, and the reasons for tracking it. • Asset Tracking and Valuation – It is important to know how much capital is tied up in inventory, where they are, when they were purchased, for how much, etc. This information facilitates decision making. • Insurance - If disaster strikes how quickly will we be able to account for all of our stock? And if we keep track of these, where are those records kept- on site or elsewhere? When we count our stock, ask the question - what would I want to know if everything was gone tomorrow? What would our insurance company want to know? Once the importance of physical counts is understood, proper counting procedures need to be established and documented for a well controlled count. Always remember that it takes no longer to take a good, accurate physical inventory than it does to take a sloppy, inaccurate physical inventory. And, the benefits are many. To be continued…

Based on the framework of Best Practices for merchandise articulated through Skillbuilder, it is important for centres/Team Members to identify and develop an inventory control system that works best for them. If Team Members can rely on the effectiveness of the system, they can save time. Instead of running to the floor or stock room to check on a product’s availability or performance they can rely on the system. Freeing up this time can result in improving controls and accuracy – and even more important – better customer service . An effective inventory control system reduces or eliminates any discrepancies/variances in stocks. However, what do we do when variances become a recurring feature during stock counts? The first reaction to any physical inventory count that results in variances outside an ‘acceptable range’ should be to increase the frequency of counts until the results fall into line. What is an acceptable range depends on a number of factors like total stock turnover, value of stock

lead to buying and business decisions made based on incorrect information which can have an even more adverse effect on sales, profits and lost customers. For example if the physical inventory count

of Medium Heavy Duty Boxes inaccurately shows stock levels as too low the centre may wrongly order unneeded merchandise. This can also work the other way if the inventory count indicates that the centre has too much inventory. In this case the centre may avoid placing additional orders and sales can be lost.

“Once a sceptic on the inaccuracies of KSS Inventory Control I am pleased to say I am now a convert. I have been motivated and have renewed confidence now. Regular articles from Sathish in our Kourier followed on from the informative presentations at Skillbuilder by both Sathish and Bill. They emphasised the attention and actions needed by Teams offering simple examples and suggestions on how we can contribute and the benefits. My conclusion is, what we think should be simple to control, really is simple to control. Order only what you should sell, but don’t run out of stock. (Historical sales & purchases and a bit of gut feel). Ensure we get what we paid for (count stock, enter it accurately and follow up damage claims). Sell merchandise in a tidy/orderly manner and double check what’s given, cross count it to the sales invoices and account for giveaways or transfers immediately. A discrepancy should only arise from either the delivery or sale. Don’t accept the error, go look for it. Trust me you will find it 99% of the time. An error is easier to locate in a weeks’ activity rather than the whole month. Count the stock regularly; it doesn’t take that long, (chunk it down if you have to) make it a goal to have zero discreps come month end. It works.” Steve Jansen

Sathish Gopinath Financial Controller

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2014 Achievement Night Success FEATURES

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Kennards Kourier October 2014

TRAINING

Skillbuilder NSW

NSW Skillbuilder Training - L to R: Eric Conliffe (Artarmon), Mark Fradd (Caringbah), David Courtney (Kirrawee), Phillip Gallop (Penrith), Iftikhar Ali (Homebush), Frank De Vlam (Campbelltown), Steve Jansen (Chatswood/Pymble), Matthew Jones (Wollongong), Medhat George (Guildford), Johny Vaman (Rozelle), James Houliston (Camperdown), Colin Haden (Fyshwick). T his round of Skillbuilders we have seen the introduction of Skillbuilder Facili- tators, Robert Todd and Glen D'Souza. Both Glen and Rob are Training Hub Managers and completed a week of "Train the Trainer " sessions in Sydney before being provided the opportunity to facilitate sessions in their own states. Rob has at this stage completed his first sessions in Melbourne and received positive feedback, he is based at our Klemzig centre and has been with Kennards since 2006. Glen will be facilitating sessions in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, he is currently the Centre Manager at our North Lakes centre and has been with Kennards since 2008. It is very rewarding to see Team Members taking the opportu- nity to grow and develop when presented with the opportunity. Congratulations on your commitment. Bill McClean Training and Development Manager

“A challenge made easy is how I would best describe my first weeks exposure to the role as a Training Facilitator. Thanks to Bill for his patient and always relevant guidance, the sharing of ideas with my fellow Facili- tator Glen and the supportive contribu- tions from every Team Member who attended the first week of Skillbuilder II. I can honestly say, I found this week to be one of the most rewarding I have had in my eight years with KSS. The opportunity to spend a week at our new THQ was also fantastic. Thanks to everyone who made me feel so welcome.” Robert Todd - Klemzig

“Being picked as Skillbuilder Facili- tator is a great feeling and extremely challenging. It is never going to be easy filling in for Bill but having him around is fantastic. A week in Sydney at THQ working with Bill was extremely rewarding. Being able to deliver a few sessions to the NSW Teams was a great opportunity to prepare for the challenge in Queensland. It was also a great chance to see the new THQ and meet the Team there.” Glen D’Souza - North Lakes

Kennards Kourier October 2014

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PROPERTY

Spotlight On Maroochydore

L ocated on the beautiful Sunshine Coast Kennards Maroochydore is destined to be the #1 facility to store your goods at! With 482 units on offer totalling over 4,501 square metres. We have 40 different unit sizes available ranging from lockers to 6x6’s, we even have outdoor storage for boats and cars. In the past the site was used as Tennis Courts to which we are regularly reminded of by the locals. Rumour has it that the owners of the courts developed two blocks of storage units in the early 2000’s and it was such a hit, (PUN intended) that they further developed the site adding over 400 storage units with a mix of drive up, internal ground level and upper level spaces with two goods hoists offering over 4,501 square metres of storage. Kennards Maroochydore is unique being the only 24/7 storage operator in compar- ison to its competitors with a manned office 7 days a week.

Our Team consists of two likeable lads; Stephan Wandl (Manager) and Leigh Chaney (Assistant Manager), both with a passion for delivering excellent customer service. Stephan was a printer in his earlier days and came into storage 10 years ago with Millers and has been with Kennards ever since. Leigh has come from a hospitality background managing nightclubs and bars. Leigh has been with Kennards almost a year now. Team Maroochydore

Most of our customers are fairly short term around three to six months, which are mainly people building homes around the area. We also have a high percentage of return customers. As with all centre’s we have a few characters around which provide laughs and good vibes. We are currently sitting on 83% and are looking forward to the future with a potential new office upgrade and hopefully more units.

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PROPERTY

Pymble - The Next Doors to Open

completed space is fantastic and hopefully you’ll be able to see the results for yourselves when you next visit. We also

plan to start on Stage 2 (5 storey building at the rear of the storage centre) early 2015. Wollongong - Now looking at Stage 3 Whilst Stage 1 and 2 are renting up nicely we are looking at obtaining Council approve for Stage 3. Frenchs Forest - Fit out of top 2 floors underway (Below) Work has started on fitting out the top 2 floors which will complete the project. For regular updates please follow me on Yammer and Twitter. Michael Macheledt Development & Construction Manager

Mittagong - Back on track after heavy rain (Above) We lost a couple of weeks due to some heavy rain but we are now back on track with 50% of the ground floor slabs completed. Warrawong - DA received We have received our DA and are starting some early clean up works of the vegetation and old stockpiles in preparation for proceeding with the engineering design. Mt Eden - Basement fit out underway Work has now started on the fit out of the basement. Pymble - Ready for November opening (Main photo) The Builders have made great progress and we are looking at opening in November. Homebush - Upgrades and redevelopments Now we’ve moved to our new location we will turn our attention to redeveloping and upgrading the existing self-storage centre. We also have planning approval to sub divide the rear portion to develop high rise apartments. Macquarie Park - Stage 2 early 2015 Well THQ finally got to move in during September, this

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CHARITY Enriching Lives by Giving Books

in Brisbane and Melbourne, which act as a warehouse for the huge number of books the Library receives every year. With the donations made in 2014 already topping 18,000, each location stores up to 6,000 books at a time. These are then sorted by genre onto shelves by more than 100 volunteers before being packed and distributed once or twice a month to over 80 hostels and shelters around the country, as well as mobile libraries based in Martin Place, Manly and Melbourne. “Without Kennards support, The Footpath Library would not be able to operate, which means that our homeless communities would be without reading material” Sarah says. “We are very grateful to Kennards for their ongoing support of our work.” For more information on The Footpath Library, visit www.footpathlibrary.org. The Footpath Library Pictured below is young Jasper whose mum approached Footys4all via Facebook asking for a ball for her son who has special needs and she cannot afford to buy balls. “Thanks to Kennards support we were able to deliver him a box of balls to put a smile on his face and provide him with hope and a sporting opportunity.” Michael Gallus says. “Many thanks again for all your support it is much appreciated and is changing lives.” Sharon Dux EA to MD

K ennards is providing valuable support to the homeless by supplying storage units free of charge to The Footpath Library, which collects donated books from the public and publishers and gives them to people who don’t have access to quality reading material.

ago, the books were being stored in Founder and Managing Director Sarah Garnett’s home, garage and even her car. “When Sam Kennard stepped in and offered us our first storage unit in Brookvale in Sydney, it was a huge relief” Sarah says. Today, there are storage units based in Waterloo and Brookvale in Sydney and the last state of Australia. They have now delivered Footys4all balls to every capital city and state of Australia and to many international countries in a little over 2 1/2 years of operation. Driving a 1,490 km round trip from Melbourne to Adelaide and back in just 18 hours to deliver balls to the children of the SA Aboriginal and netball carnival. Michael Gallus from Footys4all approached Kennards over a year ago asking for our help to ship the footballs. Since then Kennards have been donating Kennards Boxes to Footys4all to package the new sporting balls for shipping worldwide. The Footys4all foundation was also nominated as a finalist in the Fair Go category of the Herald Sun Pride of Australia Awards this year. Whilst they didn’t win it was amazing recognition for all involved with the foundation.

When the Library first began seven years

FOOTYS4ALL

F ootys4all a Not for Profit founda- tion supplying free new sporting balls (footballs, basketballs, soccer balls etc) to disadvan- taged, underprivileged and socially displaced children all over the world, recently delivered their 9,423 ball into

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Kennards Kourier October 2014

NEV’S NOTES

Nevs Notes... VOTING: RIGHT OR PRIVILEGE?

Nev enjoyed expressing his ideas in this section of the Kourier. These little gems have been appreciated by many in KSS. We will continue to publish his ideas that we have in stock. Enjoy!

“ Perhaps the politicians, who trust us to elect them, trust us to support them with our taxes, don’t really trust us to vote for them so they make it compulsory to do so. A bit like the coercion to pay taxes. ” market, should not get a vote. Welfare recipients, bureaucrats, politicians and all who consume taxes have not earned the right to vote so they don’t get a vote. It would be like a Corporation where the shareholders vote on company matters. With a corporation, the employees don’t vote, the suppliers don’t vote, the customers don’t vote, unless they are also shareholders, only shareholders vote on Board of Directors appointments and constitutional matters. If only tax producers got to vote the politicians would be anxious to look after the productive members of the electorate, and so there would be lots of incentive to keep taxes low and government expenditure low. Pressure a right, or should it be a privilege with the right to vote being something that is Earned? I have a very controversial, very politically-incorrect, very “discriminating” view on this. This view is bound to be unpopular, and it has little chance of ever gaining political or electoral support. My proposal is that to gain the privilege to vote, you must be a Net Tax Producer. Tax Consumers, those who don’t produce goods or services for the

for government hand-outs, grants, benefits would be minimal. Welfare would revert to the private sector and the monitoring of such expenditure would be scrutinised by the benefactors and the administrating charities. If voting was a privilege, to be earned and valued, people would be proud to be among the Voting Class, the Productive Class, and would be keen to join the privileged Net Tax Producer Class. Public Servants may even be keen to privatise their ‘service’ so they can become members of the Voting Class. Does this idea have any chance of being adopted? Not a snowflake’s chance in hell! But is fun to think about, if you are a Tax Producer that is. If you are Tax Consumer then you will hate it with every bone in your body. You will label the idea with every pejorative and invective you can come up with. So whatever side of the Tax Producer — Tax Consumer divide you are on, enjoy the love or hate of the idea. It ain’t gonna happen so don’t worry.

Voting, in western democracies, is a right that all citizens, over a certain age, gain typically when they turn eighteen. It was once at age twenty-one. The evolution of Democracy and the Right-to-Vote has evolved over the last hundred and more years. Once it was just property owners, and men. Then the franchise was extended and extended. The thing about voting is that if the government does do much, doesn’t tax much, doesn’t interfere much, then voting is not considered very important. The Swiss, with one of the world’s most stable democracies, only granted women the right to vote in 1971. It was not then considered very important, unjust and “sexist” to the Swiss, thought it may now seem that way to us. In nearly all democracies, voting is voluntary. Only Australia, Belgium and Argentina make voting compulsory. Why it is compulsory is a very good question. I would say that compulsory voting is undemocratic! Isn’t part of a “Democratic Society” to do with freedom? Doesn’t making voting compulsory make us a bit less free? Of course with Secret Ballots, voting is not really compulsory, showing up at the polling place and having your name crossed off the list is what is compulsory. Not casting a ballot, or casting a blank ballot paper, or writing some obscenity on the paper is OK. Just go to the inconvenience of making the trip to the polling place so you save yourself the threat of a fine. Dumb??? And recently there was an idea to reduce the voting age to sixteen! Allowing children to vote! The politicians may like it as there would be a whole new constituency to promise goodies to. But I think the tax-payers — the “producers” — would baulk at this one. Perhaps the politicians, who trust us to elect them, trust us to support them with our taxes, don’t really trust us to vote for them so they make it compulsory to do so. A bit like the coercion to pay taxes.

August 27th, 2010

Nev Kennard

But who should get a vote ? Should it be

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