I have been closely watching Parallel Imported Ltd (an Auckland based company) for a few years now. They are the foremost parallel importing company in New Zealand. (See the blog post below to learn about parallel importing). They sell a wide range of Consumer products such as Mobile phones, ipods, car audio and fragrances. They tend to stick to the electronics market but they have dabbled with sunglasses and clothing.
Before I even stumbled across a store I had heard of them but for all the wrong reasons. They were featured on Fair Go, a New Zealand consumer advocacy program after a disgruntled customer complained about their lack of service. It seems since this program several years ago they have been on a charm offensive greatly turning round their customer service by offering outrageous guarantees to gain back the trust of customers both past and potential. Some of their new initiatives include a 14day no questions asked return policy, and 1 year guarantee on all merchandise.
They have 4 stores located in Auckland. 2 on Queen St, 1 on the North Shore and one in East Auckland. They also had a store in Porirua but this closed down. When I was in Wellington once I actually drove to Porirua (About a hour drive) to find this shop but couldn't locate it. Apparently it shut down because Wellingtonians don't like to drive to save on big ticket items they prefer to stay in the central city. From the time it took to drive to Porirua I knew it was a bad place to have a big ticket item shop..The only thing I knew about Wellington was that Porirua is like the Otara of Wellington! Porirua is a low income side of town I could have told them Porirua was a bad location. I thnk they should try again in Wellington but this time in the city. Also I would love to see them hit all the main centres in New Zealand.
2 stores on queen st! This is a funny concept having 2 stores on the same road but the stores are quite small and I suppose it makes sense to capture shoppers at the top and bottom as Queen Street and parking is a nightmare.
Tayne derriman is the founder of Parallel Imported Ltd. He originally started trading used mobile phones but then turned to brand new phones. He originally sold at markets out of the back of his car, and in the trade and exchnage paper. Demand really took off and he started to look at other electronic products. He opened a small store and had people people lining around the blacok to get in on Saturday mornings.
PIL now has it 4 Auckland stores, a wholesale division and a website.
In my opinion Tayne has built a great company from scratch and apparently they turnover 50 million a year now. Not bad for a company only 5 years old.
Some facts used from article: "Parallel Universe" - Unlimited.co.nz
Sunday, December 16, 2007
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