Hart to beat

FOR the first time in more than three decades, Rick Hart doesn’t have a job.

The man responsible for establishing a small retail outlet focusing on kitchen appliances in 1975, which grew into a chain of showrooms across Perth and eventually participated in a $10.5 million merger with publicly listed entity Clive Peters, has definitely slowed down in recent times.

“I finished with Clive Peters-Rick Hart the week before last and I finished [as chairman] at Fremantle Football Club yesterday, so here I am mate, I’m footloose and fancy free,” Mr Hart told WA Business News.

But it would be a mistake to assume this means he’s out of the retail game for good.

Far from it, Mr Hart says he has plans for what he describes as an exciting concept in retail, although he’s keeping his cards close to his chest for now.

“I’d like to think it will be unique in terms of the way that things are displayed and the type of market it wants to attract,” he says.

“It’ll be very much specialised in certain product areas so it won’t necessarily compete with the Rick Hart stores.

“I’m all dressed up with nowhere to go so I need to find a headquarters as I’m working from my home office at the moment.”

Mr Hart cites his retail empire as his greatest achievement, considering he managed to grow from a single outlet with an annual turnover of $300,000 to a 10-store chain turning over $150 million when he stepped down a fortnight ago.

But it’s the rich tapestry of independent business, corporate and general life experience over his 65 years that have made him the successful businessman he is today.

During the 1960s, Mr Hart was working in the wine and spirits division of stock agent, Dalgety; a position he held for 13 years.

Originally he had his heart set on becoming a journalist, and considering as a schoolboy he had numerous sports articles printed in his local paper, the Merredin Mercury, it seems he may have forged a successful writing career.

But being from the Wheatbelt, or more precisely Korbel, where his father ran a general store and ensured everyone chipped in on the family’s farming land, his lack of city contacts was a barrier to securing a newspaper cadetship. So he joined Dalgety (after Dalgety responded faster to his job application than Wesfarmers).

“Second choice was to work for a stock firm and get transferred back to the country but that didn’t happen because they transferred me to the wine and spirit division and by that time, after a year, I’d got used to city life ... and there were more girls here [Perth] than in Merredin,” he says.

When leaving Dalgety (after the company decided to sell off the liquor arm of its business), Mr Hart considered buying one of the stock agent’s best performing liquor stores, but was dissuaded from this potential acquisition by a bank manager.

“I’m not unhappy about electing to go the way I did, and even though my (retail) game is a tough one, I think the liquor trade is tougher,” he says.

A 12-month stint in real estate followed, under the tutelage of famed radio commentator and Inglewood-based real estate agent, Oliver Drake-Brockman.

Mr Hart earned his real estate licence and learned about basic marketing and accounting principles (his only formal business training to date), although he says he was taught how to have a good time and not that much about real estate.

It was at this juncture, in 1975, that he and Geoff Hodge formed a partnership selling a container load of 100 damaged fridges from Spain bought for a relatively small sum from an insurer.

“We sold them out of a shed in Osborne Park and we advertised in the Readers Mart and sold four or five on a Sunday and then put them on the back of a ute and delivered them and that’s where it started,” he says.

About four months later, having sold all the fridges and identified a gap in the local market for a retail showroom offering household appliances (including the recently released colour television), the partners opened a self-described “primitive” showroom on Howe Street in Osborne Park.

This led to a second store on Wanneroo Road near Nollamara, originally called Northern Discounts (until rebranded as the first Rick Hart showroom in 1979) but after four years of the partners essentially running the two stores individually they parted ways.

“I kept Wanneroo and he kept Osborne Park, which unfortunately didn’t work out for him,” Mr Hart says.

It was at this stage that he embarked on his greatest indulgence, horseracing, which would eventually lead to his role as Perth Racing’s vice-chairman for eight years during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Before that, however, his fascination with champion horses and jockeys led to a career as a bookmaker at Ascot Racecourse (from 1979 until 1992), when he returned his bookie’s licence to concentrate on growing his retail presence.

“And that’s where it started, in 1992, when I bought that second store (in Rockingham) and went on expanding from there,” Mr Hart says.

About every 18 months after that he either bought or opened new Rick Hart stores, which required significant growth management.

“I’ve always been very diligent at managing cash flow,” he says.

“Cash is king, it keeps repeating itself through whatever phase of business you’re in.

“If you don’t have that capital available, A: you can’t grow your business and B: you can’t survive through any sort of bad times.”

And while he’s led a busy life with incredible success in nearly all his pursuits, the future is still unwritten.

“I’ve fitted a bit in, but I’m looking forward to the future and to having a little play at retail again and to what the next phase of my life might bring,” he says.

“But I’m not ready to lie down.”

Do you have a quote or mantra you live by?
I guess if there was one it would be nothing is impossible, I sort of live by that.

What's the greatest lesson you've learned after 35 years in business?
That it's really hard if you don't have much capital. The big advice I have for anyone going in now is make sure you have plenty of reserve capital, because it really is a battle.

What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I wanted to be a journalist, absolutely. I was dead-set focused on being a journalist. I used to do a few articles for the Merredin Mercury; often they were little stories mainly about sport slipped under the office door on the way to school, and I must say they always got published.

What would you do if you were premier for a day?
I would fix up the dog's breakfast of trading laws. I think it's incumbent on our politicians to govern the place and allow people to shop when they like - that's the first half of the day. The second half of the day would be gathering every expert to decide to do something with the Swan River foreshore, and make a statement for Perth. I can't believe that it has gone on so long without no progress and all we've ended up with is a belltower and a ferris wheel