Rod Duke’s been in the business game since he was 16, but he’s best known for growing and expanding Briscoes into the retail giant we all know. 

Briscoe Group currently operates nearly 100 stores nationwide, expanded to include Rebel Sport and nets millions every year, even during the ongoing economic downturn. 

Speaking to Kerre Woodham on the Bosses Unfiltered Podcast, he revealed he’s been self-motivated to boost sales from the start. 

“It didn’t matter to me whether it was footwear or television sets or refrigerators, it just happened to be footwear for me. And in those early periods, for me, it was more about trying to do the best job that I could with the job that I had at the time. There was not a lot of thoughts about - could I buy a business, could I run this shop, could I change the ranges…it was just more about being the top salesperson.” 

He kept up this momentum when he famously took over the Briscoe Group. When he first started out in 1988, it was illegal to trade on Sundays, but he felt the need to ‘get his ducks in a row’ and move forward with Sunday trading anyway because he saw the demand was there.  

“We kept it relatively quiet, because you’re always in fear of court orders to remain closed. So we had to keep tight-lipped, we got the vid tapes for the TV ads into the television stations very late, we got all the media to the radio stations very late, and the secret was kept. Saturday night television, we just blasted that we were open Sunday. By 7:30 Sunday morning, there were 200, 300 people waiting outside stores.” 

Fortunately for Duke, the Government of the time was quick to pass legislation to allow retailers to trade on Sundays. But this development brought competition, so a change of strategy was needed. 

There was a clear niche for Briscoes to fill in the 80’s, because people wanted quality goods, but couldn’t always buy high-price items all the time. Duke revealed to Kerre that the company needed to fill the market position that gave consumers the best of both worlds - flash products at reasonable prices. 

“We’ve been true to that all 37 years, so we’re still doing the same thing. We’ve got our ranges, we’ve got famous brand names, high-quality merchandise, but we try and get it as cheap as we can so we can sell it at the very, very best price we can. So that’s where we sit.” 

How does Briscoes Group do it? Duke revealed keeping and maintaining good relationships with suppliers was key to keeping the quality products rolling in for Kiwi consumers. As an Australian ex-pat, he told Kerre he had a history with the suppliers and he used those relationships to get ahead. 

“I’ve done them a lot of favours, they’ve done me some favours and I knew them pretty well. I came to New Zealand and I called [in] some favours…they supported us and now the vast majority of them are still very good customers of ours.”  

Duke admitted that mistakes were made along the way, with a few questionable products appearing on the shelves. But he explained that making mistakes was key to growth, provided there’s plenty of success stories to balance it out. 

“You have to make mistakes to figure out what not to do next time. But the trick is, you’ve got to make more successes than you do mistakes. And you just keep learning, but you just don’t get overexcited and make very, very, very big mistakes.” 

Of course, one success story Kiwi households all remember is the ‘Briscoes lady’. This ad campaign was fronted by Tammy Wells, and she’s the face customers recognise from every sale event.  

“She was recruited through an audition process, I guess about ‘89 or 1990? I got sick of doing these loud, scream into the microphone, look straight into the camera ads. I thought, I don’t want to be there, I don’t want to do this. I want a female presenter, that’s our core customer - and a face of Briscoes. She’s just been massively successful, everyone’s in love with her. So we’ve kept her on as part of the team.” 

How long does Rod Duke himself want to keep up his momentum? He says there’s plenty of life left in the company- it regularly performs well on the NZX and there’s plenty of shareholders invested in Briscoe Group’s future. 

“Look, I have a lot of shareholders, I have a lot of institutions, I have a lot of people who want a share in this business, and so, probably, sooner rather than later, I will probably elect to sell down a modest number of shares.” 

TO LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ROD DUKE FOLLOW BOSSES UNFILTERED HERE