Despite the recession, the Hirsch group has seen a period of steady growth over the years. Commented Hirsch’s Managing Director, Richard Hirsch “2012, in particular, was a year of amazing growth – higher than previous years. Hirsch’s as a group is flying and we attribute this to our dedication to ensure that we have happy and satisfied customers who return often. This is only achieved by hard work and truly outstanding service. So a very big thanks to our staff for your dedication over the years, and to our customers - thank you, as consumers, for choosing Hirsch’s and for coming back and shopping with us whenever you required something. Thank you for your patronage and for giving us a wonderful 2012 - we are very excited about 2013!
Highlights from 2012:
Our first branch in Cape Town, Milnerton opened. This is great because it extends our national footprint. We now have the Hirsch’s group in all 3 major areas – Gauteng, KZN and Cape Town. This has increased our opportunity window in the online marketing sector as well. Apart from our Milnerton store in Cape Town opening, we also opened 2 concept stores there – Bedroom Boutique and The lighthouse. Our Hirsch’s stores do cater for the bedroom and linen, however we have decided to branch out and give customers very specific service related to the products they will be purchasing. The Lighthouse store provides customers with lamps and lighting and it works hand in hand with the house and appliance theme. We also opened our Boksburg store in Gauteng and it has been a huge success. The team is very energetic and has worked extremely hard to get the branch up to Hirsch standards.
In 2012 we redeveloped our Hirsch’s website which is e-commerce and includes various features. For instance, customers can create accounts and check up on orders they have placed. The online experience has seen growth of 100 percent year on year which is very exciting for us.
This year has been a big year for Margaret and Allan. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and shared it with our customers with a 40 percent off sale - it caused quite the stir!
In August, Margaret received the BWSA Business Woman of the Year award (Entrepreneur). This was a huge achievement for her – and for the Hirsch group in general. We applaud her persistence to be an independent and successful woman.
Your Choice Awards , a survey run by the Daily News, voted the Hirsch’s group number one in 3 categories – Appliance Store, Home Electronics and Air-Conditioning supplier. CEO of the group
Allan Hirsch commented: “It is very humbling to have received this accolade from the public and I am absolutely amazed and blown away. However, I know this couldn’t have happened without an incredible staff and the passion that we all have for our customers. I believe our mission statement of having happy customers who return often because a superior service is provided - is a deal breaker. Being a family store, we try to make sure people feel welcome in our stores and we really appreciate them spending their hard earned money with us. We are most grateful for the support and I would like to thank all our customers most sincerely as well as our incredible staff.”
The implementation of E-Training (training of staff online) to ensure all staff are updated on all aspects of our business was also introduced in 2012.
We introduced Hirsch’s to TV on the Expresso Morning Show and then in December we did our 12 Days of Christmas Advert on Comedy Central. Our stores did extremely well and our growth rate increased by 13 per cent over the month of December.
This year wouldn’t have been the success that it has been if it wasn’t for our customer base, dedicated staff and wonderful suppliers .
www.hirschs.co.za