Featured Advertiser - Retravision Mittagong
Even before they opened their Mittagong hardware store 22 years ago, business partners Gil Downes and David Wills dreamt of building a one stop shop for builders and renovators.
Seven years ago they opened a second store, Retravision, in Bowral, but the plan was always to shift it into the Home Hardware building.
In March 2010 they finally achieved their goal – combining Home Hardware, Retravision and an AGL Energy Shop in the one enormous purpose-built building.
“Right from the beginning, this was our plan,” says Gil. “People who are renovating and building can come to us and select all their kitchen and laundry appliances at Retravision and then find all their bathroom fittings, as well as everything from door knobs to floorboards. That’s what people use us for – we help them find everything. There’s nothing else like it in the Highlands.”
Gil and David employ about 80 people in the Home Hardware building and at Cavendish Street, where they run a Timber and Trade Centre and a Trusses and Frames business.
About 10 people work at Retravision, selling all kinds of appliances, computers, cameras, home entertainment systems and heating and cooling systems.
“The great thing is we now have all the top cooking and refrigeration brands,” says Gil. “It’s very hard to obtain the rights to sell these high end products, so it’s terrific to have brands such as Miele, Falcon, Ilve and Asko.”
Gil and David both moved to the Highlands when they were about 12 and became friends in their twenties. They bought a Mittagong service station together in 1978 and worked in the fuel industry before moving into the hardware business in 1989.