For over 50 years, the team at Eddies Furniture has been catering for homes throughout the South East, providing an extensive range of furniture and home requirements to suit all ages and styles.
With a huge showroom filled with state-of-the-art furniture located on Commercial Street East, Eddies has been an icon in Mount Gambier’s business sector since 1963.
Eddie sat on The Border Watch’s Red Couch to share the business’ success story.
He said the business was more than just selling furniture.
“I am a psychologist and people will ask ‘well how come he is a psychologist’ and I will say because I am in retail,” Eddie said.
“It is because we are always solving a crisis and people think we are saving lives, but we are actually selling furniture.”
Looking back, Eddie said it was his father who started the business after arriving in Australia many years ago.
“So it all started when Dad had an argument with his father, the war was happening then a friend said ‘come to Australia’, so he came over on a boat with a suitcase,” he said.
“When he arrived he thought ‘what am I doing in this place’ and said if he had any money he would have jumped on the next boat home.
“So to get some cash he worked his way in the pine industry, cheese industry, then went into numerous different businesses before starting at a second hand furniture store and then we (Eddies Funiture) just evolved from there.”
Eddie said as a youngster he was not interested in selling furniture.
“I’ll tell you the honest truth, I did not want to be in the furniture game, but my dad is European and what European dads say goes,” he said.
“Dad is like the Godfather of the business, he will pop in to make sure everything is under control and if it is not, you’ll hear about it.
“As I got more involved in the earlier years, I came up with some new ideas and changed the dynamics a bit.
“Now we are 54 years in business and a lot of other businesses said we would not make it, but hey, we are still here.”
Earlier this year, Eddies Furniture was named as a hall of fame inductee at the Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business Awards.
The hall of fame is designed to recognise the city’s locally-owned businesses that are still trading under their established name for more than 30 years.
When it comes to success in business, Eddie said quality service and strong customer relationships were vital.
“The most important thing is do not over promise and under deliver, things do go wrong, but the most important thing is if you say you’re going to do it, make sure you do it,” he said.
“Everyone loves going into business, but the hardest thing will stay in business.”
His advice for young people looking to start a business was to secure a trade or profession beforehand.
“If I was a young person today, I would get a trade or do something else first and then go into business, so you have something to fall back on,” Eddie said.
“Going into business is not easy, it is a lot of time and effort and people think it is all fun and games.
“But, in saying that it is like life, you have to strive, achieve and accomplish your dreams, do not look back in the rear vision mirror, just keep looking and moving forward.”
When he is not in store, Eddie spends his time either at the gym or as a part-time firefighter.
“I have a few old cars I tinker with, I go to the gym and try and keep fit, but I am also a part-time firefighter with the Metropolitan Fire Service,” he said.
“I really like it because it is community orientated and if I had my choice again and if I was smart enough, I would have gone into the fire department.
“Retail has been great, but it is just something different.”
Passionate about the future of the city, Eddie has a number of ideas as to how Mount Gambier could attract more tourists to the area.
“I think Mount Gambier is a one stop destination, but we need to stimulate it make it more exciting,” he said.
“We have the best icons in the world, but we spend no money on it, an example is the Blue Lake, you could do numerous things to encourage tourism.
“Give the tourists something to do when visiting these iconic locations, they need to do something exciting to want to come back.”
