Newspaper Article 1998 – A dab hand at decorating

MEN IN BUSINESS

TOM HIBBS – managing director, Hastings Home Decorating Ltd.

A dab hand at decorating

Tom Hibbs was only 23 when he bought his first business, in Hokitika.

“When I left school I took on a five year apprenticeship in the painting trade, carried on for a couple more years and then felt like a change,” Tom said.

“I went into retail hardware and then decided I’d like my own paint shop, so I went out and bought one.”

Although Tom describes himself at the time as being “only a bit of a kid”, he arranged a loan and bought the business for $20,000 the day after he inquired about it.

“I went back the next night and told him I’d take it.  I think he just about fell over backward!”

“I’m sure he was laughing going out the door because he went away with $20,000 in his pocket and thought that was real top dollars, but in a few years down the track I sold it for quite a bit more.”

By that time, he had owned the business for five years to the day.  Hokitika, however, was losing its appeal.

“We felt Hokitika had gone as far as it could go and there wasn’t much opportunity for the children.  And we wanted a better climate too, that was the other attraction of Hastings.”

Initially Tom managed Klinkhamer’s Paint Store but then the owner decided to sell out.  Tom bought the business and in the process changed its name to Hastings Home Decorating Ltd.

“At that time, 1978, there was only two staff besides me.  It was very small, about a quarter of the size it is now.  We’ve extended three times.”

Its original product line was solely paint and wallpaper.

“Now we’ve extended into drapes, and curtaining.  We feel it’s all part of the one thing; curtains and wallpaper go together so well.  If you’re changing wallpaper, you’re virtually changing the whole decor of the room.  You either work around your drapes or you get new drapes, or it is a new home.

“We’re specialising in home decorating but our strength has been in diversifying within that.”

When Tom came to Hastings there were seven shops stocking wallpaper; today there are three.

Tom says his own job in the firm includes “being able to do everything”.  “I could be unloading a truck one minute and the next minute I’m out selling curtains.  You’ve got to be a jack of all trades and it’s the same with your staff as well.  You’ve got to have versatile staff.  Gone are the days when you can say to one person “this is your department’.  I think that’s where strengths lie really, being able to overlap from paint to wallpaper to drapes, a person who can do all this that is invaluable.  It’s very hard when you’re getting someone selling wallpaper and the next minute the customer wants to look at paints.  Customers don’t want to be waiting around for someone else to show them that line”

Tom believes that people are more adventurous now with colour and design, “they all want something different” – but says it is usually the wives who have the final say.

“Men generally go along with their wives.  Men are generally easy to please.  The wives do consider their husbands, but the husbands generally don’t care too much.”

In his spare time, Tom is a member of the Hastings Heretaunga Lions Club, and is a keen skier.

Home decorating is part of his leisure time too.

“I usually do all my own decorating, in fact that’s what tempted me to get into this paint and painting shop that I bought.  We bought our first house when we married and it needed doing up and I went to it.  I think now I’ve redecorated about six houses in 20 years of marriage.”

Tom’s wife is also a director of the firm.   About 75 to 80 per cent of the business now is non-commercial sales, Tom says.

“But we do have travellers on the road to service trade.”

Other services include paints and a curtain call service.