A seven-month journey through South America was the catalyst for a new business opportunity for Perth gallery director, Anthony Hinchcliff
A seven-month journey through South America was the catalyst for a new business opportunity for Perth gallery director, Anthony Hinchcliff.
Mr Hinchcliff, at the time a sales and marketing manager, stumbled across a unique and vibrant furniture design culture in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2004 and recognised an import opportunity.
Now, as director of The Hinchcliff Group, Mr Hinchcliff has reopened Tristan’s the Gallery in Northbridge to showcase the Argentinean furniture, while retaining the gallery’s art component.
Mr Hinchcliff took over the art gallery late last year and has negotiated an exclusive contract with 13 high-end furniture designers, mainly from Argentina, to import and sell their products in Perth.
The design furniture export business trades as Apartment by Design, and Mr Hinchcliff plans to open a further two shops, which will have a similar intimate and boutique feel, in Sydney and Melbourne in the next six to 12 months.
He said the future outlets would not be franchises, but would remain under the control of The Hinchcliff Group.
Mr Hinchcliff said Apartment by Design offered functional, unique pieces suited to modern living.
He said he was amazed by the strong design culture in Buenos Aires during his time there in 2004.
“The design market in Argentina is new but well recognised on the international scene,” Mr Hinchcliff told Business Class.
In Argentina, he made contact with several designers hoping to be able import their products to the Australian market.
When he came back to Perth in 2005 he started to build a business plan to present to the designers.
“It has been a long process,” Mr Hinchcliff said.
“With some of the designers I work with, a year lapsed between the first time I approached them about the idea until I came up with the plan. You have to have trust in each other,”
Mr Hinchcliff said building up the business from scratch has been the hardest learning experience of his career.
The lack of a logistic company to look after shipping between Argentina and Perth, the cultural barriers, the language issues and the time difference were some of the hurdles to be overcome.
Mr Hinchcliff wants to keep the Apartment by Design spaces quite small to maintain an exclusive feel, rather than having a shop that looks like a big showroom.
The first shipment arrives on February 22 and Apartment by Design will officially open on March 7. A temporary art exhibition will be launched on that date.
Some of the designers to feature in the gallery will be: Diana Cabeza, who has featured prominently at New York’s Furniture Fair; Fernando Poggio, whose work is available in museum shops around the world; Perfectos Dragones, which sells its products at the MOMA in New York; and Tribalia EcoDesign, which won the objects design award at the Puro Diseño Fair held in Buenos Aires in March 2006.