Skate shop grabs more top gongs

Tim Guy was named Manukau's Young Business Person of the Year. Photo / Doug Sherring

You know you've got a loyal following when a regular keeps a newspaper clipping about your Small Business of the Year gong.

It's the kind of faithful customer base Manukau skateboard and snowboard retailer, Boardertown, has worked hard to cultivate.

Begun six years ago when founders Matthew Traynor and Daniel McClean were just 19, the Botany Town Centre store has now been named Westpac Manukau Small Business of the Year two years running.

In the run-up to this year's awards the entrepreneurs were amazed when a 14-year-old customer asked if they were competing again. "He said, 'I've still got a cutout from when you won last year'," director Tim Guy said.

The business has grown 1500 per cent from humble beginnings at its first shop in Howick, and has focused on putting systems in place to enable that growth.

It's working on governance issues and, thanks to mentoring from Traynor and McClean's businessmen fathers, has had a strong focus on HR and accounting systems, Guy said.

"The hardest one to put together has been our buying practices, just because it's such an evolving industry."

Girls' fashion, for example, was a growing part of the business but constantly changing and Boardertown must compete with large chains, he said.

Boardertown's main trade is in skateboards, followed by snowboards and an emerging market in wakeboards. It sources overseas product itself and goes through distributors.

Despite a dense marketplace and a 16 per cent downturn at the Botany mall in the past two years, Boardertown's year-on-year revenue was up 13 per cent with gross profit up 35 per cent, Guy said.

It spent up to 100 hours putting its awards entry together last year and did the workshop Enterprising Manukau offers to show businesses how to enter. This year, distracted by a redesign of both its online store and retail shop, it did its application in three days.

It must have worked. It took out the small business award again, and also picked up the Emerging Business award, and Guy, who joined the operation four years ago, was named Manukau's Young Business Person of the Year.

Guy said the Enterprising Manukau workshop was fantastic, and the process of entering the awards generally valuable.

"The great thing about it is, because it's open to any sized business, you can see how you compare to these bigger businesses."

He puts Boardertown's success down to its impressive growth amid difficult times.

The awards provided credibility with stakeholders, but despite the kudos - and the fact the awards were sponsored by a bank - in a challenging retail environment bankers were still not putting their hands in their pockets, Guy said.

Boardertown is keen to open more stores. But "we still need money to open new doors".

At one point it was told its profit would need to be three times the interest on a loan.

Still the trio are making plans happen. Committed to having a positive impact on community, a recent highlight for them is the new Barry Curtis skate park. Guy has helped lobby for the park for 10 years.

"For me, when I was a 15-year-old kid it's the thing you always dream of having, your own skateboard shop."

Do you have any SME issues we should be investigating? If so, contact maria.slade@hos.co.nz