SOUTH'S FURNITURE
By Dave Roberts
It’s not very common to find a business
that has been operating continuously, pretty much
in the same hands, for seventy years. The other night
I found one and as you’d guess, it’s a great
story.
In 1934 a teenaged bloke, Harry
South, went into partnership and opened a store
in Bunbury that sold and serviced large electrical
equipment. According to the stories, Harry South
could fix anything. This is interesting because
he’d had an accident as a very young boy
and had seriously damaged his right hand, so much
of the work had to be done with just his left.
Be that as it may, he developed a reputation as
the guy you’d take your broken fridge to,
or later, your television.
The partnership was one of those things that wasn’t destined to go forever,
and by the end of the 1930’s Harry had decided
that the only way forward was to buy the other
partner out, and South’s was born. Selling
in the front, fixing in the back was the practice
that established the business as part of the fabric
of Bunbury, and to some extent of the region.
It turns out though, that with transport being
what it was, some stuff was too big and heavy
to get into the store and it might have been common
to find Harry out and about, fixing things where
they lay.
Not too far into the future there was another partnership
commenced. In 1942 a young woman joined the team.
Just into her 20s, Joan became Mrs South and a team
of fearsome effectiveness was established. It’s
just as well that there was someone running the show
because there was a war on, and Harry had joined the
Air Force. Given his injury, he couldn’t see
combat service but there were plenty of things to
do that required a man of his technical abilities,
and so there was room for someone to "hold the
fort".
Before the war there had been a shop in Victoria
St, after the war, in a move along Victoria St, they
took the upper floor of what is now the Bankwest building.
That didn’t last long, because the R&I bought
the building and needed the space. In what was seen
as a risky move, they shifted around the corner to
Wellington St, at the current address. It was risky
because being 50 yards from the corner it was a long
way out of town. Mrs South is very clear though, if
you provide a good service and people want it, they
will come.
There were milestones too. Joan remembers needing
a family guarantee to borrow 40 pounds for a Ford
10 van. Deliveries and service calls were becoming
essential and it was part of the growth of a business.
The business has seen a lot of changes. They rode
the boom of television, and sold and repaired a number
of sets that has been lost in the mists of time. Harry
developed a telescopic aerial system to get halfway
reasonable reception and there were a few of them
installed over the years.
With electricals still ticking over, Joan started
a record bar in the late 1950s, and was responsible
for a lot of the music in Bunbury homes for quite
a number of years. You have to do what you love though,
and as musical tastes changed, she reached a point
where she didn’t love what people were buying,
so records dwindled away.
The market for electrical goods became harder and
harder, but Harry had built a very solid business.
Joan meanwhile was looking at ways to build on what
they did. First move into furnishings was lamp shades,
which really were an extension of something electrical.
When it came to the point where a lampshade made
more profit than a top of the line fridge, things
had to change, and South’s furniture came into
being as a direct result of the market becoming extremely
tough.
Mrs South had always loved furniture, and the niche
they found was in providing quality product to people
who wanted value, but were prepared to pay for something
that would last and still be beautiful in many years
time. The formula hasn’t changed much since then.
Joan South has watched Bunbury grow and blossom,
from some very dark times in the war period to what
she sees as a very beautiful city today. It’s
been a great, healthy place to bring up four children,
and she notes that she’s glad to still be fit
enough to be part of it. Being in business has allowed
her to really feel like part of the growth of the
town, and just looking at what’s grown around
her, she feels proud of where we live.
The dynamic in the store is very instructive for
me. The staff literally consider Mrs South as family.
The long term customers do drop in and expect the
kettle will be on, and the product is both important
and beside the point at the same time. There’s
no question that they still move a bit of it. As for
a new guy to the place, I’m happy to have found
conclusive proof that nice people can do well in business.
May 2004
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