AFS Carpets & Flooring is a commercial and retail flooring specialist, offering axminster and broadloom carpet, carpet tiles, vinyl tiles and rubber flooring for schools, supermarkets, office buildings, hotels, sporting clubs and residential homes. Located in Royal Park, AFS Carpets & Flooring is family-owned and operated and was founded in 1947.
Although profitable, Managing Director Leah Hawkins was concerned that AFS Carpets & Flooring was underperforming in the absence of a long-term vision and strategic plan. Without clear direction and focus, AFS Carpets & Flooring was experiencing obstacles that were hindering its growth and impacting its day-to-day performance. This was particularly concerning given family succession planning, for transition to the next generation, was in full swing.
‘Our lack of strategic direction was impacting upon productivity and staff morale, and ultimately this was affecting our profitability and growth. We knew that we needed to make some changes and to get everybody on the same page’, Leah explained.
‘We are the South Australian Business Chamber members and I attended a Masterclass session on Growth Strategies which was run by David Walker. I really enjoyed the presentation and spoke to David afterwards about getting some assistance for AFS Carpets & Flooring’.
Leah engaged David’s Business Growth Consulting services and he set about diagnosing the underlying issues and offering a number of potential solutions that could be implemented to address them.
‘Leah and I sat down and discussed the structure of the business, its current performance, and its longer-term plans. Together we came up with 17 actionable objectives to put the company on a firmer footing going forward. I documented these, and Leah has been tasked with implementing them’, David explained. ‘We’ve been working together on a fortnightly basis as she goes about addressing each of the objectives’.
With Leah progressively implementing the agreed objectives, there has been a discernible change at AFS Carpets & Flooring.
‘As a manager, I have learnt a lot about myself and how I can better support my employees. My staff now have a clearer understanding of their roles which is helping shape the future direction of the company’, Leah reported.
‘We have learnt so much over the last 6 months. David has helped us to identify potential growth areas in the company and opportunities for us to focus on. Working in a family business means that we rarely get outside opinions, and David’s objective and unbiased advice has been extremely helpful, at a real time of need for our company’.
Learn more about The South Australian Business Chamber’s Business Growth Consulting services here…
