Rex Hirst is a mainstay in the kitchen, bathroom and interior design industry having worked in this field since 1972. He has been the proud owner and managing director of Let’s Talk Kitchens & Interiors since 1982 and was a founding director of the Kitchen & Bathroom Designers Institute (KBDi). Rex also served as President of KBDi, is a Certified Kitchen Designer (CKD Au) and Registered Building Practitioner, and has been active on various Housing Industry Association (HIA) committees, as well as giving his time as an active design lecturer within the industry.
Given this illustrious past, it may surprise you to learn that Rex was originally a clinical biochemist and worked at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne for a number of years before deciding to take a risk and branch out into a completely different profession. By chance, a friend of Rex’s had a small cabinet making business and Rex found helping his mate with designs was far more satisfying than being in the hospital and decided to change his career.
Rex’s first job in the industry was with Customtone Kitchens, the company that gave birth to the kitchen industry as we know it today. They were the dominant player in the kitchen renovation industry for many years. “I always had good spatial skills,” Rex recalls. “So, I think that gave me a really good eye for design and layout, and I quickly found my place within kitchen design”. Rex started as a commission salesman/designer, but quickly found his passion for training and he became Customtone’s National Training Manager.
After 18 months, Rex jumped at an opportunity to purchase a small cabinet making business based in his hometown of Albury/Wodonga and this allowed him to implement new systems and procedures that were more reflective of his personal approach. “One of the biggest benefits of purchasing that business was that over the next few years, I was essentially an apprentice in my own factory,” Rex explains. “It was a steep learning curve but a very important one as it gave me a deep insight into the cabinet manufacturing process. This, in turn, helped me to be a better and more informed designer”.
He relocated the business to Wodonga in Victoria and quickly grew in size to eventually be the largest cabinetmaker between Melbourne & Sydney markets, delivering 20-30 kitchens each week.
“At that time in the industry, the goal was to keep the range of choice offered to the customer to an absolute minimum,” recalls Rex with a laugh. “You’d only offer three door colour options and maybe four benchtop colour options. It wasn’t about the customer experience or education – in fact, the customer wasn’t an important part of the process at all. The aim was to simply sell as many kitchens as you could, so the needs of the customer weren’t even a consideration. It was a fairly brutal business those days”.
Rex remembers that, in the early days, the average kitchen cost around $500 and was made from chipboard, with raw edges exposed, chipboard shelving, no drawer runners, standard 45cm deep benchtops and a 45cm deep forward bowl sink. But he says his time at Customtone showed him there was a different approach to the design and manufacture of a kitchen. It was this revolutionary approach that provided the spark for Rex to re-think his own tactics and start to develop the methodology that has gone on to serve him so well in his business.
As so often happens with small businesses and changing economies, the Albury/Wodonga business did not survive, so Rex made the decision to move to Melbourne, having sold his house to meet his debts. However painful this experience, Rex says it made him realise how passionate he was about the industry, and about finding new and better ways to build productive and harmonious relationships with his clients.
“I realised it was important to take a responsible and ethical approach to selling kitchens,” Rex says. “And I decided that being able to train my own people, using my methodologies, was the only way I would be comfortable staying in the industry”.
Soon after moving back to Melbourne, Rex took over management of a small showroom in Nunawading, and he was supplied by Sunshine Group Industries – at that time the largest cabinet maker in Australia. Very quickly, the store became a success and Rex purchased a second showroom.
“I was lucky that it was a success, but I worked my backside off,” Rex explains. “Eventually, I ended up with seven showrooms in Melbourne and we were selling 30-35 kitchens each week.”
But the industry was still very much focussed on heavy-handed sales tactics, no emphasis on long-term client relationships, and a price war that saw many in a race to the bottom.
The turning point for Rex was a trip to America in 1982 where he attended KBIS for the first time and was introduced to an industry association – the National Kitchens & Bathrooms Association (NKBA). “NKBA taught me so much about how to be more professional,” Rex recalls. “Being a part of a professional association exposed me to more ideas around ethical business relationships with a focus on how to look after customers”.
This triggered a shift in how Rex approached his own business and, shortly after, he sold all his kitchen showrooms except one – even today, he still owns just the one showroom, in Canterbury, Victoria. The success of Let’s Talk Kitchens & Interiors has partially happened organically but has been very much driven by Rex’s personality, commitment, drive and passion to raise standards within the industry.
“For the last six or so years, I’ve only employed CKD, CBD and/or qualified interior designers and all my staff are on salary – no commission-based sales people,” says Rex. “This approach has improved our business tremendously and allows us to take a very professional approach to the service we provide. All of my people are committed to their design profession, not just their bank accounts”.
Rex’s philosophy is centred around the customer, with a focus on education, assistance and ethical actions. “My view of business is not to worry about the money so much,” he says. “If you do a good job and invest in creating relationships, the money will come. As a company we don’t ‘sell’ anything – we develop a relationship with the client that allows the client to make a decision in their own time”.
Rex also maintains his connection to training and still oversees all training of staff members to ensure a cohesive approach to customer service. “My mantra is: it’s never about the price, it’s always about the outcome,” Rex says. “This reaffirms that if you focus on your client’s needs and satisfy those needs, your client will reach a point where they stop focusing primarily on the cost and instead focus on wanting “you” to do their project, because of their trust and faith in you and your care for them”.
Rex laughs when asked about the lessons he has learnt during his time in the industry and says that he was lucky to have learnt what not to do when he was younger. Today, he feels privileged to have had the longevity to create a profitable business with a full-service interior design firm, where the client’s needs are put first.
On his return from his first USA trip, Rex was keen on the idea of setting up an Australian Chapter of NKBA in Australia. The moniker NKBA was unable to be used then, so the initial iteration of the organisation was known as the Australian Kitchen & Bathroom Institute, (AKBI). Rex was in charge of memberships, as well as being the association’s President. It was a tough slog, because most firms were suspicious of Rex’s motives and he became used to hearing “what’s in it for you?”, when approaching new members. Eventually, a relationship with HIA was established and the organisation was renamed NKBA and it grew from there.
For many years, NKBA existed as a subsidiary of HIA until circumstances changed. Rex explains: “HIA decided to shut down the NKBA as they realised they were a building industry lobby group, not a professional association, per se”.
“I had been trying to get it restarted when Ron Redman (then with Blum Australia) introduced me to Alex Milne, who was also trying to restart the NKBA. Alex had previously been QLD President of the HIA and knew everyone there. Alex and I had a number of meetings with HIA and they assisted us to create a new and independent organisation, that would become the Kitchen & Bathroom Designers Institute of Australia (KBDi), as we now know it,” he adds.
Today, Rex is as busy as he has ever been. “Even now, I still do all the staff training,” says Rex. “And that’s specifically because most people think it’s about how to sell kitchens, but it’s not”. Rex describes the ‘Let’s Talk’ approach as exemplified in the name of the business. “We have a chat, we have a conversation. There are no heavy sales tactics. Our focus is on help, advice and education,” he adds.
Rex feels it’s vital to allow the customer to walk their own path through the decision-making process, and to be able to do this in their own time. This also explains his insistence on the process not being driven by a commission – he doesn’t want to turn his designers into sales people. “It’s a methodology that’s grown organically over time. I do share my experience with design,” Rex explains “But my training is more about the interaction with the clients, how to talk them through the process of design and renovation, and how to create lasting relationships. Once that’s done, the sale takes care of itself”.
When asked about the future of the industry, Rex says he feels positive about the changes he has seen and the new approach to design which is evident throughout new graduates. “The industry now has a value and a standing in the minds of the consumer and I’d love that to become further entrenched,” he says. “I see a wider range of education options and registration of design professionals will mean a more specialised approach to the design process and a more ethical industry overall”.
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