Jolyon Edwards from the Cleaning Shop in Kew, pictured above with Gilly Swinnerton and Bill Granger provided a light-hearted and informative look at small business proprietorship and gave lots of tips for the cleaning conscious audience. He is one of our local business icons, as his business, with wife Rose, has been in the Kew Junction precinct of High Street (next to MacDonalds) for 30 years.
Jolyon, who is named after a character from the Forsyte Saga, referred to the many changes impacting his retail business including on-line shopping, better constructed homes (less dust), more glass in modern homes and the growth of cleaning services - if you have a good one hang onto them.
He spoke about how carefully he chooses his stock, his keenness for local products ( including the story of the Tumut millet broom factory) and mindfulness for the types of chemicals best to use in the home.
He believes the biggest change to help clients in the the development of micro-fibre cloths - they gather dust better, are washable and more environmentally friendly than other products. Jolyon suggested the point of difference that his store provides when compared to larger hardware stores and supermarkets is personal services and better and different products. Whilst he has quite a following on his Saturday morning 3AW program, Jolyon shared with us his marketing philosophies and musings on social network costs. He mentioned some of the challenges facing retail business but is confident that his business will continue for many years.
There were many well answered questions on cleaning problems, even a curly one on marble tiles from our architect member, Ross Merolli!
Jolyon’s take home message was that cleaning lightly and often is much quicker than having to do big jobs once things are in a poor state, so we better get cracking before Spring. Jolyon's presentation was very well received by all members and guests.