Leichhardt Electrical Wholesaler
All in the family
By Richard Mead.
This article appeared in Electrical Gems Issue 86, August—September 2008
If ever it could be said that a business reflects the virtues of its owners, Leichhardt Electrical Wholesalers is a textbook example.
As family businesses go, Leichhardt Electrical Wholesalers is about as close to the definition as you can get. Established by Henk Plug (one of Gemcell's founding members) and Henk's son Arie, they are now joined by Henk's wife Ria, daughter Hanny, daughter-in-law Jo-Anne and son-in-law Craig Spence making it a totally family-owned business. Leichhardt Electrical now has two branches, the first at Leichhardt in Sydney's inner west and the other at Cannonvale in Queensland's beautiful Whitsundays.
Much more than simply a reliable source of quality electrical supplies, Leichhardt Electrical is a place to meet your colleagues at the trade counter and talk over the day's business or the day's sporting events, find solutions to problems, discuss the day's news or just have a beer. And Arie for one, would not have it any other way. Because helping his customers first and foremost, in whatever way he can, is hardwired into Arie's personality. Arie is Leichhardt Electrical and Leichhardt Electrical is Arie. You cannot separate the two. "For me, business is not about making a million bucks. It's more about making the lives of my family and my staff happy and secure."
In order to understand why this culture is so much a part of L.E.W., you really need to understand what makes Arie tick, and to do that it is necessary to learn a little of the Plug family's history. Leichhardt Electrical's ethos stems from personal experience of the value of human qualities. Arie and Hanny were lucky to grow up in an environment where family comes before everything, as early in their lives luck was not always on their side. It was pooling their strength in order to overcome adversity that brought the family so close together.
Lucky then, that they do not come any tougher or more determined than Henk (or Arie for that matter). So when Ill health forced Henk to give up a senior retail management career and move out of Sydney, they relocated to Wiseman's Ferry - a small town to the northwest on the banks of the Hawkesbury River. There Henk made his own luck. Through sheer strength of will, Henk regained his health by exercising while he worked in the paddocks around their home, and in the process, got to know many of the people who came for holidays at Wiseman's Ferry.
One of these was David Turk (son of John R. Turk). John Turk ultimately became a close friend, employer and mentor to Henk. This friendship allowed Henk to establish an electrical wholesale business of his own. And that is how it all began. In 1987, fresh (or otherwise) from a trip to visit relatives in Europe, Henk decided that the time was right to start his own business. As Arie recalls: "It was then or never..."
So in September of that year, Henk, Arie and two other partners opened their first shop at 625 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt. Within 18 months the Plugs were able to buy out the two other partners and L.E.W. became a family business in the true sense of the word. Leichhardt Electrical Wholesalers continued to grow in strength and size, so much so that by 1995 they were looking for more space. This time, luck was on their side and they were able to move the business into larger premises next door at 621 Parramatta Road, where they are still located today. However the Plugs have never forgotten the kindness that helped give the family the opportunity to start their business and are ever ready to offer assistance to others in genuine need.
So when Henk and Arie met a promising young West Australian boxer who had come to Sydney hoping that he might one day get a shot at a world title, Henk (himself an ex-boxer who once qualified for the Olympics) recognised not only the young man's potential, but an opportunity to do for someone else what others had done for him. The Plug family took young Danny Green under their wing and into their home, gave him a job at L.E.W., sponsored him and supported him while he trained, as if he were their own son and brother. Danny eventually won the WBA light heavyweight world title in December 2007. But that is another great story, some of which has already been told on the pages of this magazine.
In 1990, not long after establishing the business at Leichhardt, Henk travelled to South Australia to attended Clipsal's 75th anniversary celebrations. While he sat with a group of independent electrical wholesalers at a meeting under the big oak tree at Chapel Hill Winery, Henk listened as Clipsal's CEO Robert Gerard suggested they get together and form a buying group. This ignited Henk's imagination and just like the acorn that grows into a big oak tree, the suggestion that Robert Gerard made that day was the seed that grew into the Gemcell group.
Henk was one of the motivators that got the ball rolling to form Gemcell, and along with others including Gary Palmer, John van Eck, Barry Dumbrell, the late Gordon Macdonald, Paul Maher, Garth Tanswell and others, they laid the foundation for the strong, thriving group Gemcell is today.
Six years later in 1996, Henk (who has a self-confessed passion for Harley-Davidsons) rode to Mackay for a club rally. While riding around soaking up the tropical environment of the Whitsundays, Henk spotted a lighting business at Cannonvale for sale in an estate agent's window. That gave Henk an idea. After a brief assessment of the business' potenial, Henk pulled out his Visa card and bought it on the spot. Needless to say, Henk's wife Ria, Arie, Hanny, Jo-Anne and Craig were surprised at the news, but excited at the same time. Because this was to open a new chapter for L.E.W.
After many family discussions it was decided that Hanny and Craig would move to Queensland to start the new venture. So 13 years, a move to newer, larger premises and a new lighting showroom later, Hanny, Craig and their local staff have also obtained the respect and loyalty of their clients. Henk and Ria now also live in the Whitsundays and enjoy the lifestyle.
Back in Sydney, Leichhardt Electrical was one of the first electrical wholesale outlets to set up a fully equipped multimedia demonstration room. Upstairs, customers can learn to install, program and operate the latest in multimedia systems such as CBus. I-set®, security, CCTV and home theatre. In addition, the upstairs rooms at Leichhardt are also used for seminars such as ACA Open Registration classes. A similar facility has also been established upstairs at the L.E.W. Whitsundays store.
This year, Leichhardt Electrical Wholesalers turns 21, and no doubt the family, staff (including long serving members Trisha Muir [nineteen years] John Wright [nine years] and friends, will celebrate this milestone and reflect on the remarkable events that brought them to where they are today.
Asked if he needs to work as hard as he does (Arie puts in 12 hour days as regular as clockwork) Arie is at a loss to imagine what else he would do. He hates taking holidays and does not even take a lunch break. Like his father before him, Arie is too busy looking after everyone else to worry about himself. And it is only to his credit. To re-hash a well-known proverb, one might say you can't take the boy out of the business or take the business out of the boy.