A NEW ADVENTURE
After enduring the trials and tribulations of the continuously evolving fashion industry, and losing everything he had worked for, something about the rag trade still resonated with Rowan. He wanted to give it one last shot, this time as a retailer. Rowan had a call from old pal, Frank Derango. Frank wanted to catch up and give him a rundown on what he had been working on – a shopping centre focusing on outlet shopping at the Moorabbin airfield called the Direct Factory Outlets (DFO). “Frank said to me, ‘Hilly, you need to be a retailer like the old days, I have 50 square metres do you want it,?” he says.
Rowan didn’t think twice. Roadhouse was outfitted with strong primary colours and quality products. They had end runs of stock and broken sizes, but never compromised on quality.
After trading for a few weeks, one particular day Rowan’s wife Lily (who was eight months pregnant) was working in the store. With a small space of only 50 squares and around 80 boots in the store, in one-day Lily sold 13 pairs of Caterpillar boots.
“I came to get her, Lily was the size of a house and she had sold 13 pairs of boots – I couldn’t believe it. That’s how Roadhouse was born, it was all her fault!” Rowan laughs.
After moving into a bigger store and ironing out a few teething problems, the Roadhouse team realised they had struck a chord in the market. There was the opportunity of opening other stores, but expanding is a scary step because you’re out of your comfort zone and there is no guarantee that you’re going to replicate what you have already done. Now Roadhouse has a total of five stores (including two Joe Bloggs stores) across Australia and more already on the drawing board.
“I guess in the beginning having a chain wasn’t part of the plan, but I realised we had found a slot in the market place that was so under catered for, even today ten years down the track, where a guy can come in and do his twice a year shop. It took us five or six years before we got it to that point, but once we saw it worked in Melbourne and then in Brisbane, we knew we were onto something.”
Each of the Roadhouse stores has an owner operator running them and the individual can tweak the stock to suit their demographic. Rowan along with his business partners Paul Delaney and Steve Spence, have all worked hard to ensure each individual store reflects their core customer. That is the difference between Roadhouse and other franchises. The core stock such as your CAT, Mack and Merrell shoes always remains the same, and then the rest of the store can be massaged to maximise the business to best suit the location.
Rowan paints the scenario for me.
“The Roadhouse customer is barbeque Bob, he wants to go to the barbeque and he doesn’t want to stand out like a sore thumb, but he doesn’t want to go in his stubbies or thongs either. He wants to wear something that has enough fashion content to not make a statement, but to say ‘I’m here’ and for him to be comfortable. You’re not paying top end prices, you’re getting current product at a regular price – it’s the right colours and it’s today. In this time poor world, we try to make it as easy for Bob as possible – it’s a one-stop shop for blokes.
The girls are well looked after as well with labels such as Dr. Martens, Elwood, Fox, Skechers and Emily the Strange.”
THE ROAD AHEAD
Rowan continues cooking the barbeque as his kids are running around, it is obvious why he has been so successful. He’s a good guy and great to talk to, but he is tough. He sets himself, his partners and his staff standards that he is determined to achieve.
A family man at heart, Rowan loves his work, but enjoys nothing more than spending time with Lily and this three children Jesse, Mack and Shannon. Not only does he credit Lily with basically coming up with the concept of Roadhouse, he also admits he couldn’t have achieved this success without her.
“I owe a lot to her and when I am off with the fairies, she is a realist. You need that element in your life, especially when you’re running your own business,” he says.
Rowan is not only content with what he has achieved, he is also extremely proud of Frank who developed such an influential part in the way Australians now shop.
“DFO hit a cord in the public that no-one had ever hit before. If we had just one store and DFO never got any bigger, I probably would have got bored and sold up. We are all sitting at the train station waiting for a train. My train came in, Frank was there, we’re old mates and he helped me. The train stopped at the next station, I jumped off and did it again. So wherever you find a DFO you’ll find a Roadhouse,” Rowan states.
A humble man, when asking Rowan what he gets out of the business, like any successful person in the rag trade, it’s not about him it’s about the customer.
“The most satisfying part for me is after 10 years I still have the same customers coming to see me. The kids who would come in as teenagers, now come in as adults because Roadhouse is where they shop. And that is extremely rewarding to me,” he smiles.
You wonder if that 10-year-old kid cutting holes into his jeans would have ever contemplated how his love of jeans would be the beginning of such a rewarding, yet challenging, career.
