Tile store to luxury tile supplier: a family story

From 2008 to 2009 the four daughters of an Italianborn tile retailer began the transformation of the family business from a successful single showroom that catered mainly to builders, to a sevenshowroom business based in New South Wales with a wider clientele.

Now at its fortieth anniversary, the business has completed its transition to a supplier of luxury tiles, built on its close relationships with Italian and Spanish tile companies.

That wasn’t the original plan for Di Lorenzo Tiles. Jack Di Lorenzo, the father of the four women, had not planned on his daughters being involved in the business at all. He wanted them to receive a tertiary education (an opportunity he did not have) and to pursue careers elsewhere. But their work in the family tile store in their early years, and the evident pull family has exerted on them, saw the four unite — along with three husbands who also work in the business — to build a second generation of further success.

Like most immigrant stories, the early days are a tale of balancing risk and reward. As Tina Di Lorenzo — who runs marketing for the company — tells it, the first turning point was establishing a business with major builders.

“Mum and Dad started with just one showroom. And they were approached, I think it was by AV Jennings … to see if they could send their customers to him. And he was quite hesitant originally, because he just didn't think that he could do it.

“Once they came on board, and he had the systems [in place], it kind of grew organically. Builders just gravitated to him. We mainly did builders for a long, long time. I mean, we also did retail, but it was just the one showroom for a long time, and we really didn't start expanding showrooms until probably around 2008 and 2009.”

As with most family business, the daughters were expected to contribute to the store. “When mum and dad started the business, I was finishing school and my younger sisters were still at school, but we had to work in the business to earn pocket money. So we were there on Saturdays cleaning tiles and whatnot,” said Tina.

“He kind of said, you girls have to work to earn your pocket money, but I also want you girls to go and study and do your own thing. He was never really insistent on our joining the business. And to be honest, it wasn't a place for women at the time, it was very much a man's world. Tiles were a necessity, they were almost a hardware product. And we certainly had no interest in tile. He wanted us to go and study and have an education. That was most important. He did this so we could have an education.”

It just so happened, however, that the education and careers the four girls undertook ended up being nearly perfect – in combination – to later help boost a growing tile business.

“Maria, my older sister, she's actually a chartered accountant. I got into marketing, Diana who runs all the showrooms and is our sales manager, she's actually a qualified English high school teacher. So she's very disciplined and into procedures and systems. Belinda is much younger than the rest of us. She studied performing arts and theatre. She's now in charge of all our merchandising in our new showrooms, she designs them all.

“We all came back with something.”

The daughters returned to the business at an ideal time, just as the tile industry was undergoing its transformation from a commodified, “tiles are tiles” approach to something more nuanced, with a greater emphasis on style and design.

“We came back in when things got interesting, and Dad had started importing tiles from Italy. Back then, the reps would over to our place, some would stay in our place. It was a very different time. Dad would often ask our opinion [of the tiles]. We thought, ‘Wow this is different.’ This is not what we are normally seeing in the showrooms,” said Tina.

Today Di Lorenzo Tile Merchants deals with a mix of markets. “We wholesale some of our exclusive ranges to other tile shops, and we also deal with the commercial and architectural market. A large part of our business is the supply and fix of tiles for our builder clients, and our showrooms service homeowners, renovators and interior designers,” explains Tina.

Ongoing development

Growth generation family members who work in key roles in the business. “Collectively we've said there's a lot of us, we've got a lot of skills. Let's see how far we can go with this and grow the business,” said Tina.

Though Tina is also appropriately cautions when asked if the showrooms would ever expand beyond the New South Wales base. “We do wholesale some ranges into Queensland and Victoria. [But] never say never. One good thing about us is we do encourage ourselves to push ourselves and look for new opportunities. We are always looking for something new to do. We're always looking for new ideas, actually. That's one good thing about us as a family,” explains Tina.

Di Lorenzo Tile Merchants has achieved growth while maintaining its independence. Tina agrees its success as an independent business is, in part, because it is a relationship and knowledgebased business, beyond being just a tile business.

The types of tiles it offers, and its showrooms continue to be Di Lorenzo’s point of difference in the market. “We invest in collections which are new, exciting and unique. We are constantly reviewing and updating our showrooms to ensure we are providing beautiful places for our customers to shop,” said Tina.

Not surprisingly, product knowledge is very important to Di Lorenzo. “When a consultant joins our team, we ensure they are well trained so they can provide the best service to our customers. We also constantly engage in training of any new products, and we often invite our overseas agents to assist in product training when they are visiting from Europe. This helps our staff connect with the [tile] brands,” she said.

The company also has a limited but smart approach to ecommerce. As Tina explains it: “Whilst we do have mainstream products such as subways and mosaics which are easy to sell online, we prefer our customers to experience our exclusive ranges in our showrooms. This allows us to show our clients larger displays of our ranges, many of which you need to see, feel and touch to appreciate.

“Bringing customers into our stores is important to us. We also find once customers are in our showroom, they do appreciate the knowledge our staff have in assisting them to select tiles. This experience cannot be replicated online.”

The entrepreneurial drive and smarts of Jack Di Lorenzo and his wife Sally has led to their obtaining a number of significant projects across hospitality, retail, health and government. Some of the 24 company’s valued clients include Harris Farm, Chanel, Samsung, Nandos, Westfield, Westpac and Merivale, to name a few. Tina added, “A lot of smaller, independent designers come through the showrooms, not just design firms, and we have a lot of loyal relationships. We also do a lot of high end residential and apartment blocks.”

As an importer of tiles from Italy and Spain, relationships with suppliers are essential for Di Lorenzo. “We only deal with the best suppliers, ones which we know are at the forefront of design and also product quality, which is extremely important for us. We have been dealing with some of our suppliers for over 30 years,” said Tina.

As a result, it is well positioned to forecast some upcoming trends during 2023

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“Hand-made tiles continue to be in demand … We've seen return to travertine inspired porcelain tiles but also textured feature walls that are also tonal.

“Anything terracotta in porcelain, or real terracotta. We've got some collections that are relatively new that have got an irregular edge that are made in a French pattern...or modular sizes. It’s very much ‘farmhouse’. A lot more of those trends will come through this year.” n